I thought I read somewhere that Toyota will be increasing the size of the traction battery in the Prius Prime. Has anybody heard this before? Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.
I think the 25mile/40km EV range is a choice rather than a limitation, ie. Toyota could have given the car a longer range before but chose that as a compromise. I could be wrong, but I suppose they'll stick to the same range. Although it would certainly annoy me if they didn't -- I just bought my Prime!
they were going to go smaller, but n/a toyota told them it wouldn't sell. thus the 3" raised hatch floor. to go larger, they'd have to redesign the whole chassis to put it underneath. i think they're caught in the 'diminishing returns' scenario
There was a rumour last year for the midlife update (I.e. 2020 Prime) but as we can see, that did not come to fruition. California raised their tax rebate for PHEVs to those that get 35 miles or more (no coincidence that the RAV4 surpasses that number). If Toyota wants to give more incentives to the Prime in CA, then they’ll have to give it 35 miles of range. Of course that means the rest of the country gets the higher MSRP without the tax rebate (but I guess will also get a higher federal tax credit).
