Featured Every future Prius a Plug-in

That would be great news and put the Prius back in my potential shopping list.

Retail 1-buyer price for charging units is less than $200. Toyota already buys lots of the same type of power electronic components they would need to build an in-house designed charger to put onboard. My guess is to the end user it will be transparent and it might even save Toyota some money buying more volume for further discounts.

 

I see something circular here. Didn't Toyota say when the first pip was released that all hybrids would plugin? 4 years ago and still only 1... Yet where is that ns4 lol

 

Geez I hope it doesn't become true, especially if they all sport that mesa in the hatch floor, and no spare.

I think it's what the market wants that'll decide. Well, I hope so. We're spending $30 max per month on gas now, with our 2010; I don't want the complexity and compromises of a plug-in. Or the Darth Vader dash, but that's another story...

 

I think this probably means all future Prius models will be designed to have plug-in ability available as an option.

 

I sure hope not. I can't see paying extra money for a plug-in that only goes 24(?) miles on EV? If it ever gets up to 200 miles, I might be interested.
(But I don't have any place to easily install a plug or plug in a car.)

 

If more and more "Gigafactories" are built, battery prices would plummet making this a feasible idea. Maybe a standard Prius would have EV mileage in the low teens, while still have space for spare tire, and fold down flat back seats; batteries could shrink enough to make them happen in 5 years, perhaps. It would be enough to make me want to upgrade.

 

So how does one further improve fuel efficiency in the 5th generation Prius? And how does one better deal with the space constraining issue of where to place the battery and maximize its capacity in a plug-in Prius when working it into a hybrid lift-back body?

Hybrids had their days of glory but are now getting long-in-the-tooth: so just make all Prius models plug-ins:

Toyota: Every future Prius might be a plug-in hybrid - Autoblog

Starting with the fifth-generation models, Toyota might do away with standard hybrid technology altogether in the Prius line-up. Instead, Toyota is considering making every future Prius a plug-in hybrid. The logic comes down to, if you want to push the envelope, you sometimes have to redefine what the envelope is.

Ultimately, PHEV may be the way to go. – Shoichi Kaneko

...Toyota needed to make many little improvements to get the fourth-gen Prius to the fuel economy levels it has – currently, the most efficient Prius is the Eco trim line, which gets 56 combined, 58 city, and 53 highway MPG – and so to push the fifth-gen to, say, 60 mpg is incredibly hard. Putting a plug on every Prius would move the brand forward, keep it relevant, and meet the company's objectives...​

 

I for one look forward to a plug in Prius v in the future. Even as an option.

 

the mitsu outlander suv plugin is the most popular plugin in much of europe. It's set to go on sale here in the U.S. in just a few more weeks. I look forward to seeing if Toyota can catch up & pass that phev suv leadership.
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It has been delayed to "summer 2017" according to an article published last week about the upcoming Paris reveal.

 

Again? Supposedly battery quantities for our market have been the stumbling block in the past. Wonder if its more of the same. Well - that continued delay is to Toyotas advantage
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Deja Vu all over again.
I can wait for the next gen.
I assume they are saying more like PiP, and I Iike PiP.
But US incentives are favoring bigger batteries....probably what Toyota is thinking smaller batttery with solar charging (eg; roof type) gets you decent amount of miles with no gaso and no elec. That's what Japan needs...no gaso and no elec charging. And our car roof strength standards may make it harder here.

Gen4 is huge hit in Japan, so some difference what Japan needs and USA. Gen4 has so much focus on getting MPG from 50 to 55 but in USA so what? sorry to say.

 

Maybe further mpg improvement is chasing crumbs; shift focus?

 

My understanding is that another part of the problem with the Outlander PHEV is trying to make it accelerate faster to meet US expectations, without destroying the battery, or having to fire up the ICE every time you want to accelerate.

Also, the Prime's solar panel is a 180 W panel. Let's say you get that full 180 W for 12 hours a day, you're getting 2160 Wh. Let's say you get 120 MPGe (I'd expect more than that for most people on here), that's about 7.7 miles of range a day. I mean, it would offset about 3/4 of my commute, but that's assuming 100% efficiency from the panel, that's assuming 12 hours of full sunlight a day... basically, those are some mighty spherical cows.

 

Next gen Prius needs better battery packaging, under floor or T shaped. With the speed batteries are improving this really shouldn't be a problem, in 6 years 8 kWh battery will probably be almost half the size of current Prime battery. When size and price of the battery is not a big issue anymore, I don't see any problem to have all hybrids PHEVs.

 

I'm thinking something like the Li-ion Prius v layout (I can't find pics of the NiMH layout, I think it is very different though) could be interesting, too, although at the expense of armrest storage:



Alternately, the Voxy/Noah/Esquire layout, although it'd only work on taller vehicles:

 

The funny thing is the Prius could gain an easy 5 MPG by just having 'pre-conditioning' plug-in:

• peak charge the traction battery
  • cool/heat the battery in extreme temperatures
• cool/heat the cabin
• preheat the engine coolant
  
• peak and tickle charge the 12V (lengthens life to +10 yrs)

We are not talking about huge amounts of power but the effect would be dramatic. The car would start out at +60 MPG.

Bob Wilson