Featured Chevy Bolt best selling EV in California

Thank you CraigCSJ. Beautifully spoken. The PHV ended up short mainly because it was like a little black sheep to say and they improved with the Prime which I have drove and it is pretty amazing. Again though we wont be anything near what Chevy and Tesla have mainly because even though are battery packs are beefy they dont compare to Tesla and Chevy Volt or Bolt. Sorry if I hurt feelings with my intial statement but we as Toyota see it as a pseudo fail and win. Fail because we have a weak Plug In starting with the PHV and a win because people love the Prius and we saw enough interest to continue to improve on that PHV to make the Prime and further iterations of our Plug In.
Honestly they are all pretty good vehicles no matter what is sold where and how many in any year. They are the leaders because I see more Prius, Prius Prime, Volts, Prius C, Elantra Hybrid, and some Bolts now. They have been engineered very well. They all have their own issues and Pros and Cons which is why it is great to live with so many options to save fuel, energy, and try to lessen our impact with our vehicles.

 

no apology necessary, it's probably just your non carb state experience. they were quite popular in the more enlightened area's.
prime is a major improvement except for the 4 seater and reduced hatch space. love the heat pump!

 

I was a mechanic in California with SMOG and all friend. I know the HOV sticker well and try not to be too condescending. Dont judge a book by its cover, killer.

 

And just in case San Diego East County Santee CA/// Lemoore CA Kern County Central California/// Sacramento County Folsom then Carmichael just south of the Capital downtown Sacramento. And I use to work on F-18E and F for VFA-122 Flying Eagles then VFA-2 Bounty Hunters 10 years as an Aviation Ordnance/ Avionics and before that I was in good old Alabama working a couple years as a paint and body guy with Joe Hudson. So if that concludes the pissing contest,.....I do apologize again for getting anyone wound up by the statement to the discussion, besides myself, which is what I thought we all did here which is discuss and communicate, not talk down to and discourage? You guys have a good night.

 

Some confusion comes from your location saying it's Florida.

Agreed, the PHV was a somewhat weak PHEV offering when at the time others served up 20 and 38 mile alternatives; both of which got a lot of hate around here. Now that the Prime is within those ranges (and suffers from similar disadvantages), things have simmered down some but we see the occasional flare ups (this thread for example).

 

People move around, do they not? Ive lived in Florida for maybe 3 years. bisco wanted to tell me Im inexperienced because I am not a part of a CARB state with BAR (Bureau of Automotive Repair). I proceeded to inform him that I am aware of all sorts and perhaps more experienced and can actually prove it. I may be a new member on this site but I am well trained and versed in actual black and white literature and talking to engineers, techs, salesmen, and customers about their vehicles.
I just want to talk to like minded folks that also have opinions and enjoy hybrids period. I work for Toyota so I see alot of issues that people complain about on this forum and Toyota Nation and IATN. I despise modifications but still talk with folks in San Francisco on IATN about it which is wild because they convert 1st and 2nd Gens in to Plug Ins. Check out Luscious Garage if any of you get a chance.
Im actually boning up on my hybrid specialization to all makes and models and getting ready for my ASE L3 cert in the near future. Its difficult to find literature and actual facts about other hybrids and weeding though the garbage let me tell you, lol.
I saw this discussion and gave my two cents which is all its worth in MY experience. Thats all it is, an opinion. Some were throwing out graphs like I really care about one graph. Quantified data over many years and venues is what is real proof of the whole. So they were defensive over a tiny statement that I tried to suggest to let it go but of course met with condescension instead of actual debate and mutual respect like I am some moron bouncing around forums like I have no clue what I am saying.
So I apologized and again moved on but again met with rudeness disguised as snobish experience. I am passionate too but I approach with some respect before being dismissive and curt. Ill ignore him and be on my way.
Its sucks because it takes away from a really enjoyable discussion where others get involved and of course we are on another moot topic of which is not the actual topic at hand. It is sad really. But some peoples children continue to be just that. Good night.

 

Well that rules me out. <PLOINK>

PriusChat has an excellent "Ignore user" feature.

Bob Wilson

 

Well originally being from Dothan and having family in Opelika I guess it is what it is, right?

 

For good reason, they simply weren't realistic for business. Such heavy dependency on tax-credit subsidies was a terrible approach to appeal for the masses. And sure enough, we were proven correct.

Toyota didn't make that mistake with their first full-cycle nationwide offering. Prime has a MSRP low enough to actually compete with the true competition... traditional vehicles.

 

And Toyota can thank Tesla, GM, and Nissan in driving down battery costs to allow that Prime pricing.

 

Toyota was already working on cost reductions.

They helped, contributed, joined, shared, supported...

 

Much of the battery cost reductions came from mass production and improvements there. The battery companies weren't going to invest in the factories for such production without the demand from the automakers. The federal tax credits helped increase demand for the cars.

GM and Nissan were the first to offer a plug in to the mass, nation wide market. This spurred investment into traction battery production, and got the cost reductions started. The actual rate of which exceeded what the federal incentive was projected to achieve when the law was written.

For Toyota to drive battery demand at the same level with the PiP, they would have had to sell three times as many cars as the Volt sold.

As for other ways of reducing plug in costs, any specific examples for how Toyota did this?

 

no offense, but prime is not nationwide.

 

You know the model-year and seasonal delay. You also know the global effort.

No patience for each market to be reached?

 

plenty, we just aren't there yet. and pip was supposed to get there and didn't, so who knows?

 

PIP was a mid-cycle limited-market rollout to test the waters. Prime is quite different.

Think about the effort needed to first spread TNGA (Toyota New Global Architecture) in order to achieve the lower cost, higher volume potential.

 

agreed, but toyota once claimed pip was going to be 50 state, iirc.

 

do you think southeast toyota will ever carry them?

 

People didn't pay attention to detail when that target was provided. The expectations they set clearly stated the next step was subject to what they learned from the first.

They didn't bet the farm like GM, promising volume, price, and timing all on a single vehicle.

That's how we for the wide variety of new hybrids... all being positioned for plug augmentation.