Featured Tested: 2022 Toyota Prius Prime's Time Has Come and Gone

I noticed the article didn't include an MPGe reference. Car and Driver probably don't know exactly what it is yet, like most americans, Still. And if car and driver does know what MPGe is and didn't include it for some reason or another, one has to just wonder why ... Too much petal to the metal girls and boys? even 22 years later !

 

A fair review that explains why we traded our 2017 Prius Prime for a 2019 Tesla Model 3 Standard Range Plus:
2021 Tesla Model 3 Review, Pricing, and Specs

Among the more affordable options in the electric-vehicle marketplace, the 2021 Tesla Model 3 is, without doubt, the one with the most name recognition. It also earns a spot on our Editors' Choice list. It borrows some styling cues from the company's Model S sedan and Model X SUV, but goes its own way with a unique interior design and an all-glass roof. Acceleration is quick, and the Model 3's chassis is playful as well—especially the Performance model's, which receives a sportier suspension and a track driving mode. But EV buyers are more likely interested in driving range than speediness or handling, and the Model 3 delivers there too. The base model offers up to 263 miles of driving range according to the EPA, and the more expensive Long Range model can go up to 353 per charge.
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Bob Wilson

 

Guess were all gonna have to wait an see if and how Toyota follows up on it's last 22 years for Prius. 22 years have come and gone. Looks like some think they may have gone for good to bad.

 

Had to pop-the-hood (aka frunk) on a Tesla 3 a few days back. One youtube video later, I was navigating through the touch screen, to the car-picture and hood release.

 

In November 2001, the Prius was great but the architecture frozen. Had the Prius Prime had a similar EV range, 72 mi, to our 2014 BMW i3-REx we might have kept the Prime. But the EV range was too short, (25-20) / 20 ~= 20%, where 20 miles was my work commute distance.

Bob Wilson

 

A great example of a dummy editor who is writing the headline without even reading the article... There's a special place in hell for people too stupid to write articles, so instead they're put in charge of thinking up click-bait headlines for the articles other people write.

 

Perhaps the author meant a Prius Prime with 20-ish ev miles "time has come". Once you realize you can drive for maybe ⅓ the cost on electrons, it's hard not to want to drive for a longer distance on the cheap. Especially if you can drive on PV solar. Panels can literally make driving most of the time "free fuel". The Next Generation Prius? It's just around the corner, so this 'death' claim may be premature - if the Prius jacks up the EV range closer to what the Chevy Volt range had (before it was killed off in the USA). Prius Prime with over 50mpg? Batteries keep getting cheaper per kWh/Lb so it's possible. Wouldn't it be great to have a prime with over 50 miles electric? More power - better handling? AWD? Don't count it out just yet.
.

 

I guess it all comes down to what your priorities/needs are in a car. How you balance cost and what the car provides in features, range, performance, comfort. What your expected use is. Even how many and how big your passengers are expected to be. Do you have another car or truck for the exceptions. How close to a service center or repair facility/dealer you want to be. What you want the human interface to be like. How adverse you are to change. Are you in a situation where you can install a charger. Will you be.

My wife bought a loaded Avalon hybrid for $55k less than the price of a model S. I bought a Rav4 hybrid loaded for $23k less than a Model Y (and a delivery time measured in weeks and not years). Son bought a used Prius Prime and gets on the order of 75 MPG in his daily commute to work. His wife bought a used Prius v for shuttling the kids and local golf outings. They charge their Prime partially with solar. We all keep them 8 to 10 years and up to over 200k miles.

2 of the 3 golf buddies have bought hybrids within the last month. One an Accord, the other a Rav4.

Would I trade my Rav4 for a Model Y even up no wait? Yes. Would I pay the difference? No. Would my wife? No and no.

Not everyone would or should make the same choices. My choices are not superior to yours; they are just my choices.

 

why do i feel like the author is stuck in the 60's

 

I leaned about the research being done concerning multi layers of thin film using different (spectral wavelength) absorbing layers combined into thin film. It was interesting and the researcher describing the potential gains was clever enough to reduce the estimate down to 40% efficiency in the near future (close to the end of the presentation), considering current cost to efficiency ratios.
Solar 3.0
youtu.be/tQmFVcD-Mbo

lots more info available using some form of multi layer thin film solar research

 

If it won't win at Daytona, it's a hunk of junk. That seems to be the Car & Driver attitude.

