Breaking news Canadian plug in

That's ridiculous. At this point it seems like anyone even remotely close to the border should just buy the car in the US. Especially given all the incentives being offered in NY and New England.

 

2013. I found a 2012 for sale in Calgary but its the wrong colour so I'll wait a bit more (and get a newer car LOL). Dec 5 is my new ETA.

 

p.s. where are the Canadian PHV owners??? I know they were delivering in late Sept (David Suzuki was one of the first).

 

Well you can be sure I for one will post about my experience. Too bad it will be starting off with typical December weather (bad fuel economy) ;-)

 

It is -21 here this morning.

 

-21 celsius ouch! I installed my winter tires only last week on the Prius and it's -6 right now.

Since it's going to be cold soon I suppose I can still wait a couple of months for a 2013. The engine will have to start anyway to heat the car so I suppose it won't be much better than my current Prius. I hope we will still get good fuel economy with the "EV Boost" mode when we finally receive the PiP. (January or February for me) In the meantime, I am reading all posts regarding winter FE. But that's definitely the longest time I ever waited for a new car. I was expecting to drive my PiP in september!

And next spring, real zero emissions trips for us

Btw, don't forget to order winter tires right now for the PiP. They are scarce and more expensive after Winter has begun. I already ordered 4 X-Ice Xi3 with rims from Costco to have them ready when I receive the car.

 

I have ordered winter tires already, General Altimax Artctic. They're the top rated tire in its class on TireRack. Fortunately it's only -4 C today LOL.

 

WooT! I just got mine today!

It's a Blizzard Pearl PiP. Love it. It's my first brand new car. I can't wait to plug it @ home. (It came with a near-empty battery)

There are so much new features to learn vs my Gen II Prius.

 

Nice! I'm looking forward to hearing your experiences. I just got my car last week so I'm still learning...

 

This car is really learning to drive me to work!

I drive 25.3km to work according to google maps, mostly highway. I can't charge at work (yet).

First Day:
I "just drived" to work. I didn't do anything to try to maximize fuel economy. We were freezing at -12 celcius so heat was on all the time & I was driving at 110km/h (So I was only in EV-Boost mode) with a very strong front wind slowing me. (Worst possible situation I guess)

Result: 3.7 l/100km with 4 km remaining to go back home. My Gen-II would easily do 5 or 6 l/100km on this really bad situation so it's great! I did a little EV test-drive to my boss so I drained most of my remaining range before I got home. (I convinced my boss to buy a PiP too. Maybe it may help me get a charging point at work when he'll get his PiP ) (4.2l/100km was my total FE after the return trip)

Second day:
Snow storm! Temperature was -5 celcius. We got 10-15 cm of snow so there was rolling resistance BUT traffic was crawling on the highway. (EV is better than ICE when speed is low) But I did need to start the ICE anyway because of all the fog on the windows

Also I had to go drop one of my child to daycare so this adds another 4km to my trip.

Result: 2.7l/100km with 7 km remaining to go back home. (3.5l/100km total after return trip)

When I got home, I also used most of the electricity on the HV portion of the battery. (3 squares left when I got home) But the EV is VERY weak at this point; slower than my Gen-II.

Third day (Today):
Snow storm again! Temperature is 0 celcius today. Another 10 cm falled last night and there is still heavy snow falling. Because traffic was too slow on the highway yesterday, I used a alternative road (50-70km/h speed limit). We were going slower than the speed limit but it was definitely faster than the crawling highway yesterday. (With 36 km/h average on the trip)

Result: 1.6l/100km with 3.6 km remaining (trip back home not done yet). 73% EV (19km), 27% HV (7km)

I could have done even better by using more EV but I want to keep some electricity for my return trip.

Energy Price:
Here in Quebec, electricity cost is quite low. (5.32 cent/KWH for first 30 KWH of the day and 7.51 cent/KWH for the rest). But gas price is really high because of taxes. Around 1.27$ / liter in Montreal (4.81$ / US Gallon)

The PiP makes even more sense with this low electricity & high gas price scenario.

Electric fillup: 3.2 KWH * 7.51 cent = 0.24$

Conclusion:
1: Using basic Gen-II techniques I learned (Like Pulse & Glide), it's very easy to get great fuel economy with the PiP.
2: I REALLY need to get a charging point at work. I don't have enough charge for both ways.

 

How does the PiP hndle in snow compared to the Gen II?

 

I installed Michelin X-Ice on day 1 so I don't know about factory tires. (Snow tires are required by law here) However, traction on snow is awesome. (Even better than my Gen-II) But I don't know if this has something to do with the added weight from the Li-Ion battery because I never drived a standard Gen III for comparison.

 

I got mine thursday and so far we are really happy with the car! So far we are at an average of 5.5 l/100km but this is mostly highway since we live 90 km from the dealer and we only have 200 km done. Also, there was a lot of snow on the road and this doesnt help. It was -14 celsius today and, by keeping the inside temp to low, we were able to drive a good 10 km on electricity alone going back from town and there was still energy left. However, when we first went to town and the car was cold, the engine was running most of the time in order to heat the cabin. I think I should now try to use the block heater and maybe partially block the front grill. I just cant wait to use drive it in summer conditions! It was really worth the wait!

 

Hey, Canada sales for January are available:
Toyota Canada Inc. reports January sales / Toyota Canada, Inc.

Overall Prius family sales are up 63.1% this month vs last year. They sold 33 Plugin Prius in January. While this number may seems low, there is a 6 month waiting list to receive a Plugin Prius in Canada. If we calculate that Toyota can produce 33 PiP / Month, I suppose that mean that at least 198 customers already ordered and are waiting to receive the car. (But this number is pessimistic since production is ramping up) To put that number in perspective, they sold 106 Prius C in January. Not bad for a car that customers cannot even see or try before they buy.