Next up for the Prius Family - The Prius t for Truck?

The only thing that is going to shift the average truck buyer to something like the Prius T would be gas mileage and/or higher gas prices. If we would stop subsidizing fuel so god damn much maybe we could see this shift to higher efficiency and people would stop buying monster trucks for no other reason than to stroke their ego.

 

It just really doesn't.

First this is NOT a truck in the sense of a truck's utility: hauling and towing. This thing would never compete with a real small truck with rear wheel drive and towing capacity.

This is simply a car-based truck and it's been done several times before, most recently to extremely poor reception in the US. This vehicle may work in other countries; it won't sell well in the US.

In fact, we can go back and forth arguing its benefits but I in fact have numbers supporting my assertion that it's not a very good idea. If it excels it will be the first car-based truck in recent memory to do so.

Based on this: The Tax Foundation - IEA Study Ranks Nations fuel subsides in the US are really a drop in the bucket and those numbers I am pretty sure are less than fuel taxes anyway. The problem is not how cheap gas is here but how much it's taxed and costs in other countries. Irrespective, if gas prices did go up substantially people would fairly soon give up on this idea that they need 5000 lbs to drive to work. I think that an increase in gas taxes is not a bad thing, really. Of course, it's easy to say when I have a Prius. As a friend recently said "I Bet you love to see gas prices go up, don't you?" and I had to admit I did. It's sick and it hurts me, but it is what it is. I get a sick pleasure from seeing them higher and I know many of us here do. I'm not afraid to admit it! But unless Toyota knows something nobody else seems to know, in the current atmosphere, with gas where it is now or likely to be, I just don't see big sales on a Prius T long term in the US.

 

Skoorbmax has a good point about passenger car based trucks. Even if a truck is small it needs to be usable as a truck if you are going to sell many. I can't think of any trucks on passenger car chassis that were successful as trucks. OTOH, there have been a lot of successful pickup trucks with passenger car power trains (except for the rear axle)

The early Japanese trucks in the late 1960s early 1970s sold very well. They used passenger car based power-trains but their chassis were designed from the ground up to be trucks. Some of them could handle as much weight as a Ford or Chevy 1/2 ton of the same year. They couldn't handle the bulk because they were smaller, and they were slower but they were trucks and could be used like trucks.

There are still trucks like that in parts of the world. For todays US market you need something a little bigger, with a cab that's comfortable for two people that will carry a 1000 lb payload in it's light duty version and have 1500 lb option. It wouldn't replace the big 4wd JJ Machoballs trucks but would have a market.

 

They forgot military expenses to keep the M.E. oil available.

 

But the US is not there for oil, it's for democracy, right?

 

I have a large golden colored (actually orange) 1 mile long suspension bridge I can sell you at a good price. It would look real purdy in your Western NY countryside.

 

I'm interested

 

I bet that has some decent ground clearance!

Okay, maybe a Prius truck is not for certain contractors who are worried about what other contractors think of them, but if it at least looks tough, it could appeal to the people who use a truck to commute to their office jobs and remember occasionally hauling some lumber at some point in time. Enough towing capacity for a pop-up camping trailer or a snowmobile trailer would be nice too. Looking tough is hard to do while being aerodynamic though.

How about a Prius RV? That's what America needs! I'll photoshop a prototype this weekend.

What a waste of my 2000th post....

 

Now those are hybrid trucks with hauling capacity.

I also realize the irony in me on a prius form, the owner of a prius, deriding the appearance of one as goofy and affecting sales. It's not lost on me, but I am not responsible for marketing these things, Toyota is

 

That's a healthy attitude. If you can't laugh at yourself you miss out on a lot of fun.

 

Well, Ford has had a hybrid SUV, the Escape, for quite a few years based on the Prius powertrain. Granted it can't pull a boat, but certainly smaller hybrid pickup trucks and SUVs are feasible.

Trouble is, the American car industry is market-oriented--not innovation-oriented. They respond to the market. When gas is cheap, the market wants the big gas guzzlers that are most profitable for the industry. They have been burned because of this, because the market can change overnight by an increase in the cost of gas.

The other factor is government regulation, but changes are longer term--5 years + out. The industry can respond to these changes, but can't handle the volatility in the price of gas, which is what tipped the scales the past few years. If gas gets above $3.50 again, they'll have the same problem.

 

If you walk just behind the front tires, you do not need to duck to cross under the truck if you are 5' 10" You look up to see the center of the wheels.

For perspective:

 

You are all being USA centric. The Prius drivetrain now has sufficent volume that models dont have to be designed to succeed in the US market. There are already Hybrid models that arn't sold in the US. Why do you assume that this truck would built for the US market? If the truck doesn't meet the US drivers image, it doesn't mean that it wont fit other markets.

 

Oh, 'bout a hundred years ago my long deceased dad had a VW Rabbit diese pickup. It regularly got about 44 mpg on about the same hp as a
briggs and stratton.
This was not a real truck but you couldn't convince my dad. He was in the heating and sheet metal business once he gave up farming. Long story..... Anywho, he easily carried up to a ton on that dented little bugger for about ten yaers then gave it to me for another five. It finally succumbed to Wisconsin salt.

 

prius t = nex gen rav4 front wheel drive hybrid

 

is this a new aprils fools joke? in the making

 

Not all of us, you are making the mistake of assuming USAians all think the same way.

Other than that, you hit the nail on the head. There are already successful small trucks in the world outside the US. They prove there is a market for something other than a big US sized pickup truck. There is no reason there couldn't be a Prius powertrain based truck.

 

Is also why I've caveated by saying that my criticisms are in the US market.

However, my guess on why tiny trucks work elsewhere in the world is because they are dirt cheap, not because people's needs are different. If you're making $9k/year and need a truck you are not in the market for a V8 Dodge Ram. And, unfortunately, also not in the market for a prius-based truck.

 

I am (like you) certain that a Prius truck would more expensive to purchase, if not to operate.
I am unclear how you already know how large the bed would be on a hypothetical Prius Truck.
"Most people" do not buy any one model, the question is always would enough people buy one?
The ones I see each day are used by farmers as 'run to town' trucks, presumably they know what they need in town and it fits. Perhaps farmers have less image problems than contractors apparently do.

The farmers I talked to claimed I was the first car owner who got better mileage than they did. (40 MPG on Highway, 42 MPG average)

While searching for Toyota pickups I found this (large) picture of a Hino (think GMC) Hybrid truck.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/35/Hino_Dutro_Hybrid_001.JPG

 

I bought a new 1981 vw diesel pick up new as my first new vehicle in the fall of 1980. 55 horse power if my memory serves me. Fast forward to January 2010 and the purchase of my second new car: 2010 Prius II. (still excited about great mpg). Dave