But what I want to know is how much it will cost to replace a Prius battery set at 125K miles versus buying a brand new Prius?

I don't know about the Prius, but my fiance keeps eyeballing a Tesla sedan and won't stay out of the freaking showroom. I asked them specifically about replacing or upgrading their batteries and the sales girl said there was no way to upgrade to the longer charge batteries and it was over $10,000 to replace the batteries. But apparently it'll only cost us $55 a month in electricity to charge. *insert giant eye roll here* And then I just read within the last week that Tesla is discontinuing production of their lower range batteries so instead of being able to get the entry level sedan for $50K they now start at $80K and all the people that ordered the lower charge cars set for October delivery are now screwed or have to drop another $30K to get one still.

Jimp asks something I've been wondering about for a couple years... Apparently all these Prii (pl?) are going to need expensive replacements for chemically complex and noxious batteries... All for minimally improved environmental impact.

It's like the Alt-A thing; We were promised fireworks!

Keep in mind that the Prius is a hybrid, not an electric. The batteries have a much lower capacity, and are used very differently.

I have a friend with a very old Prius, one of the first models with far over 100,000 miles on it. He has never needed to replace the battery. Even so, because the capacity is pretty small (compared to a fully electric car), you are looking at replacement costs of maybe $2000.

"He has never needed to replace the battery."

Fallacy - appeal to prior practice.

In fact, hybrid battery production mandates careful disposal/recycling. The environmental impact of a hybrid is far larger than that of a turbodiesel.

Like ethanol, the hybrid is a triumph of popular feelings over logic.

@Radwaste: Huh?

- If my friend has never replaced the battery, then he doesn't need to dispose of a battery.

- Hybrid batteries are a good deal smaller than batteries in fully electric cars; something which previous comments seemed to conflate.

Sure, hybrid (and - more so - electric) cars benefit from biased environmental analyses. So do windmills and solar panels.

My point is that bias can go the other way too. Critics say that batteries have to be regularly replaced, and that this is hugely expensive. This may be true of electric cars, but it appears to be nonsense as far as hybrids are concerned.

Enough with government welfare for business! You fail, you go bankrupt -- even if you're a bank or a big car company. You know, the way it works for the rest of us.

If you really wanna help the environment out you get a Yaris or a Fiesta but they aren't trendy enough or scream I got money and want to save the environment too!

Purp, a friend of mine had a Ford Fiesta; he used to call it his Ford "Fiasco" because it kept on breaking down!

Flynne thanks for the info.

I thought about buying one because I love Ford. My GT is loud and amazing and has fantastic reviews (very reliable).

I have also thought of buying the new Scion FR-S but it has Prius tires. PRIUS tires on a sports car? YUCK.

@a-r-g:
The fallacy exists because your anecdote does not mean the battery will never have to be replaced.

Meanwhile, the mining and processing of battery materials has a higher ecological cost than is recovered by mileage differences - especially if the vehicle is not driven a lot.

Think of it this way: buy a new Prius or Insight, and a cherry '97 LeSabre that once carried the preacher's wife. Park them, that is, never drive them. Count the cost of manufacture and then ownership. This doesn't get much better with driving miles, either. Pretty soon, you wanna stop counting.