4th generation coming 2015!

Notice the "just 11 miles" in the article's introduction? That's a clue to the plug-in Prius importance.

Until this year, there were some other plug-in supporters so desperate to undermine Prius PHV they'd intentionally mislead about it.

For 3 years, we had to deal with the "6 mile" claim. It was really annoying, but at the same time confirmation that they felt threatened by the potential Unger system offered.

It gives us a lot to look forward to with this next generation.

 

Only question is *when* is the PiP 2nd gen gonna arrive? Spy shots suggest sooner than later? End of Production suggest that too? I cannot imagine not having a 2016 PiP model...

 

Next gen Plug In Prius isn't coming anytime soon. All the focus is on the upcoming release of the redesigned Prius. I'm sure the Toyota engineers are hard at work revamping the PIP though. Toyota is going to have some serious competition in 2017 with the Tesla 3 and whatever else the other car brands come out with in this category.

 

^^^^not a question at all, toyota has already told us late 2016.^^^^^

 

My thoughts on Gen IV.
- Exterior looks are not a big issue with me. I drive inside the car.
- I will not buy the Gen IV if it has a flying buttress or anything similar that restricts freedom of my right leg. I have claustrophobia and rejected the Gen III for that reason.
- If it has no spare tire I will have to think long and hard before buying a Gen IV. That may be enough to force me to step away from a high mpg car and go for something different like an Avalon, CR-V or Rav4 (if they have spare tires!).

Things I don't like about our Gen II.
- Gauges that tend to be towards the center of the dash. I don't mind that they are way forward by the windshield. I just want the gauges to be directly in front of me. We rejected the Prius V because it is way worse than the hatchback in this respect.
- Gas tank bladder. We never use more than about 9 gallons of the 11.9.
- Warm up time that restricts the car from running in EV mode.
- Auto mode for the air conditioner diverts no air to the feet. We have to manually select that mode.
- Cruise control stick rotates with the steering wheel.

Things I'd like to have in a Gen IV
- An ICE On indicator light
- Better mpg (90% of the reason we have a Prius)
- Lose the flying buttress
- A tad more cargo space.
- Gauges centered in front of the driver
- A spare tire. An emergency tire is fine. A tire patch kit is a joke.
- A Regen vs Brake engaged light. I want to know how hard to push down on the brake pedal to maximize regen.
- A cruise control stick that does not rotate with the steering wheel
- A shift lever like the Gen II. Get rid of the fake shift lever on the Gen III

In general we are very happy with our Gen II @ 150K miles. If the Gen IV comes with a flying buttress and no spare tire we may just keep driving the Gen II until it wears out, then we can see if the Gen V is better down the line.

 

I agree with jdonalds on the general points but there are also some personal preferences there. Broadly speaking, exterior looks ARE important to me but it will be the overall improvement that I am more interested in.

In general I don't think the EV mode makes much sense in a conventional hybrid, I think this is more of a marketing feature. If you try using EV mode to maximize mpg, the ICE will come on afterwards (unnecessarily) to re-charge the battery and you'll notice the mpg reading goes way down even when driving slowly on flat road so this is basically the generators coming on full force to recoup the lost power from battery so overall benefit is questionable.

One gripe I have, and I have mentioned this before, is that it would be good to have higher profile tyres across the grades. It just doesn't make sense to sacrifice mpgs with low profiled tyres on higher grades.

I am also hoping that Gen 4 will have cabin heating assisted by HV battery. It just doesn't make sense to let ICE run just because cabin temperature drops. With G4 ICE thermal efficiency expected to go up even further, it will become even weaker at heating.

I have been very happy with my Gen3 and it has held together well. I am however not happy with my dealership and will be looking to negotiate better terms if I am going to buy from them again

 

how will you heat the cabin electrically, and not have to use the ice to recharge the battery?

 

The fuel bladder was a North America only thing, and went away with the gen3.
EV range on straight hybrids is just marketing. According to the Japanese gen2 manual, it is for moving the car around if you access to something in the garage, and to not disturb your neighbors early in the morning or late at night with ICE noise.
Using the battery for heating is inefficient. Better to use waste heat from the ICE. The gen had supplemental electric heaters for when the engine wasn't warmed up, but I don't think they helped much.

 

what up with the 'fake shifter'? it's the same shifter in a worse location.

the gen III already has the hybrid systems indicator, which tells you if you're regenerating or braking. it also show's when gas pedal pressure is going to fire the ice, it's pretty sweet.

 

If the SOC is high and the battery is bigger they could use a heat pump electric heater in place of turning on the gas engine. Just like a Leaf does it.

If SOC is low you'll have to start the ICE anyway and continued use from high SOC will take you to low SOC. I think the point is it doesn't have to come one if I'm stopped at a stop sign or red light for 20 seconds, it can wait and buffer the load until I start going again.

It can be done in software only to make it less reactive but I'd prefer upping the kWh of the HV pack and changing the software on top of that.

another option would be to drop the fan speed down to min when the temp of the output is dropping towards setpoint and the ice is off and then auto resume the fan speed when the ICE starts again and puts out heat. Do that only in ECO mode so people that want or need more heat can opt out.

 

I want to see calculations for Current Trip MPG and overall Trip A/B MPG and Lifetime. Then I can gauge my trips over and over and determine the best way to drive to get there faster, or more efficiently.

Does the liftback have a spare tire or emergency tire? What's the different between those two?

I like the flying buttress, maybe if they made more room...it is supposed to be wider.

I really want to be able to control the Hybrid mode (ie, recharge rate, force EV, hopefully Gen IV has 2 miles EV standard...). Hopefully the Plugin has more options to drive effectively. I like that the volt has an option to charge the battery. What if we had that option and chose only when we were at highway speeds so that when we come into the city it could be smooth sailing?

 

lift back currently has a donut spare. i guess some would consider that an emergency vs full size.

 

Absolutely, the use of the battery would be to reduce the frequency that the engine gets fired, once fired excess energy produced by ICE will go to battery.

 

not sure that is more efficient.

 

Yes and that is why I said battery assisted heating i.e. waste heat from ICE helped by electric heating. There is no point in firing up the ICE just to obtain waste heat, the battery may be full and the car could be stationary or moving slowly. The Prius ICE is efficient at propelling car but not at producing heat.

 

Electric heated seats works great in PiP.

Electric cabin heat would rob the small battery pack fast. For anything that need a lot of energy/BTU, ICE is best to use, especially when you need an excuse for maintenance of both engine and fuel tank (stale gas).

 

heated steering wheel, windshield and toyota racing jacket.

 

How does Tesla, Volt and Leaf solve the problem? I ask, because I honestly do not know.

 

electric heat with big batteries. or in case of volt, pre heating when plugged in and engine while driving.

 

The Leaf and Tesla use heated seats, optional heated steering wheel, and a very efficient heat pump.
Even though it is very efficient, heating still costs range. Typically about 10% more that the efficiency hit an ICE vehicle takes (about 20%).