Any news about the new PiP? Will the PiP get E-Four? What about electrical cabin heater? Extended EV range? (2013 PiP owner today)
Hope they'll extend the electric range to something like 25-30 mi, otherwise it's a bit pointless compared to a (much) cheaper hybrid. I've got an Auris hybrid at the moment, unfortunately not available in the US. It's a bit smaller than a Prius, it's lighter too, so it's a lot more lively. I love this car ! MPG is around 50 in the summer, I'm quite happy with that, no smelly/smoky diesel can do that in real life.
I think Prius (and PiP) is all about maximizing efficiency and minimizing emissions, and they have found the right balance with the current PiP. As electricity is becoming greener all over the world, there is a place for new balance point of extended EV range. I hope they will find the right one without scarifying efficiency/emissions.
someone at toyota in an interview said they understood the desire for more range and would accommodate in the next gen, but didn't specify how much. there isn't much room in the new chassis for more battery, but i suspect they can queeze in another 50%. maybe they won't go with the wishbone? there is a new ceramic heater in the genIV lift back, so that bodes well for next pip. awd has not been mentioned to my knowledge, but since europe is getting it in the lift back, who knows?
I don't expect the next gen PiP to have much more than 20 miles of range. No sources on my hunch, but why are people speculating 40-50 miles range? There is no reason to do that because the PiP isn't trying to compete with the Volt. If anything, their closest competitor is Ford's Energi line of products. Having much more range will also add much more to the price of the vehicle. While the PiP carried a huge premium over the standard Prius, I expect the price differential to be less this time around since the competition has heated up.
I could see 30+ miles of range. The new eco model is supposed to have a 1.5kWh li battery and 27.3ft^3 of rear cargo volume. If the plug-in keeps the old 21.6ft^3 of cargo volume, I can see them dropping a ~10kWh battery in there. If the current gen can go ~10+ miles on ~2.7kWh of usable capacity, then with 8.3 kWh of usable range, 30 miles should be a gimme. On top of that, improvements in the efficiency of the transmission and power electronics could get the car close to 33(random guess?) miles. On the other hand, Toyota might keep the 24.6ft^3 of cargo space across all models, and in that case the range would be ~20-23 miles.
i read all 10 posts above yours, and don't see anyone speculating 40-50 mileswhen we talk about extending range, the current benchmark is 11 miles epa. i wouldn't expect toyota to take away anymore cargo room than they already did in the current pip, that would be a major mistake. that gives them whatever space is available in the gen IV lift back.
Anyone care to calculate/estimate what max capacity battery could go into the new PiP and keep the old 21.6 ft^3 cargo space and/or new 24.6 ft^3 cargo space (without spare tire).
I did in my last post. I'm guessing that 1 NiMH pack is ~3.5ft^2, and if the new li-ion pack frees up ~2ft^2 and has the same capacity (1.5kWh) as the NiMH, that puts storage at ~1kWh/ft^3. The eco version has 27.3ft^3 with a 1.5kWh battery, so if Toyota keeps the 21.6 feet from the old version, that would be ~7.5ft^3 of room, which should be enough for 7.5kWh, probably more since some of the space in the smaller battery is used for the power electronics (BCU, contactor, etc...). I don't know if the cargo space includes the storage under the plastic deck, but if it doesn't, that extra space plus not needing as much in the way of space for the power electronics should provide enough for Toyota to get ~10kWh of battery in there.
this is hard to understand. (for me) where does the extra space come from, between the gen I pip, and the gen IV chassis?
I read that Toyota moved the seats up and placed the pack under the rear seats. The model with the NiMH pack has a flat floor (24.6ft^3), while the Li version actually has a slight tub (27.3ft^3). The only thing I'm not sure about is whether the li version actually has a bit of space under the trunk floor, but no spare might imply no space left under the plastic floor, and in that case 10kWh might be optimistic w/o a more energy dense chemistry. ~8kWh with the same 21.6ft^3/existing chemistry as the current pip should be doable though, but the trunk floor may be higher, which Toyota would probably avoid. Anyhow, 10kWh may be possible, but I'd need to poke around the trunk of the eco model to really feel confident about that. Edit - They also moved around the gas tank and maybe made it smaller. The 2016 Toyota Prius Is An Enthusiast's Car
Regarding post #16, post #12 mentions some generalities, but did not address the specifics of the question in post #15. Post #16 takes a stab at it. The current PiP has a 4.4 kWh battery and weighs 176 lbs. 3.4 kWh are usable. Can’t seem to find the current PiP battery pack volume posted anywhere to do a simple scaling extrapolation. The tiny battery in the lift back is a start, but a large percent of that volume may be control/structural hardware, so may make for the best fit. If the Volt battery volume is know, that would help with a volume to kWh extrapolation curve.
It's more about MPGe than EV range in my mind. For those of us who want to ride in silence with a decent amount of range, there are more options now than there were in 2012. But for those of us who don't want to have to travel from charger to charger, the hybrid makes most sense. Having one of each type might be the best of both worlds - if you can afford both. I'm not sure that the added weight of a more robust battery (unless Toyota finds a new battery source) will increase MPGe even if they double the current EV range. Perhaps it might for a few people who commute in golf cart mode. For most travel, though, I'm not sure how it could.
