What features would make you jump ship?

Basic floor mats are considered a option - KaChing (should be standard)
Due to rear window design rear view mirror basically useless (but offers excellent view of back seat head rests)
Styrofoam underneath rear hatch flooring. Can't call it cheap noise insulation since styrofoam doesn't insulate noise. Is this where you put your loose change?
Adjustable front steering wheel (standard). But steering wheel could block dash speedometer. Watch those speeding tickets.
Spray can foam to address future flat tires. But only works if gas station is within five miles of your flat tire.

Other than that I like it, but need to test drive it.

 

Everybody charges for basic floor mats. Have you not looked at a new car before.
Would you rather the jack sliding around in the back? Yeah, styrofoam is cheap, but it is effective at quietly holding the things fitted to it. At least it now has some storage cubbies. The previous gen lost those.
I once fixed a flat with tire slime before it could be pumped it. The repair lasted years. Forgot about it until the wheel balance went. The temporary plugs have been permanent fixes. If there is 5 mile warning for the repair kit, it is most likely there for legal CYA.

The mirror, steering wheel, and dash is going to come down to the individual's preference for seating position.

 

Not sure what your first “KaChing” message had to do with my message… if you don’t want those things, don’t buy the car equipped with them. Or look at another car.

Omission of the spare is likely one or more of cost savings / weight savings / market analysis that not many people complained about it before, so it was omitted. Ironically, adding the spare likely would have added more cost, which also would have made you go “KaChing” again. Of course, having a decent roadside service like AAA for a tow could be an alternative to using the foam.

I really doubt the steering wheel obscuring a tiny bit of the cluster will make it hard to see the speed for most people. Try raising the seat, or lowering the steering wheel for an appropriate position. Even if it did, you could always glance at the massive 12” screen that likely has the speed in the corner of the Navi screen (I know Waze does for sure). Or, you know have a basic grasp of how fast you are moving based on feel, as I am sure most experienced drivers would have an idea of their speed [within a legal range] without needing to necessarily see a number… . Seems you like to find things to complain about…

 

I know this was certainly the case with the earlier pluggable Priuses, but I think the ‘23 Prime will be the first one where buying an L2 may make sense for some people…. Assuming Toyota is putting a ~6.6KWh charger in the car this time around (which IMO they must be), I think an L2 would make sense for some people, if your use pattern is to go out more than once a day on a regular basis.

Since the car will have a ~13KWh battery, this would be a charging difference of 10-12hr charge on level 1, vs ~2hrs on level 2 (the magic number for Toyota, it seems), which is a significant improvement, and may be the difference between acting as a virtual EV, vs a nice hybrid with a party trick of being an EV sometimes, along as you don’t need to go that distance more than once a day. Even in the ~10hr range, they are pushing the limit of whether some people will be able to get a full charge overnight to work the next morning, if they were out the evening before.

Even though my 1st Gen PiP has a tiny battery, it is nice being able to charge it up in 70 minutes on level 2 and use what it does have. I have charged it 3 and 4 times in one day before, if I had a busy day of several short trips around home.

On this note, has anyone seen any confirmation of the charger size in the new Prime?

 

Fob gloves—if 2023 Prius Prime does not come with fob gloves, I won't get it and have my deposit refunded.

I am curious to find out what will be the EV range I will get with my 2023 Prius Prime SE. My three-leg trip is 46 miles. If I can't squeeze 46 EV miles on mostly freeway driving, it will be very bad. I can hardly squeeze about 29 mostly freeway miles with my 2021 Prius Prime Limited—they are EPA-rated 40 and 25 miles, respectively; so, it is cutting very close. They should have put a slightly bigger battery.

 

Talking Prime plug-in (but also EV) if you fully charge a battery and then say unplug charging cable - does fully charged battery slowly losing its charge over time? Now this would be while vehicle in sitting in someone's garage.

On one hand I would not want to overcharge a battery (might not be the case with plug-ins/EV) and on the other if vehicle was unplugged for one or two days I wonder how much battery drain there might be.

Thoughts

 

No, it won't lose much charge in a few days. However, storing an EV with a fully charged battery is one of the worst things you can do to the battery. The battery should only be charged immediately before the car is driven, and the ideal storage charge is about 30–40%. You should never store it with more than 60% charge, even overnight.

 

Gokhan - appreciate response but I don't want to turn simple act of charging a vehicle's battery into a chemistry experiment. I'm also new to the rules of sbattery charging game.

So say you take your new Prime out for a drive and drain battery or use up 90% of charge. With a 110 volt outlet I'd think you can hook the car up when back in garage and if left sitting, you could unplug the next day before using again. With no worries short or long term regarding impact on battery performace. Now I would have to review how long it takes to charge an "empty" Prime battery but assuming with 110 outlet it might take 8 to 10 hours. Just guessing here. So taken from your previous post, you're saying when Prime is idle in garage I should not hook up charge cable until say 10 to 11 pm at night? And then remove cable early the next day? That actually could be 9 or 10 hours of charging depending how long I sleep and can make coffee.

I'm all for following the correct way to do something, but hate to think I have to spend more then five minutes trying to figure out right time to fully charge a Prime plug-in battery. With that said Gokhan - I hope you're aware there are many owners of plug-in vehicles that don't even get the benefit of battery power since they don't recharge very often or completely forget to do so.

