2021 Prime

Keep us updated as I think we bought ours at the same time.

 

Check the engine RPM in charge mode in this video, courtesy of @john1701a. Notice how low the engine speed is. Yes, it's working a little harder, but nothing that should hurt anything.

No problem with that. I set up my schedule for departure times and let the car figure out when to start charging. But I always add at least a 1/2 hour fudge factor to make sure it gets done in time.

No worries leaving it plugged in for a few hours or even all day. It does drain the 12v a little but the notice in the manual is because after days and days, it can run down the 12V too low to ready the car.

 

Wow. Me bad! Never noticed no back window wiper.
Side note it seems to stay at the current charge mark when you switch to HV. Maybe

I need to do a full charge at start then drive in HV next.

 

Appears etune is not linking. However the Toyota app is. Strange as the icon app for etune is still there.

 

Entune is a part of Toyota App now for 2020 and up PP, IIRC.

 

OK, learning slowly and it is not a steep learning curve. More flat to me
The app is connected and I think ok but it will not start the car or turn the AC on. Also the APP menu icon on the 11.2" screen does not go anywhere except try to find etune which it never can,

What up????
It does show my car and the current battery state after being connected for a bit.

IMHO it needs a FW update!

 

Someone mentioned it before recently but the 11.6 Nav on the Prime is identical to the Subaru Legacy/Outback but the Subaru can play Android Auto and CarPlay. Both units use free open source software. The source code is available but I’m not messing with it.

 

They are different head units, only the display size being the same.

Note that the smaller and larger head units are made by DENSO TEN and DENSO, respectively. The Canadian head unit is different.

The vanilla edition on the XLE has the ID no. E7057, whereas the JBL edition on the Limited has the ID no. E7058.

• 86120L
  RECEIVER ASSEMBLY, NAVIGATION
  ZVW52..G
  ZVW52..E
  DENSO,ID=E7057,AUDIO-11-INCH, AVN & 6SP & SMARTPHONE
  DENSO,ID=E7057
  8680447490
• RECEIVER ASSEMBLY, NAVIGATION
  ZVW52..G
  DENSO,ID=E7058,USA L2 PACKAGE
  
  (Current price)$6,175.58
  MSRP
  8680447500
• RECEIVER ASSEMBLY, RADIO & DISPLAY
  ZVW52..E
  DENSO TEN
  
  (Current price)$5,748.62
  MSRP
  8614047620
• RECEIVER ASSEMBLY, RADIO & DISPLAY
  ZVW52..E
  DENSO TEN,CANADA SPEC
  
  (Current price)$5,748.62
  MSRP
  8614047650

Toyota:



Subaru:

 

Ok, did a test of the low speed auto stop and have some interesting results.

1. Front and rear off angle works fine
2. Rear center works fine
3. Front center failed on numerous attempts (primary parking mode BTW when pulling into a garage)

Anyone else have this issue or is it a faulty system issue?

 

I guess this is the 2021 vs 2020 thread?
We just traded in our 2020 for a 2021 - same color, same trim (details here: Prius Prime - official prices paid thread | Page 210 | PriusChat )

Big ones of course:
1. Android Auto - FINALLY! Yay.
2. TSS 2.0 - sweet. The adaptive cruise control seems to have been smoothed out and is noticeably better in traffic (just from our drive home)

Minor exterior items we hadn't seen mentioned previously:
1. Side-view mirrors have a few tiny vortex generators on them
2. B-pillar and black in front of mirrors are flat and not as glossy. Previously the glossy B-pillar blended in well when rear windows were tinted. Still need to tint the new car, but doubt it will look much worse or better than before.

Just slightly different, and you'd have to be an owner or have them side by side to notice these changes.

That's our initial impressions.
Also, the 2021 felt surprisingly tighter (suspension/tires?) vs a 2020 that had only 15k miles. I find it hard to believe that a 15k mile 2020 vehicle was "worn out" - I'm guessing it was more likely the difference in tires? New: Bridgestone Ecopia EP422 plus vs old Dunlop Enasave?

 

The suspension wouldn't wear out in that time, but the various parts could settle and seat themselves together slightly differently. Without driving a new car of the same model right after the old, you'd probably not notice any difference. Which brings up the placebo effect.

 

Good observations!

I didn't know you also had the Blue Magnetism, which is the best color choice in my opinion. When you keep the same color choice when you trade in, it tells you something. My 2020 was an XLE Classic Silver Metallic, which I traded in for a 2021 Limited Blue Magnetism.

Are you going to get to use Android Auto, as it requires connecting the phone with a cable each time?

Lane-keep assist on TSS 2.0 is vastly improved and works very well. It feels like the car is self-driving at times, when you merge on ramps etc. Cruise control now has lane-tracking assist; however, this feature makes me uneasy, as I feel like I'm fighting over the steering wheel, it's making too many corrections, and I feel like something may go wrong and it may fail, car wandering into the wrong lane. Nevertheless, it can come handy.

I noticed the three ribs on the mirrors and the matte trim. Yes, the matte trim is not very nice, but we can wax it. I use Turtle Wax Ice Seal N' Shine.

Yes, the handling is improved in 2021, possibly because of the Dunlop Enasave 01 A/S tires and perhaps some other tune-up on the steering and suspension.

