Is Gen 5 Prius really better-looking than Gen 4 Prius Prime?

Allocations are a lot different than actually ordering a vehicle from the factory with $$ involved. That plus the time involved for the car to come in and the interest rate environment makes it easier for people to back out since it's not really costing them anything.

 

People driving a car with DRLs on, but with no auto headlight system, forget they have only the DRLs on. Which means there will be cars driving around at night with dim headlights, and no tail lights on at all. I'll come across those regularly during the winter. With DRLs mandatory in Canada, they recently changed the regulations to have tail lights on with DRLs to counter that.

DRLs aren't mandatory in the US. GM doesn't want to spend money on separate light switches in Canda and the US, so have petitioned the NHTSA to make them mandatory. The response has been that evidence of their use in preventing crashes isn't strong enough. Could be true. The US spans lower latitiudes than Canada, so the periods of low light conditions where DRLs are most helpful make up less time of the day.

Then people hold strong opinions about DRLs in the US. The light switch in the Sonic and other GMs has spring in it. That spring keeps the switch from being left in the all lights off position. For those that want DRLs off, that means having to turn them off everytime time the car is turned on. People do remove the switch from the dash, take it apart, remove the spring, and them put it all back together to avoid that.

In my orange Sonic, I turned them off, as I did manual engine offs, and didn't want the drain on the 12 volt. Left them on in the Camry, as it was a low vis silver. I also had replaced the halogens with LED low beams. The Outback has LED eyelids and auto start/stop.

 

https://www.motor1.com/news/714707/toyota-prius-sales-hybrid-demand/

"Skyrocketing Toyota Prius Sales Proves People Want Hybrids, Not EVs
The sleek new model is up a whopping 138 percent compared to last year, easily outselling the bZ4X and Lexus RZ combined."

Sorry, just wanted to post some facts amongst the recent misinformation.

 

More specifics here:

Toyota Prius Family Sales Figures | GCBC

The numbers don't really matter; if you're happy with your car, that's what counts.

 

Must be tough buying into that in Norway - having over 60% of vehicle sales as electric. It's true, the universe really DOES exist outside the USA. Any recent lookup of Chinese EV sales for instance? Somehow - believe it or not - the EV industry will muddle through.

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Several years ago I actually looked at the two studies where everybody gets this "EVs are outselling ICE" numbers. Well it turns out that most of the EV buyers are well to do families with already existing ICE vehicle buying a second (toy) car. The subsidies in Norway were enormous, So basically Norway government was subsidizing rich families to get a second car. Regular families buying their first car were unlikely to get an EV. This is what was the conclusion of the studies. Also as we all know Norway climate is the worse climate for EVs. On my EV I loose close to 50% of the range in the winter. More recently in Germany after removal of subsidies sales of EVs collapsed. So the reality is not what you think when you bother to look past propaganda.

 

Again if you actually looked past the stupid headlines and followed what Toyota was saying at the launch of Gen5, Toyota was saying that at first production of Primes would be slow but would be ramped up gradually the next year. I was supposed to get my gen5 Prime at the end of 2023 but the dealer got only one!!! in stead of expected 5! So "skyrocketing" is "impressive" if your base line is almost zero. And not too difficult to have 138% increase over a very small amount. This is how math works, but good luck to you

 

My canadian 2019 prime had off position.

 

but the important thing, I think, is that people looked at this super rare car and still decided to pass.

 

Eff off.

 

Please, control yourself.

 

My 2019 did not have BSM or RCTA. When i was renting a car in Europe it came with HUD and i liked it, I thought i wouldn't.

 

It's human nature to want bigger+better+faster. Thus the statement " I can get at least two days of commuting out of a new Prius Prime. Couldn’t do that with the old one."

I'd look at it the other way. I'd charge it daily at home and enjoy the lower middle of the night rates. The advantage is that you will always have enough charge and /or fuel to go where you want without regard for whether you need to find a charge.

 

People back out of commitments all the time when it's free. No doubt that if in order to get on the allocation list, one would have put money down, many would not have. It's not the car, it's the people.

 

I have not seen an official explanation, but we can apply a lot of the Gen4 rationale to the Gen 5 models.

First: it does not, in general, NEED a high speed charging capability. The average driver in the USA drives his / her car less than 35 miles per day. A level 1 or level 2 charger at home will top off the charge on the battery within an hour or two. If you need to rapidly add another 400 miles of range, pull into a gas station and ads a few gallons to the tank.

I just ordered a 100 dollar level 1+2 EVSE that runs on a 120Volt or 220 Volt wall outlet. ** It will be stored at my mother in law's home so that I can plug it in whenever I desire to use it.

Second: Toyota has made their batteries last a very, very long time by properly monitoring and using the battery charge and the battery environment. Many of the cars that use high speed DC charging are somewhat abusive and inefficient overall. They have to waste energy to heat up (or cool down) the battery before trying to push a lot of current into the battery pack. They add complexity by way of liquid cooling and radiators, etc. The Prius does not share those particular problems.

Third: The Prius has a built in charger. Connect it to the AC outlet in your garage and it will feed the Prius battery in a very civilized way. The high speed DC charging that is common in BEVs utilizes a AC to DC battery charger that costs much, much more than the EVSE that comes with the Prius. I see some for over $1000.

** From Amazon: $102.99 VEVOR Level 1+2 Portable EV Charger, 16 Amp 120V or 240V, Electric Vehicle Charger with 28-Foot Charging Cable NEMA 6-20P Plug NEMA 5-15 Adapter, Plug-in Home EV Charging Station for SAE J1772 EVs

 

In answer to the original topic I think the Gen 5 is so much better looking now vs previous generations. I did not really consider a Prius or plug in hybrid until I saw one of these in a parking lot, it's sleek look captured my attention enough to investigate it further. At first glance I thought it was a 2 door until someone showed me the hidden door handle for the rear.

90% of our driving keeps us within a 25 mile radius from home so charging the battery overnight costs about 1/3 of what gas would cost for the same driving. And when we run solely on the engine we get an honest 50 mpg. We have only put in 5 gal in 6 weeks of driving and 900 miles.

As to the demand there were multiple people (dealer said 18) if for some reason we didn't want to buy it. South Carolina dealers do not get many of these cars to sell.

KH

 

Not trying to pick nits, but;
Quick charging EV's are DC to DC so there's no on-board charger. A DC charger exusts at public locations. Even so - that doesn't mean manufacturers couldn't install much faster on board AC/DC chargers. Battery discharge can generate WAY more heat than most manufacturers Chargers. Many L2 plugins safely charge at 10kW to 19kW. Cars charging at only 3 or 7 KW are doing it because it's cheaper for the manufacture to install slow Chargers. It's that simple.
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