2022 Consumer Reports Prius Prime mentions

Is it a comparison of a 5 year old car to a new one, or a comparison of first year issues for the 5 year old car to a 1 year old car? I never actually looked into CR's methodology for that.

The important bit is that CR doesn't directly test a car's reliability. Unless they keep cars for extended periods like some other auto magazines. They use responses from surveys of their members for it.

You can't claim the others were ignoring cabin heat efficiency. Heat pumps cost more than an air conditioner, even when not considering differences in market size. ICE cars don't need them, so how many automotive heat pump suppliers were there for EV makers to choose from. At a time when batteries cost much more than they do now. A heat pump does nothing for someone in the American south, why make them pay for it when the company does source one for their model? The biggest CARB state also has mild winters.

All car companies bundle desirable features into packages for better profit. It wasn't that long ago when you could only get TSS in the higher trims of the Prius, and you still can't get a hybrid Rav4 without AWD in the US. Somebody who needs a heat pump for efficiency in an Ioniq 5 likely lives in an area where AWD for snow makes sense. AWD and winter is why the Prius with E-four uses a NiMH pack.

But kudos to Toyota for making a heat pump standard in the second generation Prius PHEV, after costs have dropped some. If they had put out an EV with one sooner, those costs would have dropped faster. Too bad we had to wait through two PHEV models for a BEV that actually needs a heat pump for efficiency.

Improved compared to who, the PiP? Nissan put in a battery heat system with the second model year of the Leaf. The Volt had a liquid thermal system for the pack from the beginning, which could heat it into efficient charging operation ranges, not just above the danger zone of freezing. The PP's and Leaf's system is a fix to a limitation of air cooling the pack.

This is nifty.

My Camry has a button to direct air output to my feet. I am pretty sure our cars with autoclimate directed more air to the foot wells when heating.

Could have been better than the Prius if they hadn't let style get in the way of the Prime's front end.

 

I didn't.

That "they chose not to" means the opposite.

Lower price meant trading efficiency.