Hybrid-Battery Repair Closed Down!!!!

[rmay635703]

Originally Posted by ProDarwin

Out of curiosity, has anyone adapted a later Civic Hybrid or Prius Battery to work with the Insight? I'm not an EE (obviously)... what would it take to accomplish this?

IIRC the Prius batteries can be purchased new for <$2500 and have a staggering lifespan (in the Prius at least).

The lifespan has more to do with battery management not the battery itself, that said if you wanted to break apart the models to the cell level then resolder them into an Insight One pack BMS system you could likely get them to work electronically, although fit and finish would probably suck.

[Daox]

Yeah, I would agree with rmay635703 about the life/bms issue. Honda just was a bit too lax with the BMS system. Anyone with a Prius knows the BMS is very strict and won't let you do a lot of things that might effect negatively on battery life.

[Daox]

Just an FYI to everyone out there. There is another company that does hybrid battery rebuilding. I wasn't aware of this until this weekend while talking to someone at drive green expo. I haven't even heard of these guys until then, but I thought I'd post a link to their site.

Remanufactured Hybrid Vehicle Battery Packs

[Formula413]

I'm a little curious about something Ron said in his post on Insight Central:

The repair business is no longer tenable and there are no good cells to be gotten anywhere for repairs. It is doubtful that anyone can repair a battery anymore and make it last more than a couple years.

And yet there are other companies popping up advertising brand new batteries: The one Daox posted, and this one:

HybridReVolt: Hybrid Battery Repair

So where are they getting cells to build these? This stuff will be relevant to me soon enough. I'm planning on refurbishing my own pack in the near future, but I don't know how many sticks I might have that don't have enough useful capacity anymore.

[Daox]

Call them up and ask. Then tell us.

[MetroMPG]

I wonder if what Ron meant is: there are no more good USED sticks available.

But you may know he was also offering the option of a "Better Battery" using brand new NIMH cells properly welded together into 20 new subpacks with slightly higher capacity than the OEM sticks. This was obviously more expensive than the refurbished (used sticks) option, but not as much $$ as a new OEM replacement.