Your image is very colorful but, as one who spent a lot of miles in vw beetles, I can assure you that the battery was protected from heavy passengers and worn rear seat springs and heavy passengers never 'sparked' the conversation.
My assertion was that the Prius auxilliary battery wouldn't require replacement in 100k miles while a non-hybrid battery typically would. My reason was that the Prius auxilliary battery was not used for starting the Prius motor and so was not subject to the heavy current draw that starting requires while the non-hybrid battery was used for starting the non-hybrid motor, was subject to the heavy current draw (100 amps) that starting a motor entails, and was therefore in a discharged state more often which shortens the battery life.
The crux of the whole discussion is that the hybrid Prius has lower overall maintenance and repair costs than a non-hybrid vehicle, including the battery replacement cost, although I concede that the Prius auxilliary battery replacement cost is quite high at $112. As I noted, though, I would expect the auxilliary battery replacement cost to go down if replacement of it begins to be needed in large numbers and it is stocked as a replacement part at the national auto parts chains like CarQuest, O'Reilly, NAPA, etc. My personal experience with my Prius for
100k miles is that I have had to replace the oil and filter every 5k miles, change the coolant, change the air filter twice, and change the cabin air filter twice. That's it in 100k miles of typical driving over a 5-year period. And the Prius is performing as well as the day I bought it. Perhaps that's the reason that so many taxi cabs are Priuses, that used Prius values hold up so well, that new Priuses are in very short supply, and that the 1 millionth Prius was sold in the USA.