Overall, the 2021 Prius Prime is a noticeably better car than the 2020 Prius Prime.

 

This feels tighter than my 2019 Prius. But it is heavier! Weight does make a difference in giving the car a more solid feel.

 

Perhaps 2025 will bring big changes;

Toyota’s Quick-Charging Solid-State Battery Coming in 2025

 

Solid-state batteries will definitely replace lithium-ion batteries in about a decade unless a better technology is found. So far, QuantumScape seems to be the only company who has found a solid-state separator that prevents the growth of the dendrites that kill the battery; so, they are well ahead of Toyota and others in this game if they can successfully mass-produce their product. Without solid-state batteries, there will never be widespread EV adoption with the current lithium-ion technology, which is more of a joke when applied to EVs as opposed to smartphones.

 

Big little details that I love on my 2021 (compared to my 2017) ... the chrome strip across the dashboard is brushed instead of brite chrome (which used to blind me on occasion) and the pull out strip on the visor.

And of course all the TSS features work more smoothly. I haven't gotten used to the lane centering as it always wants to keep me a bit more to the right than I would normally be.

 

Absolutely loving my 2021 Limited. Wow. What a sweet machine. We have an 04 and a 2017 (a prius 3 touring bought used that handles very nicely with 17" tires/rims/suspension - and this car feels that precise but with an even smoother overall ride) - and this one has amazing build quality, touches, and feels like a luxury car to me - though I"m not not a luxury car type with a 2004 prius and an older tacoma (the 17 is for college kid for safety). The lane tracing/radar cruise control was almost doing autonomous driving on drive home from dealer on the dc beltway - particularly with good lines and a car to follow - it was steering itself! - it just needed an occasional small bit of pressure to know I had hands on the wheel - as it warned "hands on the wheel disconnecting now" or something to that effect if i went too long without exerting a tiny bit of force on the wheel.

THE EV IS AMAZING - full EV ride - very very quick 0-40mph in all electric - reminded me of "test track" at epcott (if not a tesla that i once got a ride in - which was frankly too fast for amateurs imho).

Also got an iphone 6 to do carplay by the usb cable - seamless music, apple maps, books, etc. (i use iphone as an ipod w/o sim so local phone app stuff only for me). I use a android for my every day - so no Android Auto on Limited/11.6 screen is disappointing - but it's primarily wife's car - and she does iphone/data, etc. so she's thrilled.

Need to read the manual.

How does it do without a rear wiper - that's my only surprise - didn't realize it was without - does airflow help keep it clear?

I have read a bit about and don't want Toyota having all my car/location/driving data all the time - just for the not-so-needed safety connect/service connect. If the app is not going to let me remote start the car and see granular charging/battery data - what's the point?

I don't fully understand entune vs. toyota app etc. for this 11.6 package. I began to enter my vin number - but stopped when it was saying how much it would monitor me for any reason all the time. ugh. HOw to get useful things without giving carte blanche to be snooped on. I don't normally travel around with location on and apps running in background - very pro privacy. Thanks for any tips on how to get functionality without giving up that level of personal data/privacy!

is there any way to get some good battery/charging info/control and pre heat/cool without giving toyota the go ahead to have every bit of my driving info? no thanks.

with the fob - can i just press it and cut on heat or cool when charging?

played around with the charging settings on the vehicle display adjustment (under settings wheel with steering wheel settings on upper instrument panel not touch screen)... have decided to charge at 8amps from my regular 120v porch outlet vs max charging rate (12 amps?). The charging cable reaches our outlet in our little driveway - and car will typically be driven 8-10 miles each way - so hope to do all EV commutes with it - when regular commuting returns. Put the charging cable through a "kill a watt" meter to check amps/watts on charging...got 7.73 amps 914 watts flowing out during 8 amp charging).

Ok - have appreciated all the comments on the 2021's - especially by owners of previous Primes even 2020's as we were looking at used 2020's vs. 2021's. The pricing and federal tax credit was just too good with the toyota cash offers out this month - so we took the plunge. Excited to see what 2022 and 2023 bring - but feel we'll be very happy with this car for a long time. Our 2004 has 210k miles plus and we still love it - but this new Prime is like a fancy efficient rocket ship in comparison.

 

This is the right time of year to start getting used to the Prime. If you get an idea of about how far it will take you in EV now, it should only get better as the temperature get warmer. As long as you understand that in the fall the EV range will get less as the temperature falls, you should be good to go.

If your looking for granular battery data, I'd recommend you keep your eye out for when Dr Prius offers support for 20 and 21 Primes. It might be a bit of a wait since the main devel is working on a lithium replacement pack for gen2 and ge3 prius ATM.

I think it a bad idea for Toyota and the Phones to make it so hard to guard out own privacy. For me it's such a pain with the phone to have to monitor each app install and deselect all the things an apps wants access to on my phone. It's almost futile. And I just dump apps more than half the time I find one I think I might use. So much Fluff.

You're not the first person to describe the first few trips in the Prime being like a spaceship.

 

is there any part of the toyota or entune app/apps I can use for car/battery/charge system/data monitoring if I opt out of toyota monitoring/collection?

and if so how would I do that?

thanks!