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On 1 Apr 2006 at 19:33, Constantino Tobio wrote: > knowonelse@sbcglobal.net wrote: > > I just bought a new car and expect to keep it for at least 10 years. > > Experience and history of all the above various Toyotas leads me to > > fell comfy that the Prius will easily make it at least that long. > > > A bit OT, but you think those batteries are going to hold up on that > Prius after 10 years? I always felt that this was the real wildcard > when it came to hybrids. Re-batterying them can't possibly be cheap > (and all those batteries are an environmental nightmare to recycle.) > > I don't think hybrids have been around long enough to have a real > answer to that question. Time will tell. Only time will tell how the other hardware on the hybrids holds up, but the expected battery life is expected to be only 2-3 years. Personally, I expect this to lengthen as manufacturers get more experience and production under their belts. Right now the cost of a new battery is expected to be on the order of $2000, and that will probably go up, too, but you'll also get a better battery. The economics will depend on how fast the price of gas increases. The current increases have surprised lots of people, but I'm actually surprised that gas is still as cheap as it is, especially here in the US. I suspect we have only begun to see the leading edge of a long term dramatic shift. It won't take much to make the hybrids start to look good. In the meantime, we should all be grateful to those who put their money on the line to buy early hybrids so that the manufacturers could get some experience with them before they became absolutely necessary. One wonders how many more Type 3 Invasions we can have before the cost of driving our well-loved little cars to them becomes prohibitive. -- ******************************* Jim Adney, jadney@vwtype3.org Madison, Wisconsin, USA ******************************* ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ List info at http://www.vwtype3.org/list | mailto:gregm@vwtype3.org ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~