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A friend said that hybrid batteries need to be replaced after 5 years, and that it costs $5000 to do it. Is there any truth at all to this statement?

The $5K part might be accurate depending upon the model and warranty status, but the 5yr time frame most definitely is not.

About the 5 years part, http://www.cleanmpg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=5719.

And we have in our mileage logs Eight hybrids with over 50,000 miles logged, and three of those are over 90,000 miles.

The guy just last week replaced his Jeep Cherokee with an 08 Yaris. On his 160 mile daily commute, the savings in fuel alone more than make that car payment.

He was happy to report a 38 mpg average for his first tank (auto trans).

Don't know about Honda, but I suspect if you tried to order a battery from Toyota you would get a lot of questions. As far as I know, they've yet to let one actually get sold. My info is over a year old, so a lot may have changed. Last I heard all battery failures had been handled by warranty or corporate relations departments. The last thing any Hybrid Maker wants is a car and driver story about someone getting suckered into a Hybrid then having to drop 5k cause the battery dies. So if they aren't for sale... does the price in the catalog really mean anything?

The 5k figure is probably high. I thought that was the price back in 2004 or 2005. NiMH packs are subject to the economy of scale. If you make enough they are really cheap. Think about those USB drives. If you don't remember... 1GB USB keys used to go for about $200 dollars 3 years ago. They now run about $20 and I routinely get them at trade shows for free.

Now all that being said, last I saw, Prius Batteries were going for about $350 a pack on ebay.

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The last thing any Hybrid Maker wants is a car and driver story about someone getting suckered into a Hybrid then having to drop 5k cause the battery dies.

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I have a friend that bought a BMW 730 with 80,000 miles and he immediately found himself needing the auto transmission rebuild for $3200.

For some reason this is a common BMW problem yet the media isn't ready to pounce on that like I suspect with hybrid batteries.:rolleyes:

My 2000 Insight is still on the original battery and I'm averagine 90+ MPG. The IMA battery is warrantied until 2010 and 150k miles. Does anyone know whether the Prius that was recently totaled with 300+k miles was on the original battery or not?

Further, as more manufactures develop hybrid & EV technology the price of battery replacement will fall dramatically.

Jesse's Prius was indeed still using the original battery.

Gosh, I hope my PHEV-7 needs replacing by 2014. I'll surely want the PHEV-30 by then. ;)