Hybrid Battery Replacement

Overview

Believe it or not, the hybrid battery is actually just a bunch of smaller batteries hooked up back to back. It depends on the model, but your hybrid battery can be composed of anywhere from 20-40 of these little batteries, called “modules” by Toyota. When we replace your hybrid battery, we remove the old modules and put in brand new OEM Toyota modules.

Pricing

So which models do we service? Pretty much any car that uses Toyota nickel metal hydride (NiMH) batteries. There’s the usual Toyota and Lexus models, but you may be surprised to find that some non-Toyota cars were also originally designed to run off Toyota batteries.

Pricing basically boils down to what our suppliers charge us to buy batteries, which can fluctuate, as well the model. Some models are composed of less modules and are, typically, simpler to work on whereas other models use more, and are usually harder to work on. There’s basically four types S, M, L, and XL:

Size S – There’s really only one car I know of that has a small (20-module) hybrid battery and that’s the Prius C. Price range for replacement of this one is typically somewhere around $2300.

Size M – This is probably the most common size (28-module) hybrid battery and is where the good ol classic Prius lives. Pricing typically hovers around $2900 for the mediums:

Toyota Prius (2004-2015)
Toyota Prius V (2012-2017)
Lexus CT200h

Size L – The Prius batteries are about 80-90 pounds with their case. However, these bad boys are close to 120. On top of that, they’re usually in a trunk, instead of a hatchback, so i’ve really been working on my deadlift to be able to take these out. Anyway, pricing for these large guys usually hovers around $3400. Here’s some models:

Toyota Camry (2007-2018)
Lexus ES300h (2013-2020)
Toyota Avalon (2012-2019)
Lexus HS250h (2010-2012)
Nissan Altima (2007-2011)

Size XL – Funny enough, I’ve never really worked on any of these. They tell me they exist, but I’ve yet to get a call to do one nor have I even seen one rolling around these parts. Anywho, you’re probably looking at about $3950 to replace the hybrid battery on these jefes:

Lexus GS450h (2007-2015)
Chevy Silverado (2008-2013)
Chevy Tahoe (2008-2013)
Dodge Durango/Aspen (2008-2013)
Cadillac Escalade (2008-2013)

But, of course, these are just estimates to give you a ballpark number. I try to keep these numbers updated on the website, but the best thing to do is to contact us by text or phone to get the most current pricing.

How to tell that your hybrid battery is bad

The first symptoms of a bad hybrid battery are typically some combination of:

The gas engine suddenly staying on all the time
A loud fan in the back of the car, also staying on all the time
The dashboard going nuts with a triangle somewhere staying, you guessed it, on all the time
On some models, an actual message saying something like “check hybrid system”

If all of these happen at once, it’s a telltale sign that the hybrid battery has gone bad. And if I didn’t own a scan tool, I think i’d be right in that diagnosis 99% of the time, maybe more. But really, at this point, the car should be scanned for confirmation.

Bad hybrid batteries aren’t a binary thing though, good or bad. They often fail in a grey area. In many cases, you can trick the car into thinking the hybrid battery is good by disconnecting and reconnecting the 12V battery and car will just go right along with it. But I don’t recommend doing it. Not because the car will explode or anything, but it could eventually pop the top off of one of the modules and leave you stranded, which is what happened to the owner of the battery seen below.