Those considering buying a hybrid car may be more than a little worried about what is under the bonnet. Hybrid cars have partially battery-powered motors. Since a battery powered motors is not what that typically springs to mind when you think about what is driving a car, it’s a good idea to get some sort of an understanding of hybrid car battery packs. You will find a few salient details about them underneath.
Hybrid car battery packs do not need to be replaced like torch batteries do. They are made to last over the lifetime of the vehicle, and therefore a hybrid car’s warranty covers the battery pack for a time period that lasts between eight and ten years. In terms of mileage, a hybrid car battery pack is expected to last between 150,000 and 200,000 miles, and it probably will last even longer than that.
The toxicity of hybrid car battery packs is a concern, but not a major problem, since hybrid car batteries use NiMH batteries, not the cheaper rechargeable nickel cadmium ones. Nickel cadmium batteries can be damaging to the environment if not disposed of professionally, but the NiMH batteries that are sold in in hybrid car battery packs are very safe and fully recyclable.
Hybrid car battery packs consist of hundreds and hundreds of cells. Several hundred cells means that hybrid cars have a complex battery structure underneath their bonnets, and, it is true, complexity usually means expensive, but with the generous warranty hybrid car manufacturers are giving on their cars, there is not much risk of additional massive expense from the battery pack involved in buying a hybrid car.
The number of hybrid car battery pack failures reported has been really very low. When I say low, I mean negligible. If failure does happen, it is usually before the hybrid car even leaves the lot. Toyota has even stated that some of its first Prius hybrid models have battery packs that have gone over 300,000 miles.
The cost of renewing hybrid car battery packs isn’t really even a problem. It isn’t a problem because the hybrid car battery packs are built to last. The Department of Energy inspected hybrid cars, but stopped its tests when the capacity of the hybrid car battery pack was determined to be “just like new” after 160,000 miles. So, very few people really seem to know for sure what it costs to replace hybrid car battery packs except the manufacturers.
Hybrid car battery packs are evolving quickly. If we look further into the future, we can see the next generation of hybrid car batteries is in development. The goal is, of course, to discover a technology that gives lots of power, lasts for the hybrid car’s lifetime, and costs less to make than it does now.
If your hybrid car battery pack does run out, there is a solution. Toyota has put out some advice on what to do if your hybrid battery should run out after the warranty has ended. The advice is to have the battery reconditioned. This solution works well because if something goes wrong, the problem usually lies within only one of the 28 modules that the battery is made up of.
So, if you simply replace the problematic module with one that matches the chemistry of the other 27 modules, your hybrid car’s battery should be back in good shape. You can find a match by getting a battery pack from another car that has a similar mileage and age.
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