11377 Primes sold so far in USA this year!

not sure why they are renting primes, that's a good question. we don't have rental programs around her, that i've seen.
maybe they use the rental rate to gauge future interest?

 

IMG_0788 by Captmiddy posted Aug 2, 2017 at 10:02 AM

I saw a Prime the other day and my wife took a picture for me as it was driving up the highway. Here it is in all its glory cruising away from us on the highway.

I actually see a fair number of them around here. A couple a day at least.

 

tou have more hippies living in central ma.

 

I've only ever seen 1 Prime in-person (dealership or on the road) and it's a fellow Toyota employee.

I know of at least 2 other employees in my area that have ordered them through the employee program, not including myself. None of the dealerships in the entire state have a Prime on the lot. Online inventories say they do but when you call or visit, they don't.

 

What sort of a discount do you get as an employee when ordering a new Prime?

 

HAH! (But she's in "Middle Earth", too, as it were... so I'm not sure how that might be explained... .... )

 

I have the white one. Man does it look weird in the back. Why didn’t they go with the standard z lights???

 

I know that feeling... I think the closest one to us "On Lot" right now is in the west Chicago area... 145-ish miles from here. Several months ago, we drove about 95 miles to look at a Prime (having been told over the phone that a Prime WAS on the lot), but when we got there, we were told it hadn't been on the lot for SEVERAL days... part of a company lease program or something (I can't remember now exactly what they told us)....

 

agreed, those lipstick lips are funky, but very asian. arigato.

 

I saw white one in Cali Bay area with green HOV stickers and pink license plate frame...cheating I know. I was incognito in a non-hybrid rental car.

The best year for PiP was about 13,264 in 2014 so it looks like Prime is doing very well compared to PiP so far. So Prime is selling better than PiP.

 

More impressively is that it is doing better than the PiP in a market now full of other options for the same type of vehicle. When the PiP was first introduced, there wasn't exactly a large selection to choose from, now you have Volt, CMax, Fusion, Ioniq, Niro (soonish apparently), .... the list goes on. I think that what was available at that time was the Volt and the Accord. The Accord is gone now but was only ever available in like 2 states (maybe a couple more but it wasn't many) anyway. That is sort of a double edged sword, it means there is more competition but it also means more people are accepting of the concept now.

Then there are just the straight EVs that have enough range to challenge the Prime. So I would consider the volume they have turned over and the fact that they still haven't penetrated all of their potential market with vehicles on lots to be a pretty nice success. But we will have to see what Toyota thinks by how they move forward with this type of vehicle. Are we going to see a Prime V? Are we going to see a Rav4 plug-in? Or a Lexus plug-in model? If they don't expand the offering then that would lead me to believe they weren't impressed enough with the results.

 

Good point CaptM. Well on the other hand I would say PiP was very expensive in CA when it came out, so lots of buyers went to East Coast to get $5000 off the price. Prime is attractive cost point with incentives, and it's hard to know if that is "real" or volunteer lower price by Toyota to get CARB credits. Also many more (mostly blue) states have added attractive state incentives.

But GM is talking about future of Volt. Is Prime the Volt killer? Prime seems to be competing well against Volt and Fusion/CMAX essentially the Prime is the best PHEV overall it would appear. Yes I long for v Prime - they gotta give me cargo space and I would even take less EV miles to get that...but that's me not everyone obviously needs that.

 

How is the Prime doing against the 4th gen Prius, its base platform? apart from an extra 25 miles on EV via plug-in and some small styling changes, it's pretty much the same car...

 

For me choice was super easy. For someone with short commute, the ability to run on electric only is a HUGE plus. On top of that HUGE discount and potential tax credit were the deciding factors. I would have not considered upgrading my Gen3 to Gen4 even if Gen4 did have similar rebate and tax credit which they don't.

 

YEP.... i really don't see a single reason to choose the liftback vs the Prime, apart from 2: extra passenger seat and more trunk space... The two biggest criticisms against the Prime that i read over and over again are lack of 5th seat and poor cargo space. Toyota should have done better job to place those batteries in such a way that it would keep the trunk untouched - other cars have managed it! It seems like they took a shortcut and piled a bunch of batteries into the trunk in as cheap way as possible.

 

I don't have experience with any other Plug in Hybrid, so I can't comment on what other companies did on their plug-in, but for sure two of the biggest criticisms for the PRIM are so true and probably deal-breakers for many. So far I don't have a regret that I got PRIME, only thing I regret now is that I traded in Gen3. I really should have kept it.

 

From who?

We have found (2 Prime in our family) that the 5th seat is of no real value anyway. Large adults just plain don't fit. No one wants to be squished together like that. Oddly, the center-console helps to keep items tossed in the back seat from sliding around, an unexpected benefit. The extra storage is nice too.

As for the raised floor in the cargo area, that has actually become a SELLING POINT. It hadn't occurred to us that not having to lean over to lift cargo set down onto a low floor would be so nice. You just slide it out. Stuff is at arm level. That's so handy of a benefit, I'm at a loss at how to promote it. The design should be obvious, but clearly it is not... until you've taken advantage of it firsthand several times.

In other words, don't put too much weight in criticism of those who make quick observations. Owners like us can really do a lot to shake up assumptions.

 

But it appears that it won't hit Toyota's 30k target. Hopefully, that is simply do to supply constraints, and will improve next year.

The Prius has sold 55,100 up through June. That is down 18.3% from 2016 sales. Part of the decrease is due to the Prime, but can't say how much.

But you got to lift your stuff higher up to get it into the car. In terms of ergonomics, the best cargo space will have a floor level with the bumper that can be raised to the user's desired height for unloading.

 

That is exactly what I mean about assumptions.

Clearly, you haven't actually tried it.