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Could anyone tell me if a used hybrid import of 10-15 years old and 100,000km to 150,000km is going to need a new hybrid battery right away. Is there a rule of thumb for when this needs to be replaced. What is an AA pre inspection going to tell me about the battery and what should I be looking for in battery performance in test driving. I have a seven seater Honda but want a larger vehicle for family road trips. A new battery is quoted as being $4,500 so 1/3rd a cost of the car. The fuel savings with a hybrid version are around $1,000 per year. If the battery is degraded is there going to still be some fuel saving?

Hi there,
It is recommended that you have the hybrid battery checked by the vehicle manufacturer, auto electrician, or hybrid battery specialist, this is not checked as part of the AA PPI. From what we've seen it would seem most hybrid batteries wouldn't need replacing till very high km's have reached (300k). However as these vehicles are used Japanese domestic imports, there is no way of telling how they have been used/serviced before landing here, so a battery test before purchase is important. Spec information is also difficult to obtain.
As a hybrid vehicle is built for economy, if the hybrid battery is not performing well, the system would not run as efficient and the engine would be running a lot more to charge the battery.

Thank you Cade, that is a lot of help.

Is this something that AA will be looking at adding to their service options as I would have thought used hybrid or EV vehicles will become more mainstream?

Hi there,
I know there are discussions around the testing of electric batteries for PPI inspections, but I don't have any further information as yet.