Featured 2019 Prius Ready for Sunshine or Snow at 2018 LA Auto Show

it pushes easily

 

Yeah you're forgetting the more ridiculous "time saved at the gas pump" number they tried to sell people. Avoiding jerks (who seem to revert to their animal instincts and act like the gas is running out) at the Costco gas station is a very compelling reason to go EV. The few dollars saved there is not.

 

I very much think this needs to be the direction it goes...

Literally reinventing the wheel.

As in the wheel and tire you bolt to the car or skateboard or locomotive is the entire powertrain.

Some designers have been successful pushing in this direction, especially with bicycles, but there's still lots of challenges yet to overcome.

It's true, if you live without electricity, charging your vehicle is much more difficult... Maybe ask @Trollbait he's got some friends who will sell you a super clean burning diesel generator.

 

Yes it is

Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.

 

So...let me see...my car stands/sleeps at the street cause I live in a flat...and I have to buy a generator...and to charge I must keep up looking at the generator diesel level, get fuel at the pumps and...watch out for the generator itself to avoid it from being stolen.
Is that practical?

 

Not sure that this is beneficial beyond a selling point for some people. Front wheel drive, traction control and good sense are the best for adverse conditions. AMDAS 4 wheel drive will just get you in the ditch faster. AWD provides people with a similar false sense of security.

Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.

 

I do believe that was a joke.
That said, I know of people that use other options to charge their PHEVs or BEVs. However, the most convenient method is plugging in at home.

 

The Prime solar roof came into being for the Japanese market. For many homes there, level 1 charging a Prime will take 10 hours, and level 2 isn't an option because of the grid and home electric supply. Then many don't have an option to charge at home. Which is why CHAdeMO is standard on the Prime there. Plus, energy prices are high in Japan.

There might be other markets that could benefit from the solar roof for similar reasons. In that case, the $3000 price for the solar roof may be worth it. For North America, charging at home isn't an issue for many, and that $3000 can go towards home PV or other ways of improving household efficiency and carbon reduction.

In the event of a power outage, it is a PHEV. People are putting up with the drawbacks of having that engine onboard, might as well use it when conditions dictate it.

 

The biggest and by far the most important thing is if it will be tow rated like they are in Europe.

 

Why would that be important as long as they are tow capable & hitches are available? It appears Toyota US does not want the testing & responsibility of putting a tow rating on the Prius even though it is rated in other countries..

 

The Prius v was larger in all dimensions and weighed 300 pounds more than a Gen 3. Also presumably slightly less aerodynamic although I'm not sure about that. And they kept it on the old architecture and hybrid system, it never got upgraded to Gen 4 level.

The AWD motor will probably be pretty lightweight since it just adds a little bit of torque at very slow speeds. And as pointed out it will likely only be used in snow situations and so other than a little extra weight it shouldn't have much of an impact on MPG. Of course we'll find out more later. What I think is good is that it might open up some markets for the Prius that until now wouldn't consider it specifically because of a desire for AWD. And if it also helps a few people keep from getting stuck in the snow, even better.

 

I'd totally agree with you if it were ten years ago when Prius was the leader and not falling behind... But as Elon Musk points out, when you no longer use ICE drivetrains, the nature of electric motors combined with sensors allows you to make a thousand adjustments in only a second. So if you hit a patch of ice on a curve at freeway speed in an AWD Tesla for a tenth of a second, the vehicle is capable of making a hundred adjustments to prevent a crash in just that tenth of a second. But in this new Prius design, AWD likely won't even have enough time to turn itself on, let alone adjust to the slide before you crash. It's way worse than a day late and a dollar short...

But I do agree that Prius sales are limited in areas that are frozen over for long periods of time every winter and this could improve sales, it's just that they could of done this ten years ago and not ignored all the complaints for so long...

 

Now hold up there... why wouldn't you be able to make lots of rapid adjustments in a car with an ICE? I mean, I get it, an electric motor is even easier to control than a gasoline engine... but there are plenty of gas burners on the road capable of electronically/programmatically adjusting many parameters in real time for safety's sake.

 

That’s exactly what you wanted because they don’t take responsibility means you have to You. I already tow with my Prius C what liability is the issue in case.

 

Europe and other markets have different trailer specifications than in the US. An official tow rating for the Prius would be half that of Europe's 750kg, at best.

