Costs Of A New Prius Battery Worth it?

Mar 22, 2011

The battery currently costs in the ballpark of what a transmission rebuild and is usually required at about the same time a typical conventional automatic transmission would need a rebuild. When it needs replacing, the car can still be driven, which is often not the case when a conventional automatic transmission goes out. Meanwhile, with more Priuses on the road, the batteries could get cheaper yet, and more mechanics will become skilled in reconditioning battery packs.

Now, suppose the battery lasts only 100,000 miles. Suppose that in that time, the owner has saved 1500 gallons of gas compared to another car that might have suited his needs. That’s about $4000 he’s saved.

In that example (which, you’ll notice, I constructed to be conservative, kind of a worst-likely scenario), the owner’s battery is covered by his fuel savings. His added purchase price of the car isn’t. It’s still debatable whether he made a mistake or not; by being an early adopter of a new technology his purchase brought him some prestige, which is an important part of why people buy new cars generally. It’s a reason people have bought bigger cars than they need, faster cars than they need, or simply more luxurious cars than they need.

The kicker is that early adopters of every technology pay for the privilege, and this “waste” if you call it that eventually causes the technology to become accessible to everyone. Status symbol cars have tended to be a little more advanced than the ordinary. So what if the Prius is more centrally about its innovation than most historically have been. Buying one is no more a financial mistake than buying a sports car, a luxury car, or anything else that people will spend extra money on to distinguish themselves from Joe Schmuck’s spartan sedan.

Anyway, when the actual savings is calculated with more realistic figures, it’s very possible the Prius does, in fact, pay for itself. Whether it does or not is really irrelevant to whether hybrids are better for the environment or not. As long as the battery packs get recycled efficiently, there really is no good basis for saying they aren’t.