Toyota camry hybrid 12v battery

[Jeffjeeptj]

I am no longer driving my 2015 Camry Hybrid every day. It was driven 75 miles per day, 5 or 6 days per week for 4 years at freeway speeds. The 12V AGM and Traction batteries behaved themselves properly. The car is now used for short trips (2 to 5 miles) and gets used maybe 2x per week. It sits outside. The 12V AGM battery just deteriorated to a resting voltage of 11.9 volts after charging with an AGM charger. Toyota specifies 5A max rate and a fully charged resting voltage of 12.6 to 12.8V. The 12V AGM battery was replaced.

I am thinking of adding a solar trickle charger since AGMs prefer staying fully charged, and I expect the sitting and short trips without a trickle will shorten the life of the AGM. I am thinking of a 20W mono panel in the rear window, and a Victron 100/20 Smartsolar controller. The 100/20 is way over kill, but, it could be used as a spare for my other 12V off-grid solar system which uses LiFePo. All I would have to do is reset the parameters In the Victron.

The other choice is a 120V AC trickle with an extension cord, something I consider a PITA, but, much less costly.

Thoughts

 

[snoobler]

Either drive or sell the car. Letting a Toyota hybrid sit or used exclusively for short trips ramps up the likelihood of an HV battery failure. I've literally seen it a dozen times. I personally own a Prius that had a battery failure at 55K miles for the same reason - infrequently driven and short trips.

Hybrids have value in their cost of ownership savings over comparable non-hybrid models. Throw a battery failure in there, and you will mostly or completely wipe that out.