"It's the year 2014, and the brand-new Prius plug-in is sweeping the nation. Thanks to its new Lithium-Ion battery, gas mileage has soared to 100 mpg, and Toyota is selling them as fast as they are rolling off assembly lines. People are lining up to trade in their "old" 2010 (and 2011, etc.) Priuses, which get a paltry 50 mpg, for the new model, but dealers are lowballing the trade-in allowances because nobody wants to buy a used Prius that gets half the mileage of a new one. Film at 11..." The above scenario illustrates part of the dilemma I am wrestling with as I decide on my upcoming car purchase. From what I read, 2012 will be the "Year of the Plug-In Prius" with LiO battery. With the Chevy Volt coming out this fall/winter, I'll bet Toyota is working overtime to follow suit. So, should I buy a car that may become "extinct" in just a few years, or wait a little while longer? A complicating factor is that the lease on my present car is up in December, so I have to buy a car by then. My options are to 1): Buy the leased car, 2): Buy a non-hybrid, e.g., Subaru, or 3): Buy a 2011 Prius "dinosaur" car. Then...five or so years down the road, buy a plug-in, hoping I don't get hosed on the trade in. Thoughts?
If you can wait, then wait. But, in the meantime, i am saving money on my Prius with every mile, while you are not. Tough call.
If you are afraid that the 2011 Prius will be a dinosaur in 2014, why are non-hybrids even on your radar screen a decade after Prius and Insight turned them into dinosaurs? That should give you an answer right there. Li-Ion batteries alone cannot boost Prius to anywhere near 100 mpg without the fakery the puts Volt at 230 mpg and Trinity AFS at 150 mpg. Plenty of us are not in the market for PHEVs, so I don't believe non-PHEV Prius prices will collapse anywhere near as badly as you fear.
Well - what is the PlugIn going to cost? I don't think it'll be the same price as a 2010... I placed my order on a Gen 3 weeks ago delivery october
They must be getting their electricity for free to make such claims, we know they couldn't be unethical . My VW diesel got infinite gas mileage because it didn't use gasoline. Not all that different a claim.
I had no choice. My car of ten years old was t-boned. I thought the Prius was the best car I looked at that might still have some value in ten years. I live 60 miles from Kansas City where I frequently go. The Prius still gives my the range I need.
"They" did not make such claims, so far as I know, that is the OP's fantasy. The PlugIn will be limited by how many Lithium batteries they can make, so even if everyone on earth wants one, they can only make so many. The current Prius uses Nickel, so will not be limited by the same bottleneck. Besides if you get a Prius now you can be hand crafting a set of Priorus name plates. :bolt:
Well let's look at the facts: Your first two proposals are non-sense. A non-hybrid car, the one currently being driven or a Subaru are never going to be a "plug-in." So the fear about the plug-in and the 2011 Prius is a non-starter. You have another option, buy a plug-in Prius today. Contact AutoBeYours and get a rebuilt, salvage title Prius with a plug-in kit already added. I see his web page shows a 2008, leather loaded with plug-in kit, $22,995. This is about the MSRP price of the lowest cost, ZVW30 Prius. Bob Wilson
Trade-in prices aren't notably depressed on Gen 1 and Gen 2 Prius after the release of the third-generation. Right now, plug-ins only suit people who have a garage to park their car in overnight, or a private driveway, with a high-voltage electrical supply. Those of us who can't guarantee a particular space will have to wait until road-side charging bays become ubiquitous for all residents' parking areas. (I can't even guarantee parking on my own street, sometimes I have to park around the corner.) It's also going to take the companies time to ramp up to deliver the battery packs. Primearth EV Energy Co, Toyota's supplier (and joint-venture with Panasonic Corporation) has only just announced delivering its 3,000,000th pack after 13 years! I really don't see that the charge-sustaining hybrid is short-lived.
If you think a 50 MPG could become extinct overnight like that, imagine what it would mean for all those people who just purchased a car believing 30 MPG is really efficient. .
I also think the new plug-in version is going to be $3000 to $4000 more expensive, and not everybody has an outlet right next to the cars parking space. But I asked myself the same question: will I be able to sell my 2010 prius when EV or plug-ins are available?? I already looked into those conversion kits from Enginer or Hymotion, but for right now those systems are still pretty expensive or not very reliable. I hope prices come down soon! So in about 2-3 years I will decide what makes more sense, trading in the 2010 prius or getting a plug-in conversion kit.
Prius dinosaur = Priusaurus I look forward to the day that 100mpg vehicles are extinct. But that would mean living until I'm 150, so I probably won't be around.
This is a rehash topic ... comes up every couple years ... at which point my comment is that some will never buy a digital camera, a PC, an HD TV, a blue ray disk player etc ... all because "It'll be out dated in a couple years". So . . . while you wait for progress to slow down to a crawl, carry on, with your rotary dial phone ... vacume tube radio & the Victerola phonograph.
Production of the non-plug Prius will continue for many years to come, for reasons just like that. It will at some point switch from NiMH to Li-Ion. So, there will be a small MPG bump even without a plug. But efficiency improvements as years pass are expected anyway. .
Yep. To top it off, since the OP mentioned Subaru, per Power Search, they don't even have any vehicles that get >=30 mpg combined on the EPA test. The highest I see is 26 mpg combined vs. the 50 mpg combined for the 3rd gen Prius. If the OP's so concerned about having a "dinosaur" (ha), how about a used 2nd gen (04 to 09 model year) or 3rd gen? Let someone else take the depreciation hit. He's in NJ, so vehicles that were sold and remained in NJ or other CARB states will have the 10 year/150K mile HV battery warranty. The OP's leased car and non-hybrids are already "dinosaurs"
Weigh out the warranty of the traction battery and it's replacement cost on the regular and Plug-in Prius.
"They" did and do. " GM has announced the car will get 230 MPG for the average city driver over time assuming nightly full recharges. " From: Chevy Volt FAQs | GM-VOLT : Chevy Volt Electric Car Site That type of misleading puffery is common from PHEV advocates and sellers. GM is one of the milder ones.
Yep. Here's one more for Jimbo: GM announces... 2011 Chevrolet Volt will get 230 mpg city! — Autoblog.
The Plug in version of the Prius like the Chevy Volt will be significantly more expensive than the regular hybrid version of the Prius. The 2010 Prius fuel efficency can be higher than 50 mpg - but the driver has to "learn" how to drive it - a skill is not easily acquired (I'm getting about 63 MPG and I still working at it). I don't have a place to recharge so an electric or plugin is not an option for me. It will be interesting if the Li-ion batteries last as long as the NiMh batteries.
