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agreed. toyota said as much. if the next gen isn't a paradigm change, prius won't be around long

 

Don't forget it's not USA or Canada - but a world. As at a couple of years ago, sales were well over 4 million PRIUS - with under ½ in America.

PRIUS peaked worldwide about 6 or 7 yrs ago, is still very big in Japan - almost the same (36,120 in first ¼ 2019) as in 2018 (36,459). No - it's not selling well here, just hundreds a year, but TOYOTA still brought in the new styled update model.

 

They did indeed. A mid-cycle refresh. I think they will get all they can out of the tooling and factory investment for this model, then perhaps on to something else. The underlying platform is common with the Corolla, so that may give the Prius a reprieve for a short while.

When consumers can get a RAV4 with 40 mpg, that makes a Prius with 50 mpg a tougher sell.

 

To illustrate - assume 12,000 miles per year driven @ $3/gal

20 mpg - 600 gals - $1,800
30 mpg - 400 gals - $1,200
40 mpg - 300 gals - $900
50 mpg - 240 gals - $720

If you are moving from a 20 mpg vehicle to a RAV 4 hybrid, you are thrilled to save $900 per year. Moving to the Prius for an additional savings of $180 comes with a lot of packaging tradeoffs, not likely to be worth $180/year to the typical car buyer.

Only if the operating cost savings are signficant. If you already get 40 mpg, you need to save a lot of fuel for not much additional money to get people into a PHEV, and BEV's will need to have better range/infrastructure to penetrate the current 40 mpg market.

 

Agree - that's why I got a PRIUS.

I had a FOCUS which had used 5.4l/100 (44USMPG) (real, calc), then a FIESTA which used 4.6 l/100 (51USMPG). There was only one way to go - further down.

A RAV4 would, if similar, give a real 40USMPG - which would be going backwards for a PRIUS driver - but to a 2016 RAV4 driver would be a huge improvement (I have friends with older petrol ones and they use about 10-12l/100 or more). It's all relative.

 

One thing to note - when someone gets a PRIUS, they're more likely to drive accordingly. If you go to FUELLY - the number of people who are tracking mileage on FUELLY is nothing like the proportion of vehicles - PRIUS is far higher represented:

 

Another thing I see in FUELLY - is - do PRIME or PLUG-IN drivers regularly plug in - some obviously do, others, not so sure?
PRIUS:



PLUG-IN:


PRIME:

 

Not necessarily. They may record their mileage on Fuelly, which indicates they are interested in their mileage, but that doesn't necessarily correlate to they drive for maximum economy. My son has a Gen 2 on Fuelly, and he drives it like he stole it.

He may be the outlier - it is logical to assume that most people who buy cars that provide fuel economy want high fuel economy.

 

Your post above (#105) indicates why. If you're only paying $636/yr on a 56.6mpg PRIUS - why not have a bit of fun - it'll only cost an extra couple of MPG - and $50 for the year!!!

(OK - it's a MIRAI in the photo!!)

 

What's interesting is that there are more Tacoma drivers on Fuelly than Prius drivers.

 

This is where Fuelly falls short for PHEV's - they don't have a way to include wall charger inputs. I plug in regularly and also take long trips, so my overall average is 69.8 mpg in 8,000 miles. Around town, almost all EV. On the highway, burning gas the whole way.

 

But wouldn't that still show up - your individual trips like this (but your average would be somewhere in between)? (I can't write with a mouse!!! - LD means Long Distance)

 

Probably because they're horrified when they put in yet another 60 litre$$ of Petrol.

 

I would say yes, but it doesn't accurately show the mpg when running on the gas engine. You can't tell from any of this data if the car is just plugged in a lot, or if the driver is careful.

I have some friends with Tacomas in southern California. They typically take them out into the desert and other rough places, and they don't really care about the fuel economy as long as the vehicle can get them where they want to go. One of them traveled with us and we were in a lifted Jeep - he kept up nicely and his Tacoma was totally filthy at the end of three days. He wasn't caring about his fuel economy - as long as he had enough to get to the next fueling station that was enough. Nothing gets good mileage crawling over rocks and such.

 

Yes, FUELLY is limited - but I guess that's all it is. Someone will come up with something more appropriate as more PHEVs and EVs emerge - petrol is the vastly dominant fuel still (& diesel).

Interestingly, there are some TESLAs on Fuelly - ridiculous figures - I wonder if someone put them in as dummy figures for a laugh?

 

I think I'll start tracking my lawnmower. I should be able to estimate the distance by studying the tire tracks. I'm guessing a 7HP Honda OHV isn't getting spectacular mileage, particularly in tall grass while mulching.

 

There are HONDAs on Fuelly - didn't check to see if there are any stray lawnmowers.

Interesting browsing - there's a



There are some VERRRRY odd things - like a 1992 Jensen Interceptor - about 20 years after Jensen went bust.

 

It isn't a good thing, but it is much better than the two thirds the standard Prius is down.

 

can't argue with that. better than a sharp stick in the eye as well