Well, if you experience any drive train or body damage, Toyota could deny warranty work because you were using the car in a manner they didn't prescribe. Since the manual also has statements against not using hitch mounted bike racks and such, claiming that was the hitch's use won't help.

If you happen to be in an accident while towing, your insurance company could deny coverage for the same reasons.

That monitoring has made ABS, traction control, VSC, torque vectoring, and AWD possible for a majority of ICE cars.

 

A nice taxi too!

Bob Wilson

 

My son uses his Prius v as a taxi for hos Papillon dogs to dog shows & agility trials.
He even got remote start so he can leave the AC on at some outdoor events.

 

It's a fascinating discussion that Joe Rogan and Elon Musk had about this very subject in his near 3 hour interview on Youtube... They even discuss classic cars they drove when they were younger as compared to how a Tesla drives. The same reality applies to almost everything that has both an electronic and mechanical version. Let's drive thru the difference.

You're accelerating on a downhill curved freeway onramp in a "high performance" mechanical car with rear wheel drive and you fishtail and because you're a super skilled former race car driver it takes you a 1/10th of second to register the slide in your brain and your foot changes the accelerator position, which via the linkages changes the the intake of fuel and air, which the engine eventually responds to and sends that energy mechanically thru the drivetrain to the wheels in 3/10th of a second, but more likely longer than that.

Meanwhile you're turning the wheel via mechanical linkages in a countersteering moment to regain traction and you're waiting to feel the force of the countersteer feedback to let you know that you did it enough and not too much, because overcorrecting while fishtailing is the most likely way an inexperienced driver will crash when fishtailing. And then the driver's brain sensing traction again can accelerate harder up to the limit right before fishtailing. A really skilled driver can do all this in 5/10ths of second or less.

But an all wheel drive Tesla can use its sensors & computer programming to control the amount of torque going to each wheel as well as control the steering, as well as adjust tune the suspension on a micro scale and the driver won't even notice the car fishtailing, they'll just keep the car floored (unless they're Tesla is on a track in drift mode) because everything has been handled in a way more precise than any human can do way and it only takes 1/100th of second or less.

 

Okay, you've illustrated a fair comparison between a modern Tesla and a 'classic car driven by Rogan/Musk when they were younger.'

Now let's compare it to something that isn't a classic, and isn't even unusual: I'll nominate a 2001 Subaru Outback wagon (AWD/3.0L). I don't own one, nor have I ever, but I'm pretty familiar with them as I have owned a few similar cars.

These aren't new. Deliveries in the USA began in the summer of 2000, so some are old enough to vote, despite not being old enough to register as classics. These cars included the Bosch-sourced vehicle dynamics control, which combined the output of networked sensors all over the car to detect, counter and prevent loss-of-control situations. It is capable of making hundreds of assessments per second to react in real time.

The car is capable of modifying torque delivered to each of the four wheels, and take authority over the master throttle if needed.

The fundamental difference between this system and the modern Tesla is that the old Bosch/Subaru design always dumps excess energy (torque) to the friction brakes where the Tesla has the ability to prevent the energy from being used by the motor in the first place. Tesla does deserve recognition for coming up with a less wasteful variation on the technology.

This sort of system isn't even rare- Bosch has been selling one variant or another to other car manufacturers for at least two decades now. It gets branded as 'electronic stability control' and other names. These days it is hard to find a car without this stuff baked in.

So on the one hand- yes I think they've made a valid comparison between today's Tesla and random 1970s-1980s cars, but you'd have to ignore an enormous amount of technological development and progress to make the same claim against 21st century cars.

 

Well, yes... There are many different designs... Such as my tree planting days when we stood up in the back of the truckbed and held on for our life as we go flying thru a mud puddle in the lowest granny gear hoping to get enough speed that we'd make it up the hill on the other side of the puddle without all 4 tires spinning to the point the truck stops and we have to back down the hill and try again with more speed. Add to this that the forester who hired us was more interested in protecting his road system than us getting stuck so we'd have OEM tires with smallest footprint. As in each use requires a different design.

Your example of a Subaru, is a great design for drivers who don't need a huge amount of power under the hood, but want to safely have traction in mountainous winter driving conditions.

Hopefully when the Tesla truck comes out the mud roads of my treeplanting days will be addressed with a specific driving mode to provide industry leading traction control that doesn't tear up the dirt roads that need to be protected to help the Salmon from going extinct.