I heard 10 years? Anybody know anything about the longevity of the hybrid batteries
Yep, for most of them its about 10 years (which is considered a lifetime for most cars) and most batteries are not expected to exceed 150,000 miles, so about 10yr/150,000 whichever comes first i guess. Those batteries are not cheap at all, i've heard some for as cheap as $4,000 and some as expensive as $14,000. Either way its a down payment on a new car, or pretty much a new car.
At least 10 years. Toyota has not had one fail since they introduced the Prius in 2001. Besides, the warranty on the battery is 8 years /100K miles on the Prius and 10 years/150K in states that have the strictest emmissions standards.
The only time I've heard of a battery on the Prius being replaced is when a tech talked someone into the deal who really didn't need one. As the others mentioned, the batteries are warrantied for about the expected life of the car so there's really not much to worry about. Of interest is a case study of a Prius used as a Canadian Taxi. It logged over 200,000 miles on a single battery, which was still in very good shape! Also, you have to figure that if it's ten years down the road and need your battery replaced after its warranty expires, the price of those batteries will likely have dropped considerably at that time just as they have in the past decade (by almost 50% to about $3,000 currently).
