It happened. Flat tire. No spare.

That's a puzzler. Two different sources, near-identical rims?? I would email them, maybe they'll shed light.

 

I agree the Prime reveals a lack of long term, goal oriented design:

The first generation, plug-in Prius was a 'bolt in.' The second generation, Prime has that clever, one-way clutch that allows MG1 and MG2 to work together as a single motor. But the body is the problem.

The best battery location is under the floor, not in the cabin. It will take a new, standard unibody design and that takes awhile. But as concerns the spare, if they could have reversed or revised the stamping mill dies, under car access for the spare would make sense with no loss of body strength and stiffness. Clearance might be a problem.

Bob Wilson

 

Yeah, they have practically enough space under the Prime battery as is. If the bottom sheet metal was revised upward, I think an under-slung spare would be doable, maybe. It would be a feather in their cap: a plug-in with a spare. If they could manage to level the hatch floor too, double feather.

 

I'm new in this discussion but if I were making any changes to the floor under the batteries on a Prius Prime it would be to hold more batteries and not a spare time. Has there ever been any talk in using the Prius for an all electric EV?

 

Gas tank is under the rear seat, so it's not in the way either. (I actually think that the gas tank should've been mounted where the spare tire goes, and the battery mounted under the seat, as some other PHEVs with similar battery and fuel capacity do, but that's another thing entirely.)

 

The gas tank is also behind the rear seat.

 

Spare tire well is behind the rear suspension, though, whereas the gas tank is in front of it.

The only thing I can think that would interfere with an underbody spare tire well, below the Prime, would be the muffler - this is the Liftback, but I believe the Prime is the same idea:

 

I got one of these tire covers to help keep things a little more tidy when storing inside the car.

http://a.co/gaIKBC4

 

Securing it might be harder than it sounds. The only points in the entire Prime designed for securing loads are the baby seat latches.

 

After fatal fires following crashes, don't a number of makers prefer putting that tank of combustible fluid in front of the rear axle for crash safety reasons?

 

It's generally preferred, sure, but there's plenty of designs that put it further back:

 

i don't secure mine. how many things do people put back there unsecured? just because it is there all the time doesn't make it different.

 

only around here.

 

i've seen lawn mowers back there.

 

I've had Costco order tires for me from Michelin many times over the years for my previous cars. Usually took a couple of days to a week, but the Costco guys have been very helpful. Don't know about rims, however.

 

A frozen 20 pound turkey could become a nasty missile hazard!