 

Yet - very little of Daytona race vehicles relate to what we drive on the road. Noisy, single seaters.

 

I take the author's point to be that if you look at it as a Corolla PHEV, it is already everything it needs to be. No need for the retro-future design elements or Prius branding.

They just really wanted to use the come & gone line and didn't care that it was an awkward fit.

And stepping back, I don't think the PHEV idea will have fully arrived at Toyota until they have coverage from hatchback to minivan and everything in between.

 

They have been doing that for over 20 years. In fact, that is the "Know your audience" origin story. Enthusiast magazines thrived on what made Prius stand out. Absence on performance, with emphasis toward delivering an affordable emissions & efficiency choice, was their ideal... an antithesis to their mission. Each time Prius reaches the end of it cycle (whatever makes it stand out), they write about its demise. Following that, Toyota ends up reinvented Prius. It's like the Phoenix rising from the ashes.

This is what the media does. What Toyota does is stay focused on their own mission. Prius will very likely stay true to its ability to expand reach, getting those not paying attention to take notice. Its core purpose was to spread the technology, not to be a sales leader. That's why it was so easy for the Highlander & Camry hybrids to take a position at dealers. Prius became that soldier who survived even the most brutal attacks, showing their was something worthy about its engineering.

I suspect Prius will be reborn later with some rather impressive new engineering, a means of reaching audiences the likes of its supposedly competition... those who this magazine caters to... couldn't care less about. Notice how the article is focused entirely on a perspective of the United States? My trip to Tanzania last June provided a strong understanding of what completely different markets Toyota serves face when it comes to infrastructure challenges.

In other words, we will see some type of affordable plug-in hybrid emerge there and thrive based upon the path Prius has taken. What it is called and whether or not the United States gets it doesn't matter. The practical & affordable nature of the engineering and its rock-solid reliability reputation will live long and prosper.

 

45 MPGe? Yet another author/salesman that doesn't understand MPGe. Author probably upset he didn't draw the Tesla Plaid or latest Ferrari.

 

Penurious powertrain? Had to look that word up. Made me laugh

 

Considering what the majority of miles on cars are from, they might as well be single seaters.

With the Rav4 PHEV, they have finally stopped half assing PHEVs

 

Definitely a full-assed effort, no disagreement there. Now I want to see it in the Camry, Corolla Hatch (or whatever their smallest is) and the Sienna bus.

Pickup wouldn't hurt either.

Time to go wide with that powertrain!

From a manufacturing standpoint, they should be lauded for coming up with a PHEV system that can be scaled into a $25k car or a >300hp SUV. That's a lot of flexibility, something for the stockholders to cheer about.

 

It's got a spare IIRC?

From the article, I mostly agree with:

"The Prime is marketed as a separate model from the regular Prius, and in addition to its modified powertrain, it has slightly different—but equally bizarre—exterior styling. Back when Toyota was designing the Prime, it evidently was taken with the idea that a key element behind the Prius's popularity was its outside-the-mainstream appearance. So, this version ventured even further afield, adding new creases to the Prius's peaked profile, introducing a double-bubble roofline, and bracketing the lower air intake with huge vertical fog lights."

"The oddities continue inside. The digital instrumentation is offset in the center of the dash outside the driver's normal line of sight, and the shallow screen doesn't offer much in the way of customization. A head-up display that's directly in front of the driver compensates for the weird placement of the instrument cluster, but it's exclusive to the Limited trim. The shifter is like that of the regular Prius, a stubby little lever that moves through an unusual double-J pattern. Physical knobs and buttons are mostly banished. Instead, nearly all controls are unintuitive capacitive touchpoints, even for audio volume and temperature adjustment."

"Despite the bigger screen's large amount of available real estate, most of its touchpoints are tiny, making it tough to hit your target on the first try—and certainly not without taking your eyes off the road. Performing some simple tasks, such as adjusting the fan speed, takes multiple screen taps."

Ergonomic climate controls, that you can adjust easily, without taking eyes off the road? Maybe that ship has sailed: there's a new gen of car buyers out there, that are actually impressed by the touch-screens.

To be fair, Toyota is not alone, in this touch-screen love affair. Still, I can see one factor driving this trend: $'s...