 

The individual specifics also needs to be considered in the question of whether a Level 2 charger is needed or not. If the daily use is only using half the EV range, daily charging is only going to be about half the time of charging to full.

On paper. Never seen a new car without floor mats. I suspect they get tossed into the trunk before arriving at the dealer.

The gen2 Volt was around 13hrs at level 1. The new Prime should be shorter than these.

All batteries self discharge. NiMH is probably the worse in this metric. Li-ion is one of the best, though the protection circuit adds a drain. The car's always on accessories could add a drain, but that depends on the car's 12V battery management. In Tesla's, the accessories reduce the range of an unplugged car. In some others, they kill the 12V.

This discharging won't be noticed in a car that is being used. Maybe if left unplugged for a week, but likely will take longer to see a range loss.

The battery can't be overcharged. The battery management system won't allow it. The battery isn't even charged to 100%. A 'full' dash display just means the battery is charged to the max limit set by the engineers. Now, being charged to full, and parked in a hot garage in the likes of Phoenix, AZ could push the battery into an overcharged condition. Which is why Toyota says to store the car 'uncharged'. It would be better for storage to have the battery at 30% to 40%, but Toyota didn't provide the means of charging the current Prime to that point.

 

Gv

That's why there is the charge-schedule feature on the car, and you should use it if you need to charge it overnight.

 

Explain charge-schedule feature. I assume the Prime has no idea if someone is charging battery with 110 volt or 120 volt connection. So the time factor (charging wise) is going to vary between power outlet used. I'm in the camp who is not going to be driving every day and if I buy the Plug-in I'd like to think I could run some errands around town - driving 30 to 40 miles and then come home and re-charge battery. To then disconnect a day or two later to do another 30 to 40 miles around town.

So vehicle in garage with full charge. Drive and come close to draining battery. Return home, park in garage and recharge. To then repeat.

Could be wrong but your "standard driver" is not going to be concerned what percentage charge a battery has left. Drivers are going to want to charge battery when returning home from a drive. Short drive 30 miles or long drive. Drivers also won't want to disconnect their cable charge connection until they are going out for another drive. Be it a couple hours later, the next day or a few days later. I'm all for following instructions to make a device (or in the case a battery) last longer buy most people will care less.

 

Thanks Tideland and to all above. There is definitely a thinking process here that I can adapt to regarding battery operation. Of course in reality I'm not sure how many have to time to apply/program in a "charge schedule" around car usage and charging times. I'm all for weaning off fossils fuels, saving the planet and cutting off money to oil suppliers. Yet when you through in dashboard touch screens, battery charging instructions, no spare tire, it all seems to complicate things.

Starting to wonder (overall) what easier to charge. Ans EV or a Plug-in Hybrid? I'm thinking the Plug-in because battery is smaller but then again drivers will drain a 40 mile battery limit way faster then a 400 mile battery. Needless to say it sounds like when you leave home with a fully charged battery (95% to 98%) upon return you don't want to recharge unless battery is below 30% - 40%. Got no problem with that.

But I'd love to read in a year or so how many Prime owners drive off every morning on strictly gasoline power versus those who re-charge on regular basis and take advantage of all battery power.

 

TLDR: Availability and Ground Clearance

I've had 3 Priuses: 2005, 2010 and current 2016. In 2017 I moved into a house on a hill and I find that my Prius scrapes the bottom every time I pull into or out of the driveway. So I would like a little more ground clearance. I've been cross shopping Rav4 Hybrid, Sportage Hybrid and since the new tax credit came out, Bolt EUV. I can't get any of these in North Carolina without a huge wait time or premium. My 2016 is running fine so I can wait, I just badly don't want to. I would also consider a Corolla Cross Hybrid, I test drove a gas version, but it's way too under powered and loud.

 

Charge schedule is a timer, in which you can specify the days and times. You set the timer so that the car is charged immediately before it is driven, minimizing battery degradation by not leaving the car fully charged overnight.

 

Hi Sue,

You don’t need to stress too much about babying the battery - Toyota hybrids do a great job of managing and protecting itself. If it sits at a high or low charge for a few hours (or overnight, etc) on occasion, it won’t hurt anything. Just best not to make a habit of it, or if you are leaving the car parked an extended time like a week to go on vacation or whatever, best to not leave it “fully” charged or plugged in. But don’t stress even if you do.

Also, there should be lots of stories / data on earlier Prime owners who don’t use the plug capability and drive it as a hybrid, don’t need to wait for the new one to build history, but will probably be be similar (and worse in areas with larger incentives of HOV access, as that can be driver for people to only get the vehicle for those reasons…)

Cheers.

 

as these batteries get bigger and bigger, charge management becomes more difficult. especially for people who make different length drives.
i think with the new prime, i would just plug it in and leave it fully charged all the time, unless i was going away for awhile.
there's something on the existing prime saying not to leave it plugged in because it will drain the 12 volt.
hopefully, that's been fixed.

 

https://exploretoyota.com/rav4/inventory will give you the 100 mile radius availability for the next few weeks in the SET area.

 

Yes, you do! Even a 10% drop in the EV range is a huge deal when you already have a very limited EV range. It does not matter for a Tesla to lose 20% of its plentiful EV range, but it does for the Prius Prime with its meager EV range.

Avoid storing the car with a charge above 60%, and avoid rapid acceleration/deceleration in the EV mode to preserve the capacity of the PHEV battery.