Replacement Hybrid Battery Costs Plummet

June 7th, 2008 by Benjamin Jones · 18 Comments

When someone on the EcoModder forums asks about buying a used hybrid, there is usually a flurry of excitement coupled with cautions about the age of the car and the price of a new battery pack. Ecomodders, usually being budget-minded folks, are very wary of the seemingly astronomical price of battery replacement.

In the early part of this decade, some of the biggest worries about hybrids were how could the batteries possibly last, when would they finally give out, and how much would it cost to have them replaced. These days, concerns about batteries have largely faded out of the minds of new car buyers. Honda and Toyota have both had hybrids on the market for about a decade now, and there are no ominous junkyards filled with dead hybrids.

To underline the reliability of modern battery-electric hybrids, Honda says that out of over 100,000 hybrids on the road currently, only 200 have needed out-of-warranty battery replacement. Toyota, on the other hand, has only needed to replace 0.003 percent of its hybrid batteries out of warranty on the second generation Prius. Granted, these cars still aren’t all that old, and the batteries will likely fail eventually, but it seems that they are living up to manufacturers’ promises that they will last the life of a car.

Necessity aside, Honda and Toyota have both announced drastic cuts to the cost of replacement batteries for their hybrids. It will now cost just under $2,000 to have new batteries installed in you Honda Insight, and just under $2,500 for your Accord hybrid. These are about $1,000 reductions in the cost. Toyota, on the other hand, has dropped prices from ~$5,500 to $3,000, but that doesn’t include the installation, so the real cost is likely a bit more.

So, buyers of used hybrids, never fear! It’s unlikely that your batteries will fail prematurely, and even if they do, replacements are getting cheaper.

Source: Newsweek

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18 responses so far ↓

1 Math Avenger // Jun 8, 2008 at 11:27 am

200 of 100,000 is 0.002 percent, since you don’t seem to know how to do the math. Your sentence including the statistic sounds weird, as Honda’s replacement rate is lower than Toyota’s.
2 dnl2ba // Jun 8, 2008 at 12:23 pm

It’s great that the cost is coming down, as it helps close the cost gap with plain petrol cars. I think more car buyers are concerned with economics than ecology, so this should in turn make more buyers interested in hybrids.

However, I’m not sure how you arrive at the conclusion that “it’s unlikely that your batteries will fail prematurely.” The data you cite describes out-of-warranty replacements, i.e. not premature. The only conclusion the data support is “so far, very few people have had to foot the bill for a new battery” (keeping in mind that most hybrids on the road are still very young and probably still under warranty).

I did a quick Google search and found one source that said Toyota hybrid-related components have an 8 year / 100,000 mile warranty. Another source said 10 year / 150,000 miles. If long warranties for hybrid batteries are common, it should surprise no one that there have been few out-of-warranty replacements needed so far.
3 Andrew // Jun 8, 2008 at 1:05 pm

You do not mention in the article that these battery packs are expensive to recycle, and terrible for the enviroment if they are not recycled properly. It is great news that they will be less need for recycling than anticipated, but it is a frequently understated factor in assessing the impact of these types of vehicle. The frequently slammed Hummers may be gas hogs, but with a usual life expectancy of 300,000 miles, they need to be recycled far less frequently than most other vehicles, which reduces their total impact. Don’t get me wrong, I am not pro-Hummer, I just think we should be assessing the total impact of a vehicle, from manufacture to scrap recycling, when judging vehicles, and the battery packs in hybrids are a big recycling factor.
4 Rid // Jun 8, 2008 at 1:30 pm

The problem with battery replacement costs isn’t normally with the original owner. The next owners, those who buy older, used cars will face those costs and it will significantly reduce the resale value of a hybrid. That is an added cost, and increases waste as it reduces the economically viable lifespan of the car. Now a car that might have been bought 8-10 years up the road and continued driving for 5 more will be junked.

Not saying this is bad news, this is a great step in the right direction, but at $3,000 just in parts for the replacement the problem is still a very large one.
5 Rt // Jun 8, 2008 at 1:45 pm

Can “over 100,000 hybrids” really cause “ominous junkyards filled…”? I presume that 100K figure is not in the US alone, but even if it was. That leads to the next question.

Does “only 200 have needed out-of-warranty battery replacement’ and “they will last the life of a car” mean the warranty period is the life of the car?

I love the rag but this is a bit weak.
6 Matt // Jun 8, 2008 at 3:02 pm

I have a question, with all of these people buying new hybrids… what are they doing with their old car?

It seems to me that if the old car was functional, without major mecganical defects, it would make more sense to continue driving it rather than buy a new car, that required a great deal of energy (admittedly not all of it gasoline) to manufacture.

