You're correct, if you're fairly easy on your braking you'll have very minimal friction brake use and yor brake pads may very well last the life of your car. Several drivers who have well over 100k miles on their Prius show negligible wear.

There is one driver here, who admits to being a fairly aggressive driver, how has some measurable brake wear at 70k miles. So driving style matters.

 

I just had my 45,000 mile service and they said both my front and back brakes were "almost new".

 

Train locomotives also use dynamic braking, where the motors that normally move the train are then used to help stop the train. Until recently though, the power generated from the motors were sent to giant resistive heaters in the roof of the loco. Recently they have been developing means to store that otherwise wasted energy into batteries for use later, just as the Prius does.

In the classic Prius, the friction brakes were applied at the same time MG2 was used to slow the car down. With the new version of the Prius, the friction brakes do not have to be applied unless regen braking is insufficient for the requested braking.

Here's a link that contains the comparison of braking between the THS system (classic) and the THS II (Now often called HSD).
http://www.toyota.co.jp/en/tech/environ ... ystem.html

 

At 40K miles in mixed freeway/suburban traffic (with constant brake and accel cycles), the dealer reported that my brakes were still 90% plus.

 

My wear is now even

I previously posted that at 10K miles the service tech said my rear brakes were wearing too much. At the recent 15K service, the readings were even at 9 front & 7 rear; both are down 2 from new. They said this is good. We'll see.

 

brake

Nearly all the Prius brake repair has happened as a result of corrosion, in regions where roads are salted in the winter. The 200+ thousand mile Vancouver taxi driver had brake work done (at least once). People have driven various distances with their parking brakes set, and after a while that could lead to a need for repair.

My 2001 Prius has 97k miles and the brake wear seems negligible. I expect to change the brake fluid sooner than friction parts, because it will eventually absorb water from the air.

DAS

 

Re: brake

Nearly all the Prius brake repair has happened as a result of corrosion, in regions where roads are salted in the winter. The 200+ thousand mile Vancouver taxi driver had brake work done (at least once). People have driven various distances with their parking brakes set, and after a while that could lead to a need for repair.

My 2001 Prius has 97k miles and the brake wear seems negligible. I expect to change the brake fluid sooner than friction parts, because it will eventually absorb water from the air.

DAS

That driver had his front brakes changed at 147,000kms and his rear ones at 300,000+ just before Toyota took the car back.