PriusChat Gets a First Drive in the Prius PHV Tomorrow - Questions?

I can answer one of the questions here - this will not be offered as an upgrade to the current G3. Toyota has said this already. The changes are too great.

I have 2 questions:

1. If the car is cold and you have a full charge will the car start in EV mode and just stay in it providing you keep under 60mph? Or does it have to warm the engine? This is a big issue for colder climates.

2. In EV mode will the car accelerate enough to keep up with normal traffic. Currently the EV mode will not allow this.

Thanks and enjoy the drive!

I'd also like to see better cold management - e.g. a movable flap to block the radiator to help the engine warm up and keep it warm. A sophisticated car like this should do this.

 

I imagine the car having to warm the ICE like in the non-plug-in version, in the first 4 or 5 minutes, before it does its electric vehicle mode thing, and having to keep the coolant temp above 70 degrees C. That is the death of getting high mileage in my Prius.

So my question is, does the car begin its cold start to the day by using fuel until the ICE is warm-do you begin with that big (Canada) or little (US) bar like in the regular Prius?

 

Price and availability date. For the price, it would be helpful to know what options the price includes (Nav, roof, etc.).

Are you allowed to take any photos of the battery pack?

Is this the final production version that you'll be driving?

If available, will the solar roof provide at least a little standalone charging of the battery?

How much heavier is the plug-in version over the standard version Prius? If at all

Any performance stats comparing the plug-in to the standard Prius - such as 0 to 60 times?

Will a tax credit apply to the plug-in Prius? If so - how much?

Will Toyota take early deposits directly from buyers to reserve a plug-in Prius?

Will there Toyota be taking a few plug-in Priuses on the road for the rest of us to test drive before they're at the Toyota dealerships?

Enough questions

 

Hi Paradox, your image sizes are crazy rediculous overkill for a forum. You should resize them if possible.

See attachments.

 

People seemed to have asked these already but:

1) Will it have an integrated engine block heater as well as cabin pre-heating for better cold-weather (actually almost any-weather) performance?
2) Will it use GPS data or at least allow the driver to a travel distance to make best use of a plug-in/HEV driving mix?

 

Will the emission rating be PZEV or ZEV?

 

mark, don tknow for sure, but guessing that while plugged in, you may have the option to enable other things like EBH, etc. which greatly reduces warmup time.

my only question is probably one that cannot be answered by personal experience (unless they let u have it for the day!!) would be simply, how far can u go??

 

All of the above. These are great questions, guys.

How is it on hills? Does it climb easily? Does going uphill reduce its range and does going downhill increase (by regen) its range?

 

Will the oil change interval be the same 10k miles or will it be increased to 15k miles?

 

A few days ago here in Madrid I had a chance to take a close look to a Prius Plug-in Unit from Toyota Spain. I couldnt take a ride but I got some interesting details:

1- No EV Mode swicth (at least in this test unit)
2- Significant trunk size reduction (New Lion battery pack is higher)
3- Toyota staff told me that their first test with this unit they were able to achive
17 EV kms. (Notice new battery use is not limited to 40%-80% charge range)

My english is not very good so sorry for my writting mistakes.

 

• Where the heck are the 17" wheels?

:redface:

 

Thanks, very interesting information.

 

Does it come in more colors? Or only that blue color with prints/logos.

 

Darn. I personally think all those graphics are ugly. Makes the car look like a company car or one of those advertisement-vehicles.

Why they have to do this?