New generation Prime

It's not just when, it's if. Toyota has been absolutely silent about any next gen Prius.

As far as standard Prius vs Corolla, it comes down to whether you want a hatchback or not.

 

Toyota is always silent with Prius, so nothing new in that regard.

It's quite reasonable for the next to lead the rest of the fleet forward.

An obvious opportunity would be to only offer Prius as a plug-in.

 

A lot of people like both of them. If I was gonna buy another prime though, I'd probably opt for the rav4. But if you are going for maximum gas mileage then the current 2020-2021 prius prime is a good choice as long as you have a place to plug it in. I plug mine in with level 1 at home and at work. I found adding a couple of air tabs in the back really helps the cross winds and nets me a higher highway fuel average than I've seen anyone else report especially at the speed of traffic on the interstate. The cross comparison vehicle is the Hyundai Ioniq plug in hybrid which I think is only available in CA. Ioniq makes a hybrid but to get the features like adaptive cruise lane assist you have to step up a bit in the model range.

Though, if cross shopping the corolla I've noted that a number of Corolla hybrid owners have been very happy with their cars. Notably, they like having a normal dashboard setup.

I'd say if you can plug it in via extension cord or similar somewhere get the prime it's good for 25-35 miles on the battery. If you can't plug it in, get the Corolla a lot of their buyers have been rather ecstatic about ownership especially having a trunk and a Normal dash.

 

How did you determine where to place the air tabs?

 

As well as the angle as the ones in the pic look slightly slanted.

 

typically, a model gen is 6 years. so the next prime would be 2023, arriving fall of 2022.

but the pip was only 4 years, then they skipped a year, so who knows?

i doubt they will increase the battery size, but you might get some reange improvements with new battery chemistry.
25 miles seems to be the sweet spot for most people.

 

What we have seen with evolution of the technology, the market, and the fleet itself indicates the opposite.

 

not sure what that means, but there's no room for a larger battery

 

I followed as close to the TRD Prius as I could from pictures which if you look around you can also see has a slant on the first two. The TRD had an angle, so I pretty much tried to emulate the angle a little bit as close to the satellite antenna as possible. I used the centerpoint of the curve there as my reference then I measured a distance to top and bottom of each one from the center of the antenna. I figured if I matched the antenna or slightly less I would be pretty close.

I didn't want to place them on the paint, so I used the plastic piece below them spacing them at an angle just outside the antenna. Using the bubble of the rear window shape I figured I'd net benefits from building out the air tabs the direction I took. Initially I was worried about the carwash knocking them off. But I've gone through 8 or 9 times thus far without any issues.

Here is a better picture of the effect, you can see how the dust settle's pushing the air straight down the back.

 

If and when the new-generation Prius Prime comes to the market, I suspect Toyota will be out of the BEV/PHEV tax credit incentives. So, I will not be considering the purchase then. My next upgrade is likely to be either Rav4 PRIME or LEAF Plus, but I may just trade in my current 2020 PP to 2021 PP for profit... Just maybe.

 

Prius is more efficient and a hatchback. Wrong question though. The reason to buy a Prime instead of another Toyota hybrid:
$4500 Federal Tax Credit
$#### utility rebate (ours was $1000 last year)
$#### CA rebate (ours was $1500 last year)
those usually make a Prime (or other PHEV) a much better purchase than just a hybrid.

 

An opportunity to put another nail in the coffin?

 

GM did this during the first generation of the Volt. We are talking half to one kWh to a pack that started at 16kWh. It extended to 35 mile range by 3 miles. The gen2 have 3.4kW added to the battery, but it also got efficiency improvements that helped increase range. of course, the Volt had liquid cooling, that allows you to stuff more battery in a given space than when using air cooling.

I'd expect Toyota to focus on making the battery take up less space from the cabin and cargo area before increasing range in a next gen Prius Prime.

 

see post #7

 

Yes, as well as a combination of other options. They could reshape the pack to take advantage of the extra room in the hatch area. They could raise the floor like we have already seen for other Toyota vehicles.

 

they could add a battery on the roof

 

but what about all the people who didn't buy a prime because of cargo capacity? toyota has to weigh both sides of the equation, plus costs.