Jim Wilkins wrote:



What is your experience with the same battery technologies in power
tools and laptops?

Mine isn't good. I have to employ lab tech tricks on the batteries to
keep my Makita drills and 5+ year old laptops running.
Yup, this is Honda's dirty little secret.
It looks like they will be replacing a majority of the battery packs
in the Honda Civic Hybrid over the course of their 80K mile warranty
in the general US, and probably almost all in California with the 100K
warranty. Lots of people are troubled with battery degradation and
outright failure. One nice feature is the car can still be driven with
a failed battery.

The HCH has no cell balancer system, which I think is a big mistake.
Not sure if the Prius has this, but they seem to have a lot better luck
with their battery system. In the HCH, they are running 100A through
Ni-MH D-cells!

Jon