Prius Fizzle

A Prime's range is over 500 miles and the 25 mile traction battery is over 200 lbs.
If you could buy; say a temporary ranging extending battery for 12.5 miles - it would be over 100 lbs. Rough math; and at what cost. Could or would Toyota break even? That additional weight will probably lower your mpg and EV range. Who would be lifting that unit into your trunk? 75 lbs is about my limit. I'd rather pump gas than throw-out my back to save a few pennies.

Just food for though.

 

I am just hoping that Toyota would manufacture enough 2023 Primes so they would be available in our state. Just last week my dealer sent me an email with an offer to upgrade to a 2022 Prime. I replied "Thanks, but no thanks, let me know when you will have this year's model" Of course they ignored my email.

 

Ugh article is too fuzzy, but Prius is a hybrid. Toyota has continued to improve hybrids. Our RAV4HV gets almost as good MPG as our Gen2 Prius did, which is amazing for size of the RAV4 vehicle. Toyota has finally achieved its vision of making hybrid versions of most of their ICE's. That took a long time, but its here.

 

The article was written by a writer who has been getting paid for writing Prius hit pieces for over 2 decades. It was quite predictable.

 

what if you could lift the hatch floor, and swap the gas tank for more battery when needed?

 

That's some nice "out of the box" thinking; but too many lines and hoses. Then there's that pesky EPA regulated EVAP system.

 

Is that the one I see in Port Angeles?

 

Why?? It comes with a gas tank capable of 800 miles of extra range in mixed driving after your PHEV battery is depleted.

What is your DTE after fill-up? | Page 7 | PriusChat

 

No, I am in Silverdale.

 

A Toyota inventory site (https://www.toyota.com/search-inventory) shows me just one, in Port Angeles, unfortunately also a 2022. It has no placeholder for the 2023 yet.

There is a separate Western Washington inventory site (BuyaToyota.com), but it gave me some bad info on a bunch RAV4 Primes all at one particular dealership. All other indications are that there are none in the entire state.

 

This reminds me of a kid pouring out a whole box of cereal to get the toy at the bottom and then asking their parents why they couldn't have just put more toys in the cereal box instead of boring food.


/I know, they don't put toys in kids cereal anymore. Dating myself.
//that kid was me, at least once

 

Ever since companies started making hybrids and EV's there have been a lot of nice ideas, but I don't think most of them are pratical.

Here is my list of practical things they could put in any hybrid, EV or PHEV:

• Spare tire. That way if you run out of air in a tire, you just replace it with another one, even if it's temporary. The last time we called roadside service they took two days to show up. We ended up calling a friend to come pick us up, over an hour away from home, and bringing us back. And the last time we went to get a tire repaired the tire shops in town said they were all backed up and could help us until a week later.
• Tow rating and factory tow hitch. Even if a car were rated to tow no more than 1,000lbs, that's still cheaper than having to own a pickup. Again, during the pandemic we tried to rent a moving van or pickup several times to no avail. I need either a tiny trailer or a pickup or I'm going to be putting furniture on the top of my new Prius Prime or whatever. And I hate those aftermarket hitches that drag along 4 o so inches below the rear of the vehicle.
• Better neutral control. They try to make everything feel like an automatic transmission these days with a slight forward torque every time you let off the brake. One of the reasons I love driving a manual was the ability to hit the clutch and release all torque, very handy for rocking the car out of deep snow, for an example. And EV or hybrid doesn't need a clutch. Just get rid of that idle torque.