Stupid Prime not having a stupid spare...

i have been carrying a donut spare ever since i got my pip. i too am not thrilled with the lack of a spare, but i do think toyota could have found a place for one, if these cars had been specifically designed as peeve's. and not as afterthoughts to the lift back.

 

Does using the goo mean having to replace the tire pressure sensor? What's that cost?

 

The Prime body is not based on the Liftback. It is longer, for instance. They probably could have found space for a spare. The PiP was based off the Liftback, however.

 

i think it's the same chassis with a longer nose and bumper?

 

They could have put the larger battery where the missing rear center seat is then. There would still be room under the cargo deck for a spare.

 

yes, yes they could have.

 

Almost all the additional length is nose overhang and a little rear bumper overhang.

No, they couldn't. The problem is, the gas tank is right behind the lower portion of the rear seat. They would have had to use a different gas system than the regular liftback, and it seems they wanted the Prime's underlying mechanics to differ as little as possible from the liftback.

 

I was referring to the "hump" between the rear seats. You have a Prime and I have not even seen one, so I will defer to you.

 

That thing is smaller than a shoe box. The battery is the size of 10 shoe boxes.

The mistake they made, in my opinion, was designing the G4 without the Prime in mind. Had they designed it with the Prime in mind, there would have been room to put the battery under the rear seat where it is in the G4, and extend it backwards because it's bigger. The problem is, the gas tank extends to right behind the pan below the rear seat making that impossible. So they had to put the battery either above the gas tank (which is what they did) or build it in two pieces thereby complicating both the electrical connections and the cooling air connections.

I wish I could find the see-through picture of this. I searched and didn't find it.

Well, here's a really low-res version. That blue is the gas tank.

 

With plug-in hybrids, spare tires are basically going to be history - the space that they take up would be better used by battery. For that matter, some hybrids will need to lose them to maintain cargo space.

However, the Prius Prime has such atrocious battery packaging, it might've actually been possible to cut a hole in the bumper and slide the spare in through a door underneath the hatch...

First, let's look at the Liftback:



Note where the battery is located - on top of the fuel tank.

Now, let's look at the Prime:



Note how high the battery is, and with only a charger control unit (and, if you have the JDM solar panel, the NiMH solar buffer battery) where the original battery used to live.

I'd like to compare to something with the same suspension design, the Volkswagen Golf GTE (same design as the Audi A3 sportback e-tron), to show how Toyota should've done this:



In that design, the battery (also 8.8 kWh) lives entirely under the rear seat, while the fuel tank - 40 liters/10.6 gallons, instead of the 43 liters/11.4 gallons of the Liftback and Prime, a rather small loss of capacity - lives in the former spare tire well, and raises up some into the cargo area. Note that it's a complex shape, but that's far easier for a fuel tank than for a battery. Now, Volkswagen had the advantage that they were able to put the charger in the engine bay due to a front-mounted charge port, whereas Toyota would have to run a lot of additional wiring to accomplish that, but there's some unused space that they could've used to cram it beside the fuel tank, or something. Or, Toyota could have just moved the charge door up front.

Oh, and the Ioniq Plug-In Hybrid has an 8.9 kWh battery and the same fuel capacity as the Prime, following Volkswagen's packaging. It has a front fender-mounted charge port, to be able to put its charger in the engine bay, as in the VW design.

 

This is my thought too: Toyota presents the plug-ins as distinct models, but they don't look far removed from a regular Prius with a plug-in kit.

Quit fussing around with more and more electronics, screens, cell phone chargers, and engineer a spare tire location. In the interim, the only message that will get through them to them I think, is sales numbers.

 

Problem is, the Prime is the #4 best selling car with a plug in the US market right now, and the best selling PHEV, behind the Model S, Model X, and Bolt. (The Volt is #5.)

 

That's because, none of these "problems" are of particular or critical importance.

 

Just like preparing for an earthquake.

 

Although, conversely, it's still quite niche market. I could see a better-packaged Prius Prime selling better, but the problem is, will Toyota see the problem?

 

Because a flat tire and an earthquake are of the same level of risk?

 

In California, yup!!

.

 

Just saw an interesting video. The number 1 risk in CA is flooding. 2 is fire. Earthquakes are 3. Flat tires didn't make the list.

 

Risk of what, though?

 

Life and property loss.