I realize the hybrid saves gas, but isn’t the total energy usage to replace a working car much higher than simply modifying your driving (e.g., car pool, plan and group trips, etc.) habits to use less gasoline.

Just curious if anyone has looked into this or has any thought on the matter.
7 Matt // Jun 8, 2008 at 3:04 pm

My apologies for poor editing: my previous post should read “without major mechanical defects”
8 JP // Jun 8, 2008 at 3:14 pm

Let’s hear about what happens to these old hybrid batteries once they get removed… Batteries are full of metal and bad chemicals, right?
9 Don Klotzbeacher // Jun 8, 2008 at 6:49 pm

Whew! That’s excellent. I bought a Honda Civic hybrid on 2005. I wasn’t looking for an expensive replacement anytime soon. However, the expectation of a lower-priced replacement down the line is good news.
10 Gadingan - Replacement Hybrid Battery Costs Plummet // Jun 9, 2008 at 3:42 am

[...] These days, concerns about batteries have largely faded out of the minds of new car buyers.read more | digg [...]
11 SLEZE // Jun 9, 2008 at 6:41 am

So…what WERE the cost of Hybrid batteries 10 years ago and what are they now?
12 Benjamin Jones // Jun 9, 2008 at 10:33 am

Math Avenger: I can indeed do math, thank you for your snarkiness. Both companies give out there numbers in different ways, and I was representing them as such. Honda has had to replace 200 out of 100k and Toyota .003% of batteries on Second Gen Prii.

dnl2ba: I made the statement based on reading several reports about battery life, knowing several owners of high mileage hybrids, and also knowing that hybrid systems are designed to preserve battery life for long periods of time, which they seem to be doing.

Andrew: Judging by your statement that the Hummer will last “300,000 miles,” I would wager that you’ve been reading the “Hummers are better than Prii” article that’s been looped around the internet, which assumes the Hummer has a lifespan of 3x that of a Prius. I think if you look at vehicle life and reliability comparisons you will see that that’s not true. Similarly, I think if you look around the internet you’ll see that most reputable experts would disagree with that article. It’s ridiculously biased.

Rt: That was a reference to “Who Killed the Electric Car,” where shots of piles of EV1s in a junkyard painted the picture that the car was doomed to failure. Sorry for not making the allusion clearer.

Matt: That’s a good question, and part of the reason I still drive a 91 CRX,

SLEZE: Read the post?

Thanks all for your comments!
13 Someone's Gotta Correct the Troll // Jun 9, 2008 at 1:26 pm

Sorry Math Avenger, do your math again. 2 out of 100,000 would be .002%. But 200 out of 100,000 is .2%, so Toyota’s replacement rate is quite a bit better than Honda’s.

Thank you. You may be excused now.
14 Replacement Hybrid Battery Costs Plummet | Just About Autos // Jun 9, 2008 at 4:02 pm

[...] batteries meet up with largely diminished out of the minds of novel motor vehicle emptors.read more | digg [...]
15 Eric // Jun 9, 2008 at 5:10 pm

To all the math geniuses here: 200 out of 100k is 0.2 percent. (notice the “cent” root word there, which refers to “number out of 100″)

0.003 percent of 100000 would be 3.
16 Dee Mullen // Jun 15, 2008 at 12:02 pm

Man… and I thought regular car batteries were freaking expensive!! It’s good the hear that despite the price, these batteries are still living up to the promises and expectations of manufacturers.
17 Gene Beley // Jun 17, 2008 at 5:31 pm

My 2003 Honda Civic hybrid just got its 100,000 mile checkup (at about 98,000 miles). It still runs like new and on the same original electric, big battery in the back. Getting rid of two Jaguars and buying the Civic hybrid in 2003 was a great financial move, especially going into retirement. Back then, even though the Insight was out for several years, it was not accepted yet in the mainstream technology thinking, so there was an element of gambling on the Civic hybrid versus a regular civic.

And I was told by a Honda salesman back then that the batteries would cost $1,000. But the truth today is the Stockton, CA Honda dealer quoted me $3,000, but added they are starting to recycle batteries and the cost is expected to go down. They did say they have replaced some, but did not say how many. At first, I was livid about the $3,000 cost, and thought I’d sell the Civic hybrid. Then I realized we can’t buy a new car for less than that, PLUS I got the Diamond Lane stickers that allow me to go in the commuter lane with only one person. The state of California is not giving those out any more, so that enhances the value of the car, and adds an incentive for sticking with the same serial numbered car!
18 hybrid gordon // Jun 25, 2008 at 7:26 am

I was worried that hybrids would create a toxic situation of too many batteries in foreign landfills. There are already piles of “regular” car batteries in asia adding more seems worse.