Prius Plug - in 2011

I think it pains many of the pioneering and forward thinking crowd of Prius Chat, but Toyota is a mainstream automaker, which means they probably will be conservative and careful with any approach.

But I was disappointed to hear the timeline on the Plug In as well. Not until 2012? And then it starts with a limited release? Ugh....

I don't know, Toyota has to be careful, but with the release of The Leaf, The Volt, and slowly growing competition I hope Toyota does not lose sight of the fact that it was unheralded support of an odd product that initially very few thought had a place in the marketplace that gave them the ultimate success that Prius became.

Toyota's competion already has a full electric available, meanwhile we are still a full year away from the limited realease of the plug in Prius.

 

Well, the Volt and Leaf are only available in very limited areas right now. Leafs are sold out for all of this year so if want one and haven't pre-ordered, you'll likely need to wait a year anyway. The Volt's first year production is also already sold out.

That said, if the PHV Prius were available in the same areas now, at a reasonable price, I'm sure it'd take some sales away from some of the above.

 

Maybe this is a good time to ask a theoretical question I've been wondering: Say a battery-less Prius would get about 40 mpg (just my guess), and 1.3 kw of battery pushes that to 50 mpg. That would mean that in 100K miles, instead of burning 2500 gallons of gasoline, it would only burn 2000 gallons, thus saving about 385 gallons/kw. Now add another 5kw of batteries, (such as the Hymotion) and you'll be about 125 mpg, or 800 gallons of gas for 100K miles. That would be a savings of about 240 gallons/kw. (What I've seen though is that I'm not really using the Prius main battery with the 5kw, so maybe it could have been 4kw additional at 125 mpg as the Prius Plug-In has.) Now add another 18kw to get to the Leaf (or other 100 mile BEV). You would be at 0 gallons of gas for 100K miles, but now it is at a savings of only 44 gallons/kw for the additional battery.

So really, has Toyota picked the most efficient use of the battery supply they have in order to maximize the total fuel saving impact?

Also, one other question which might have already been answered (if so please forgive me), but is this system similar to the already working BMS+ system? Or conversely, would it be cheaper to get a regular Prius today and add the BMS+ system and get virtually identical results to the Plug-In Prius?

 

How much more is the Prius Plug in going to be?
If you can only go 10- 15 miles on the charge,
How many miles on the charge would you have to go to make up the price difference from a Plug in and a non-Plug in?
I’m just saying it has to make scents.
My uncle got a volt for over 40k and I got my 3G Prius for 22k that’s an 18k differences. That buys me a lot of gas. I’ll probably be on a new prius by that time

 

Not only that, a 2012-13 release quickly runs into the 4th gen Prius release in 2015-16 (est) and be obsolete in that short time.

Is the 4th gen Prius a PHEV only design (i.e. optimized for PHEV) ?

 

It would be great if all gen4's shipped with a plug and a rechargeable HV pack. You can order it with up to two additional packs, or indeed have them fitted later. They completely kill the DIY PHEV market then, and can still make a nice profit.

 

Toyota is adding PHV option for the mid-cycle model year. They may do the same with Gen4. I guess it depends on when a better battery becomes available.

 

Err, yes. It will have little to no impact on it's release.

 

There may be a delay of a few weeks before the PHV goes on sale/enters production, but the "shortages" right now are purely because production was shut down for a period, while sales continued. There's usually a pool of cars available, and that pool is now much smaller, but there are still cars available and deliveries will resume soon.

This will probably spur Toyota on to produce the Prius in other countries, as well.

 

Maybe, but that isn't going to affect Toyota. If you watch too much television it will have you believing that all of Japan would shut down and the USA would be covered forever in lethal glowing dust killing everything on the continent...

 

Well if it's landed on the UK it will already have landed on our friends in the US

BBC News - 'Fukushima nuclear plant' radiation found at UK sites

Not so sure about a lethal glowing dust though. You've been spending too much time in the toilets at nightclubs?

 

It sounds like No Matter What!---- The Energy Companies will ALWAYS Make Out and we lose! I still think Hybrid is the way.....

 

Well the BBC are usually fairly calm, but if they are even reporting this "As anticipated" event which "is not of concern for the public or the environment." as news, i can only imagine the level of crazed frenzy the reporters on Fox, CNN etc have got to.

 

That is not news. With a long supply chain, and finished product still being sold, any interruption to production will not be felt immediately, but actualy at the length of the supply chain. so if factory to forecourt sale is 4 weeks then you will see product shortages at that time (so within the next two weeks) which will last for the period which production was stopped (about three weeks).

So yes, there will obviously be a period of three to four weeks where new vehicles are not arriving, and then normal service will resume.