I just came back from three weeks in 12 Japanese ports on a long cruise. In every port I walked around the town enjoying the different kinds of cars and kept looking for a Prius Prime. I saw a lot of the current generation of Prius, but not a single Prime. I even saw a couple of Ferraris, and a 1970s VW bus, but no Primes. Quite a few Prius are being used as taxis, although they still use the Toyota Crown with the 4-cylinder engine. Looking at the housing options in most of the small cities, it doesn't look that very many owners would have the ability plug in where they have to park. I guess if I were living in Japan I would probably be driving one of the boxy little cars that are most common there as they would be fuel efficient, inexpensive, and easy to park.
it is said that electricity is scarce in japan. with fukushima gone and no new nuclear, they are focusing on mirai fcev and any primes likely have solar roof.
There are quite a few modded Primes/PHV on minkara. Japan shut down a lot of nuclear power generation after the earthquake, leaving most power generation to be fueled by LNG. https://www.enecho.meti.go.jp/en/category/brochures/pdf/japan_energy_2016.pdf Some of the reactors have been powered back up since that 2016 report. Status of Renewable Energies in Japan | Institute for Sustainable Energy Policies (ISEP)
In Japan your registration is based on engine size, k cars (the little boxy ones with yellow plates) are very common in cities. parking is very expensive in cities and most people don't even have cars, like NYC. Their trains are a model of efficiency. Practically every town has a train station and they're all connected. The train is by far the most efficient way to travel. They are rarely over 1min late. I imagine the plugins are more popular outside of the cities. Electricity is expensive, but gas is more so. When I was living there it was $6.50/gal. To top it off, your job will pay for your train pass between home and work. I know Nissan was working on their leaf's acting as both transportation and acting as batteries for houses
In addition to normal requirements for charging at home, about half of Japanese residences have a lower power electrical service than in the US. A Prime takes over 10 hours to fully charge on level 1 there, level 2 isn't possible at such homes. The Prime does have CHAdeMO standard, and chargers are common though. Not just Nissan. The PiP and Prime could act as emergency power supply for a home in Japan. The Mirai can even supply home power there. It requires a special EVSE power station that can control the energy flow both ways. The car also needs CHAdeMO, since that is what these units work through. Mirai's in the US were suppose to get the power supply option, but I don't know if it ever happened. The converted cost of these power stations was around $10k last time I looked into it.
