Battery Replacement

[lgordon]

Just bought our second RAV4EV yesterday. We had a lengthy discussion with our sales associate about the battery and warranty after a period of years. He seemed to indicate that it was Toyota, not Telsa who decided to end the supply partnership for replacement batteries. He said that Toyota ordered spares for the existing Rav4's, but has their own batteries being manufactured by Panasonic. I'm not sure if there is any truth to this, but he was honest with us through the whole purchase process and didn't tell us to sway our decision. If so, it's good new for existing owners. Thoughts?

 

[4EVEREV]

Just bought our second RAV4EV yesterday. We had a lengthy discussion with our sales associate about the battery and warranty after a period of years. He seemed to indicate that it was Toyota, not Telsa who decided to end the supply partnership for replacement batteries. He said that Toyota ordered spares for the existing Rav4's, but has their own batteries being manufactured by Panasonic. I'm not sure if there is any truth to this, but he was honest with us through the whole purchase process and didn't tell us to sway our decision. If so, it's good new for existing owners. Thoughts?

Toyota would not make replacement packs for the RAV in such small numbers. Nothing like replacement packs that sit and age.

 

[smkettner]

What is the price?

 

[n3ckf]

since the part that "wears out" in a battery pack is the batteries, unless your pack is actually physically damaged, I would think that replacing the batteries with newly-manufactured ones would be a great solution.

(so Toyota could order a pile of battery packs *without* batteries, store them, and fill them with batteries when needed?) Its very unlikely the 18650 batteries will go out of production. (in fact, newer ones will probably be higher capacity than the batteries originally used in a few years).

(Whats more, this could be done aftermarket. I"m betting that with the number of Model S's out there, that this market will develop in a few years when their battery packs start aging).

 

[tailgate1234]

I suspect Tesla has some patents on their battery packs and wouldn't let just anybody, including Toyota, make after-market battery packs. As far as replacing individual batteries in the pack, would there be any proprietary software required to update the battery controller that monitors the state and health of the cells?

 

[branstone]

I emailed both Tesla and Toyota a while back. Tesla gave me a jerk response basically saying, don't talk to use you have a Toyota. Toyota said, no plans on doing anything tas far as this vehicle is concerned except service..