Some Gen III Sightings in Europe

Gen2 and gen3 Prius are now a familiar sight on UK roads probably because of our very high fuel costs, and you can drive them into London, and not pay the congestion charge of I believe £15 ($24) a day.

 

I ran one as a cab in the UK for a couple years and in my town of 100,000 there are lots of Prii and other hybrids.

Diesel is more expensive than petrol here as people (and the Government) are getting more concerned about poor air quality caused by diesel cars - esp NOx (acid rain and smog).

To give an example of why diesels in Europe stink I'll give an example;

Prius 2009-2012 Nox emissions 0.006 g/km
Ford Mondeo 1.6 tdi 2012 (latest Euro 5+ dpf) Nox 0.148 g/km
VW Passat 1.6 tdi 2012 (latest Euro 5+ dpf) Nox 0.110 g/km

Select a search : Directgov - Car fuel data, CO2 and vehicle tax tools
Select a search : Directgov - Car fuel data, CO2 and vehicle tax tools
Select a search : Directgov - Car fuel data, CO2 and vehicle tax tools

I have chosen the lower emission versions of the latest diesel cars to give the best ratings (if I chose the more powerful versions the Nox emissions were higher). You will see the Mondeo is 24.6 times worse for smog than the Prius and the Passat is 18 times worse! Older Euro 4 diesels were much much worse. Or put it another way -you could drive 18 hybrids to give the same pollution as 1 latest Passat diesel!

So in Germany you're welcome to support your own diesel car manufacturers but in other places around the world they're picking up on how dreadful diesel is and tax it more. Next time you look over your town or city and see a dark grey low hanging cloud know as smog, just think of all those diesel cars

 

The other week, I followed a French registered LHD gen2 along the M27 (in the UK).

 

When I was in France I saw quite a few too.

 

May be because they use smaller cars and public transportation in general, they don't 'feel' the fuel costs as much as Americans.

 

Erm, I'd disagree. Sure in capitals there is great public transport but elsewhere it's not as good.

We DO feel fuel costs as it is two and a half times more expensive than yours. So we may not go as far a day but that's probably because it costs us more.

Also, hybrid use in Europe depends on the Country. Imagine the individual Countries as States in the US and you get an idea. Hybrids have taken off in the UK, Holland, Denmark, Spain, Portugal, but not so much in France and hardly at all in Germany. Does the same apply in the US with California and New York as being hybrid popular whereas in some big States in flyover country they're virtually non existant.

 

I'm here in Atlanta and I was just at a store in a suburb of the city, which is about twenty miles from downtown. There were two dozen cars in the lot and including mine, there were three Gen. III Prius vehicles.

 

You are right, sir. I've traveled all over the U.S. and found that large variability in Prius density by region exists. I live in New England (not sure when we'll decide to call it old?) where Prius are very popular. In 2009 we drove to Florida, and noticed that from Washington D.C. to northern Florida, we hardly saw any Prii. That's just one example. But, in the last couple of years, there has been an increase in those areas that were previously Prius scarce.

I'm sure there's a record of how many Prius have been bought in the U.S. and what areas favor the Prius. Anyone familiar with this?

With all the PV installed on German roofs now, is it probable that the plug-in Prius will become more popular?

 

That makes sense.

I live in a "big state in flyover country" and we have quite a lot of Prii, surprisingly. However I have driven all over the country and know what you mean. Sometimes there are days where we don't see another Prius and sometimes you see them every 3 minutes.

 

Here's an incomplete(?) chart of Prius sales I found on Wikipedia that might show why we see more Prius here in U.S. compared to Europe...

 

I have tried and failed to find a Country by Country European breakdown of hybrid sales. I know what the sales in the UK are though;

Combined stats (11 models) PRIUS - How Many Left?

Combined stats (6 models) INSIGHT - How Many Left?

Combined stats (13 models) HYBRID - How Many Left?

Small fry compared to America - probably just one months sales, but with 10k Prius sold in 2010 compared to 35k sold in the whole of Europe including the 10k UK sales, you can see that the UK accounts for a third of total sales.

Since then hybrid sales have taken off in 2011 and there are many many more about. Unfortunately the stats to show this are hard to find.