Hi Guys, This forum is really helpful. 1. I am planning to buy Prius Prime Plus or Advance in the next 2 weeks. But I live in Condo multi story, so there is no option to charge the car. I also don't see near by public chargers. Reason to buy Prime is that in future, I may move to a location where I can charge easily. So for now I cannot charge the car. So if I buy Prime and only run it on gas, then am I degrading the battery or any part of the car, because I am not charging the car. 2. I live in New Jersey. Is there an expiration on $2500 discount or promotion from Toyota. 3. Is the Federal Tax Credit of $4500 still active for Prius Prime. 4. Are there any Tax Credit from State of New Jersey on Prius Prime. 5. Is there any reason serious advantage for buy Prius Advanced? I am only looking to buy a plus? Thanks in advance, Sid
welcome! yes, many people never charge them, and actually, the battery prefers to be kept in a low state of charge. 2) yes, check the toyota web site, every state/region is different. 3) yes. D) all the best!
(1) No harm to the battery and you will get excellent mpg. I'm in NJ and I can't charge at work but my HV mileage on the way home, now that the weather is warmer, I'm getting high 60's to high 70's mpg in HV only miles. (2) Not sure. (3) Yes, Unless it gets Trumped. (4) Not that I know of, but if you can find one let me know. (5) I bought a Premium and if I knew then what I know now, I would have went for the Advanced, from what I've read on this forum.
Happy belated birthday! If you've got the extra money, the Advanced is a great value with a huge number of features. Get the Prime brochure from the dealer and read the list of equipment on each level of the Prime. The comfort and safety features only available on the Advanced made it the right car for me. You're going to have to talk to your fellow New Jersey residents regarding your incentives there. Good luck! .
Thank you all for the quick responses and excellent comments. I am trying my luck with TruCar service to see what dealers will be willing to offer. This will be my first new car buying experience, always had an old car. New car buying is a daunting task. I am just not certain if my choice of Prius Prime is the absolute correct choice. I am buying all cash, so it is a serious cash that I will be giving out, probably several years of my savings going into the car. I do remember few years back going for a test drive on Prius and when I tried to give a little bit of speed, then it took its time. When I told that to the Sales Rep, he said you are buying a Prius not a race car. Seems to me pretty degrading comments.
There are 3 modes to the Prime, ECO (slowest) Normal (faster) and Power (fastest). There have been others in this forum that have done testing and in Power or EV mode it is respectable. But if you are looking for a fast car, then this is not what you want.
whatever you do when you get your Prime, don't try to speed up to prevent someone from passing you on the right and him/her cutting in front of you just before that semi ahead of him/her in the right lane closes him/her off, you'll lose
Also, check out some of the reported mpg's in this forum for gas savings. In HV only mode you can get 60-70+ mpg easy. And if you can charge before AM commute before PM commute, you will get way better mpg. Some on here get many 1000's of miles on a tank. Not me, I only got 1150 on this tank, with a 72 mile commute and only charging at home compared with a max of 720 in my 2012 v.
Sid, I'm also in a condo with a shared garage with no option to charge. I'm getting my Prime in 2 weeks and plan to live with it for a while, using public charging whenever I can. Once I'm at the point where I feel like I know enough about the subject matter I'm going to approach the board about accommodating my car. We have a group in the Twin Cities devoted to finding solutions to EV ownership in multi-family housing - it's a great resource. Let me know if you want the URL.
Huh? Please explain... Other than the car charging it automatically as needed, can the driver force charge the battery?
And it should be noted, it will generally use more fuel doing it than you would have gotten out of the vehicle just driving in HV mode (it isn't highly efficient). There are exceptions, but charge mode should be limited to those exceptions. The best place I have found to use charge mode is when I am approaching an in town drive with a lot of hills. The EV mode has so far been more efficient with small hills going up and down with lights than HV mode has been. I was able to maintain 60+MPG for the final 15 miles of the trip and get enough charge to cruise through the hills on EV mode when I got off the highway.
Just hold down the HV/EV button 3 seconds and you'll see a CHARGE "button" appear above the battery icon, near speedo. If you tap it again for 1 second, the car will return to the normal mode. .
