Truck and Barter

The uncertainty arising from a lack of long-term use data has scared away many potential hybrid car drivers. But we do have one data point -- a taxi-cab driver in Vancouver who put 200,000 miles on his 2001 Prius:

Having had the opportunity to talk with Alain Lee, product training consultant for the Prius division at Toyota Canada, he stated the life expectance of the batteries would be a minimum of 15 years in normal use with the nickel metal hydride battery. This is based on 20,000 kms or 12,000 miles per/year.This claim is based on the information gathered from my 2001 Prius, which went back to Japan to be disassembled for technical information after 25 months use as a taxi, in exchange I received a 2003 Prius.