Toyota Bigger Battery for PIP Plans?

I wasn't questioning what you said; just elaborating a bit about where the screwball "6 EV miles" came from.

 

im in San Francisco now on a trip and i climbed the steepest streets all in EV mode, it was awesome but it did drain the battery allot quicker.

 

I was in the Manhattan/Hermosa Beach areas last night and this morning. I was able to get a charge in yesterday afternoon and this morning. Driving around that area with smaller streets and not really having too much of a chance to go above 30mph I actually saw my range estimate equal my actual miles driven for the first time ever. I thought I would run out of EV, but since the estimate was actually relatively accurate for once I was able to get around without running out. So it seems to me like the estimate is accurate for lower speeds on flat ground, but doesn't adjust itself once you get up to 45mph or so, which means Toyota did a really poor job with the estimated value.

 

EV miles to me means... This is the EV miles you will get the way you are driving right now.

 

Remember, Toyota is directly targeting middle-market, not early adopters or enthusiasts.

The goal is deliver a profitable choice with high-volume potential.

I got 14 miles recently, see:

 

Soon, CNCDA.org gives us 1st half 2014 CA PHEV sales...First quarter 2014 my calc was 60% of PHEV sales in CA (PiP may be >65% sales in CA). The day the CA green stickers run out, Volt and PiP potentially lose their major market anyways.
We just dodged a bullet on that with the extension to 55k CA green stickers.

This may be melo-dramatic, but seems to me the whole PEV movement is CA HOV incentive-based, so I expect we may have some heartbreak coming. EV sales will then beat PHEV sales because, most of the buyers are in CA and CA is giving HOV incentives to BEV only. At some later date, BEV shoe drops too (Wa. state incentive expires 2015 unless extended). I think there is still a market niche for PEV, but slower growth.

At the end of green HOV stickers, my thought is CA PiP sales fall (hard) and Toyota starts look to other states maybe Texas maybe nationwide roll-out.

 

Since both the thread and my response are about plans for the next, it's a non-issue. In fact, that's the very reason I pointed out high-volume potential... since it means no dependency on special incentives, like tax-credit money and HOV access.