Battery life

Figure that a waranty, like any form of insurance, is actually a form of gambling. In this case, they are betting that the battery will last at least 4 years or 80,000 miles and you are betting that it won't. Since they are making up the terms, and they know that different batteries will last different amounts of time even if conditions were the same, and in these cars conditions will NOT be the same. They have to figure they can afford for some of the batteries to go bad, but they want to minimize that number.

Some batteries might make 8 years, 160,000 miles or more. Some might make 3 years, 60,000 miles. The waranty just tells you that you can depend on getting that much out of the cost of one battery. It is a "limited" waranty, so, I believe, you pay for the portion of the battery life you got and get refunded the portion of the expected battery life you didn't get. If the battery lasts half as long as they guarantee, you pay half for a replacement.

Apparently, exceptionally hot climates shorten battery life, unless you actively defeat the heat buildup in the car while it is parked (hence all the discussion here about tinting in Florida).

I notice the same thing in Arizona, but I think it perhaps has more to do with the demand put on the car by the AC. It's not that the Insight uses any more power for it's AC than any other car, it just makes more of a difference on such a limited powered car. You tend to push down the gas pedal more while accelerating to keep the same acceleration that you did without the AC and that results in more assist.

The assist seems to cut out after 3000 rpm when not in heavy throttle positions so I try to keep it reved while accelerating durring the summer and try the best to keep it on the cam and not the IMA. There is an art to it, but you can keep the charge up durring the summer by keeping it reved while accelerating and then eeking every last bit out of regenerative braking.

It hit 107 yesterday so I was just trying to get back in the summer driving groove and I did end up down to about half charge showing in the meter and some force charging at a couple points of the journey.

Still, due to the heat I would not be suprised at all if I need a new pack before the 80,000 mile warranty is up. I have heard of another owner in the valley that also needed a battery replacment done. Not sure the exact mileage, but I think it was more like 50,000 miles and it got to the point where he was having one or two recalibrations on his way to work each day and it finally triggered a IMA ligth which was the dead battery code so they replaced his pack finally.

See my theory is the Japanese built this car for their climate more and never really considered the desert southwest very much. Ideally some sort of water jacket on the batteries would be awsome as it is not hard to get the pack in to thermal cut back as it is. I think heat is one issue that may need to be addressed.