Hybrid Vehicles
With the global drive to go green, more and more car owners have elected to go for hybrid vehicles. As the name implies, hybrid vehicles use a combination of petrol and electricity for propulsion. Contrary to what many may believe, the costs of maintaining a hybrid vehicle is really not much higher than that of maintaining a conventional petrol-driven vehicle. There are, however, some things that a hybrid car owner has to take note of.
Hybrid Batteries & Their Maintenance
Hybrid cars differ from conventional petrol-driven cars in that they have an additional hybrid battery, usually of very high voltage, ranging from 144V to above 300V. When the car is cruising, the hybrid battery gets charged. When the car is idle, the petrol engine shuts down.
Finally, at low speeds, the electric motor takes over. Hybrid batteries are expensive, as they contain individual cells, each of which comprises a cathode made up of expensive material like nickel, cobalt, lithium and manganese. Thus, it makes sense to maintain hybrid batteries properly so they last longer, negating the need to repair or replace the entire battery.
Hybrid Battery Maintenance
To ensure trouble-free driving, you will need to perform regular maintenance of your hybrid battery. Maintaining a hybrid battery need not be difficult. When you bring your car to Perfect Power for maintenance, trust our skilled mechanics to do what they know best! As hybrid batteries perform based on the premise of “capacity memory”, they are totally drained, before being charged to full capacity during maintenance.
Another big enemy of hybrid batteries is heat. These batteries are usually cooled by air pulled from the car cabin. Oftentimes, there is dust or even hair inadvertently sucked into the battery’s cooling system. After a period of time, these impurities block the ventilation and cause the battery to become overheated. As a general rule of thumb, it is advisable to send your car in for battery servicing every 12 month or 40,000km of driving, whichever comes earlier.
Hybrid Battery Repair
Unfortunately, hybrid batteries fail for a number of reasons and the cars will not start. Most frequently, they fail because the individual cells are not balanced with other cells. For example, a typical cell capable of holding 6,500mAh charge may deteriorate over time so that it can only hold as little as 1,500mAh. When this happens, bring your car to Perfect Power. Our workshop is equipped with the necessary equipment needed to repair the individual cell and get your battery up and running again.
While most hybrid batteries last seven to 10 years, depending on car usage, sometimes, a battery that is less than seven years old develops problems. When this happens, you should look into extending its life rather than replacing it. A process known as battery reconditioning puts the battery through deep charging, balancing, and deep discharging to reverse battery aging. This breaks down the crystal formation within the battery modules and gives the hybrid battery a new lease of life. The reconditioned battery, now equipped with restored charging capacity, should provide the power and fuel efficiency the car used to have. Reconditioning a hybrid battery will help you save lots of money over replacing the entire battery!
Hybrid Battery Replacement
Perfect Power carries a wide range of replacement hybrid batteries. We stock a full range of Toyota/Lexus and most Honda hybrid batteries, as well as genuine hybrid batteries from most other car manufacturers.
In addition, we carry OEM hybrid batteries at much lower costs but which come with up to 5 years’ warranty.
