Unanswered questions about new Prius

Much of what you ask has yet to be released.

The solar roof is rated higher than the current one. That one charged the traction battery while parked, and provide energy to the 12V system when the car is on.

Toyota under estimated demand for plug ins. They didn't have the battery supply lined up for the Rav4 prime. And now there is the general disruption in supply chains.

The next Prius Prime will ship to CARB states first. I do believe Toyota has the good faith to ship across the country after that. Toyota doesn't have 100% say for the entire country. The Southeast and Gulf Coast distributors have not been 'enthusiastic' about the plug ins. Part of the reason why some have been going out of state for Primes.

 

The biggest one for me is, "are they going to make an EV version of the Prius?" I'm getting to the point where I'm running the engine about twice a year, and I'm not convinced anymore that it's useful for me to have it at all.

 

hard to say, but doubtful? seems like it would be easier to start with a whole new design

 

Which they just did, and failed to do what was right (PHEV + EV vs Hybrid + PHEV).

 

One factor that would encourage me to order a new one would be increased sound deadening - nothing other than a throw away line about increased frame ridgidity which would provide a quited ride but think that might just be rattle proofing

I get it, you can't put hundreds of pounds of sound deading material and keep high MPG but please, tone it down a few decibels please Toyota, broken or worn pavement at highway speed is painful

 

How much would you pay (MSRP) for a 300, 400, & 500 mile Prius BEV?

 

why would that be 'right'?

 

Because the planet is on fire and we need to stop burning things for energy RIGHT NOW!

 

$35k base, $5k extra for each 100 additional miles, up to $10k extra for feature "upgrades".

 

they have a bev. it doesn't have to be a prius

 

The one Toyota BEV is not efficient. A Prius BEV would be.

 

perhaps the chassis just isn't designed for it, and cannot be reconfigured

 

Probably true, but it *should have been*, from day one. Like the Ioniq PHEV/Ioniq EV, just done with newer technology and newer hardware.

 

yeah, in those days, toyota was claiming bevs didn't make sense

 

They still don't, but thanks to Musk, we're out of options so we need to take the one that is least bad.

 

what did musk do?

 

Didn't support hydrogen.
Neither did Toyota. They pushed the no plug version in the belief it meant higher demand for the fuel, and didn't invest in that refueling infrastructure.

 

Well, I suppose Musk did make the Tesla popular, so California as well as auto makers have jumped on the EV bandwagon as the quickest solution to the fossil fuel “problem”. Unfortunately, it seems that as many people who complain about fossil fuels now complain about precious metals, increased impact on the grid, etc. I don’t know much about hydrogen, but if it were ready, wouldn’t it be here by now? Oftentimes the best solution is a matter of timing. I guess if someone needs a scapegoat for hydrogen not being available, Musk is the obvious choice since he’s been successful with EVs. But why blame him and not those working on hydrogen? Sure, he could have put his money into hydrogen, but who knows where we’d be if he had? It’s pure supposition to say hydrogen would be the solution of choice today.

I’ve been considering going EV too and renting something with more range for our annual road trips to Georgia, Florida, etc. Unfortunately, renting cars for the length of our trips isn’t really practical financially, so I’m in a quandary. Buying a plug-in Prime seems to be the best solution now, but letting gas sit in a car for 10 months or so out of a year might not make a lot of sense either. Plus, who knows what will happen with hydrogen? All I know is that a whole bunch of people seem to be adopting EV and it won’t be long before that will be the only new vehicle one can buy. If one needs/wants new now, hydrogen isn’t a choice. It’s pure conjecture to say it would be if Musk had bought into the technology.