Car fanatics, who love the environment with equal passion, must be happy with the latest decision made by Toyota. The Japanese carmaker has announced that warranty coverage for 2020 hybrid car models with the Toyota logo will be extended by up to 10 years or 150,000 miles.
The move will mean fewer worries for would-be buyers who have been prevented from trying out electric vehicles due to the perceived higher cost of operation.
According to Car Buzz, the protection is given by Toyota to its line of hybrid cars is "the longest offered warranty in the car industry."
The coverage will include the company's hybrid, plug-in hybrid, and fuel cell electric vehicles. Toyota said the warranty will be valid during the entire period and will cover not only the first or original buyer of the unit but also the succeeding vehicle owners.
"Toyota introduced the first hybrid vehicle in the world more than 20 years ago, but people still have hesitations about owning a hybrid vehicle," the company was reported by Motor1 as saying in a statement.
"Our goal is to minimize that concern, and this new warranty extension for the hybrid battery is just another way we are leading the industry and putting our customers first," the statement by Toyota added.
In effect, Toyota will delay the cost that hybrid car users will need to shoulder once the battery pack has reached capacity degradation level, which then will require replacement. Current price rates indicate replacement costs of thousands of dollars but could be reduced in the near future.
It is hoped that for hybrid car owners, by the time the warranty expires, more affordable battery packs will be available.
CNET said the upgraded warranty will see the bump-up of the original coverage, which was set at eight years or 100,000 miles, whichever may come first. Toyota, however, has clarified that the new warranty will exclude all the other components of the Toyota hybrid line.
That would mean the electric motors, power electronics controls, inverter, and others will retain the same eight-year or 100,000-mile hybrid system warranty.
For existing and future owners of Toyota hybrids, the company said these are models covered by the upgraded battery warranty:
- Prius
- Prius Prime
- Corolla
- Camry
- Avalon
- Highlander
- RAV4
Per the same report by CNET, the offer will be extended to the Toyota Mirai, which is fired up by a fuel battery cell, and the 2020 Toyota RAV4 Plug-in.
The best part of the deal, according to Toyota, is that the same protection will be accorded to hybrid units already on the road so long as they are part of the 2020 batch. This indicates that the enhanced warranty will apply retroactively to units sold prior to the announcement of the battery upgrade.
