Featured 2023 Prius Prime PHEV debuts with 220-hp engine and 40-mile EV range

All this advocacy for slow AC charging and no fast DC has worked. My curiosity matches the AC and DC charging rates.

Bob Wilson

 

IMHO, unless the price of rodium, palladium, and platinum falls back to normal, a cat stolen may mean much more than something occasional like a drilled gas tank to steal petrol or a shattered glass to steal a jacket, because it's deliberate and methodical. Yes, you can mount a shield, even an alarm with tilt sensor, yet they give you no guarantees, just mild deterrents.

I'll take as example my case. Relatively small city, found the cat was stolen in my job's parking lot. It was too late to call the insurance guy so no free towing that night, had to ask a lift from a family member to get back home. In the about 2-6 weeks in which you're stranded, you can shell out 3K to replace it with OEM, which is the only one that guarantees you will pass the mandatory emission tests. Or, you may buy one from China for cheap and have it soldered, knowing the next fumes check day is the deadline for your car. Or, you can find a good non-OEM maybe and have it soldered for half the OEM price, and your best chance of passing emission tests is crossing your fingers and hope the lower amount of rare earth metals inside will still be enough to keep emissions below the law thresholds. Maybe make a hour-long trip on the motorway with the engine constantly on to get the cat well hot before going in for the tests, it will maximise its efficacy. Except you probably won't reach that day, because in x seconds your new cat can be stolen again from your job's parking lot or wherever. Repeat the loop ad infinitum.

So for me, until those prices come consistently back to earth, cars with a palatable cat are a no-purchase from the start.

 

Level 1 and Level 2 use the same onboard charger. Level 1 is mostly limited by the outlet supply, but faster than 3.3kW charger can lead to improvement. The gen2 Volt went faster to keep Level 1 charging time around that of the gen1.

In Level 2, the limit is the onboard charger. The current Prime can't make full use of a 40 amp EVSE.

Has Toyota released details on the charger or charge time, cause none of the reports I've read mention it? Except for the quote of no time released yet that I quoted earlier.

Which is my point. The Rav4 Prime with larger battery can have always benefited from a faster charger, yet Toyota chose to equip it with slower for the US market. Maybe the new Prime will have a faster charger, or maybe Toyota will decide that it getting a full charge at Level 1 in 8 hours is good enough.

So, is Toyota not putting fast DC charging into the Japanese Prime?

 

After 86,000 miles over three years, the 8% battery degradation matches my expectations.

By the time I’m ready for my next Tesla there will be better batteries, more efficient, and lower cost inflation adjusted. After all, it is a 2019 Tesla Model 3 Std Rng.

So there are no changes in the 2017 Prius Prime we traded in for the Tesla?

Bob Wilson

 

Let's hope not. If SOME want/need faster charge speed / they are off put if they can't get it. If you don't need it but get it anyway? Good for resale for those looking for it!
.

 

Not a typo, I understand the more recent Prime may have improved. The same is true with Teslas. Most adults expect product improvement. For example the Prime greater EV range. Yet our 2014 BMW i3-REx has more EV range, 30 A L2 charging and CCS-1 fast DC charging. The Prime still trails our 2014 BMW and not even in the same class as our 2019 Tesla Model 3.

No problem as our Tesla is working as expected. In another ~15,000 miles, the last warranty will expire. So I’ll drive it until the wheels fall off. Or is that someone else’s EV.

Our first Prius achieved 175,000 miles before the brake booster failed. Located between the firewall and engine while wrapped by the air conditioning tubes, it was impractical to repair.

Bob Wilson

 

Where are you getting those figures?

KBB trade in value outside Philly for a 2019 with 60k miles in very good condition:
Prius Prime Advanced; $24,821 - $27, 205
Model 3 SR+; $27,171 - $30,551

 

Good points.

Agree those are options, but the Corolla Cross Hybrid seems a step in the wrong direction for taxi fleets (at least in terms of climate impact), as the MPG is estimated (no EPA mileage as far as I know) at 37 combined. The Camry LE Hybrid would be closer to staying even, but I don't see them in taxi fleets. I see Prii (although the plural is Priora, but that seems to be the common plural used). Arguably most in my area are Gen3 with some Vs, and few Gen4s, so maybe the the days were already ending for the Prius as a key part of taxi fleets).

 

One of the issues facing Toyota on this is that touting "And Now Harder to Steal Our Car's XXX!" is probably on the Marketing 101 list of "Things to NEVER Tout in Your Marketing Material!" somewhere down the list from "Now With XX% Fewer Fatalities!"

You can picture the development team meeting after the engineers present the their great new idea on making it harder to steal the CAT and are surprised when they are told by marketing: "that was a great job folks, now we'll never speak of it again."

 

Just curious:

One kWh gives 4-5 miles.

Bob Wilson

 

We had a bunch of thieves steal cat converters from Hondas close to where I work. It's not just Toyota. Basically, anything that uses palladium, rhodium, and/or platinum is a theft target because of the bullion/precious metals market.

 

I'm betting like all the generations before it, if you don't want metallic you get black, red, or blue. I'm also willing to wager a small amount that Toyota's going to ditch the LE or equivalent and try and capitalize on people being forced to pay extreme prices these days.

Some thieves stole so many catalytic converters from one of our lots that they stole TWO trucks to transport the stolen catalytic converters.

"Around town" in any metro area easily exceeds 40 miles, usually more than 40 miles in any one direction. I run out of charge every single day that I've owned a Prius.

 

can i find a 5 year old model 3 for 10k?

 

wait so $40,000 depreciation in two years or five years? either way that seems off, i’d have a used tesla or similar by now