I am new to this forum. Purchased a 2021 Pacifica Hybrid - Pinnacle in mid-February and within 6 days the high-voltage hybrid battery needed to be replaced. It started leaking coolant. Has anyone experienced a major problem with this the hybrid battery?

On this forum I have only seen one other hybrid battery failure. I am sure my Pacifica is going to be re-purchased under Lemon Law rules, but trying to decide if I want to risk another one.

This is my 4th Chrysler minivan, and my wife loves them. The Federal Rebate made the hybrid so attractive, combined with the fact that she only commutes 10 miles a day to work. But we keep our vehicles for a long time (driving a 2011 Charger), and the cost to replace the battery when it is out of warranty is extremely prohibitive. Don't know how I can keep this vehicle beyond the battery warranty, and it will probably have no resale value at that point.

Also I don't want to go through what we have been for the last few weeks, with no end in sight.

Would greatly appreciate any feedback or insight.

Thank you!!

 

You state that you tend to keep your vehicles for a long time, yet you are already aware that this vehicle is not likely to be viable for a long term. There isn't any history of long-term viability for 2021 vehicles, but rechargeable batteries have been around for a long time. Draw on your own experience with rechargeable batteries and how long they tend to last. Think about cell phones, cordless phones, radios, cameras, screwdrivers, vacuums, power tools, flashlights, toys, e-readers, computers, etc, etc,etc. What is the longest time you have had one of these things before the battery failed? Replacing a laptop or phone battery is no big deal. But replacing a hybrid vehicle battery is a very big deal.

If the vehicle won't outlast the payment schedule, it's probably not a good investment.

 

You are trying to compare apples with tomatoes (both are fruits). In general, automobile hybrid batteries are designed to last roughly 15 years. That is why Chrysler offers a 10 year warranty on the battery.. You can't compare that type of battery to a phone, radio, camera, etc.

In investigating replacement costs of other vehicle's hybrid battery before purchasing the Pacifica, , I was generally seeing replacement batteries between $1000 and $5000. Some were more, including Mercedes, Audi and a few others,, but I didn't expect the Pacifica hybrid battery to cost over $12,500 plus a massive installation job.

The good news is that there is one Mopar site that is selling an older battery for $7500. But still, with installation, this is a huge cost. Easily twice the cost of a new transmission. I am hoping that replacement batteries, once the warranty os over, will have come down dramatically. Otherwise, as I stated previously, I don't see how one can afford to keep one as a gas powered on.e.

Also, many hybrids have the battery under the hood or somewhere relatively easy to work on. And lots of YouTubes to assist you. The Pacifica battery covers most of the center bottom of the vehicle, and as you stated, appears to be a big deal. . That is why they don't have 2nd row Stow-n-Go seats. The new hybrids also don't support AWD because with the battery, they don't have room for the drive shaft to the rear wheels. All that space is taken up by the battery.

So whi8e many hybrids can be replaced by a handy individual, the Pacifica is definitely not one of those. And unless the price of the part drops dramatically before the 10 year warranty runs out, it becomes extremely prohibitive to keep the vehicle beyond it, Nor will most people not want to buy it used, knowing the battery could fail in a few years at the most, and be horrendously expensive to replace.
One expects to do maintenance and parts replacement on their vehicle over time, But today, it costs more to replace the battery than it does to replace an engine.

Anyway, I appear to have run into a unique manufacturing defect, as I can only find one other Pacifica that needed the hybrid battery replaced since they first came out in 2017. So here I am, having driven the mini-van 80 miles, it appears that it will be in the shop at least a month, and possibly more.

Question: how do people on this forum acquire a Pacifica Hybrid. Purchase or Lease.. I found the lease price to be very high. Now I understand why. But leasing means you don' have to worry about the battery failing without a warranty, or the resale value.

So, let me ask once again,, anybody else have any problems with their hybrid high-voltage battery? I know the two dealers I have talked to have never replaced one (lucky me)

 

I think that is the problem with electric vehicles in general. Good luck finding a battery for it 10 years down the road, let alone the price at that point since there will be many iterations by then. To think that they are going to last much more than 10 years is not realistic in my opinion as they are often using very similar lithium ion cells that never last that long and there is not enough history in these applications. The resale value is going to be non-existent after say 6 or 7 years as consumers know when the battery fails it is toast. Don't get me wrong I like the idea of an electric future, but the days of buying an older electric car will make no sense since you cannot realistically repair the battery.

 

UPDATE: After being down and in the shop since 2/20/21, the new Pacifica Hybrid Battery showed up today.
Dealer expects it to be completed by 3/25 or 3/26.
What a horrific situation after having owned the vehicle for 6 days and only driven it 80 miles.

 

"automobile hybrid batteries are designed to last roughly 15 years." When they have actually lasted 15 years, let me know. Yours didn't last 6 days. That will tend to pull the average down.

 

Wow, you really have an issue with Hybrids, but you keep making some inaccurate comments about them. Comparing Hybrid auto batteries to phone or camera batteries.
Now your comment of having one last 15 years????
Hybrids were introduced in the last 1990's with the Toyota RAV4 EV and the GM EV1, But they didn't really take off until Toyota released the Prius in 1997 (~24 years ago). So, it's not like this is a brand new technology or concept.

I definitely got screwed with an extremely low probability failure. The Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid battery is huge and has a self contained coolant system. That is what the problem was. The Coolant leaked from a sealed unit that is not designed to be repaired.

Toyota says its out-of-warranty battery replacement rate was 0.003 percent—or one out of 40,000 Priuses—for the second generation Prius. First generation Priuses were about 1%

Autotrader published an article that stated: "In our experience, hybrid batteries start to become a risk when they’re 10 to 15 years old and they’ve covered 120,000 to 150,000 miles. Yes, some owners will do a lot better than that. There are reports of batteries lasting well into the 200,000-mile range"

With more than 100,000 Honda hybrids on the road, the automaker told Newsweek several years agothat fewer than 200 had a battery fail after the warranty expired. That’s a 0.002 likelihood.

I don't see much press related to hybrid battery failures. But my experience was extremely disappointing. Clearly a manufacturing defect in the housing.

 

A hybrid battery can get weaker and weaker without the driver necessarily being aware of it. You might notice the car using more gasoline as the battery ages, but many drivers will not. The presence of the gasoline engine can mask the symptoms of a weakening battery. It's good that you and others are willing to lay out the cash to fund these long-term experiments which some day may work out to be excellent, if they can ever figure out how to mine the materials to make these things responsibly and come up with an economical and environmentally sound solution for dealing with these same materials at the end of the product life.

 

Failures and capacity loss over a decade are two different things. Can't prevent the capacity loss over time with current technologies in the cells they use today.

And about that resale value...... https://www.greencarreports.com/news...other-vehicles

 

We have a 21 Pacifica PHEV. Also been about 6 months. Also about 6k miles. Also catastrophic and spontaneous cooling system leak. We plug in every night with our level 2 charger. We were actually in line at our dodge dealership to have the liftgate software updated, and to look into a loud and disturbing noise when the AC compressor is running. The Hybrid electric warning light started flashing red while we were waiting. Chrysler is replacing the battery pack, but of course....supply chain issues mean we have no idea how long it will take to get a replacement. Should be fun.