Featured 2G Prius Plug-in Reveal - March 23 @ 9:10 am EDT - Live Stream here

Same agency that rates everyone else's comments on here. Just commenting. Love the technology though!

 

I can't wait for the next futuristic Toyota model's styling;






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Yes, but we are veering into the territory of how many miles can be covered by EV in a PHEV. General statements can be made, but they aren't much better than marketing fluff if we want to know how many commuters and miles can do so out in the real world.

I think I might have missed that you and Toyota were discussing best hypotheticals. While I've been trying to find what it actually might be 'on the ground' to say. The 80% is just marketing fluff without any evidence that the majority of commuters have work charging access.

Yes, the Prime will have the best CS MPG, but without stating those extra trip conditions, you are setting your self up to shown up by stating the Prime will use less gas. The first gen Volt only got 37mpg combined, while the PiP got 50mpg. On a long trip, starting with a full charge, the Volt didn't start using more gas until they hit the 80 to 100 mile mark. Assuming that high CS MPG equals to less overall gas used whenever EV range is exceeded is an error when discussing a broad group like all PHEVs.

When the the PHEVs with shorter EV ranges aren't competitors for shoppers of the Prime, this state is more true, than the fluff of it using less gas than most PHEVs.

The stats mentioned sounded off. They technically aren't, but how they relate to most PHEV buyers make them marketing fluff.

Luxury commuter seems to be Toyota's goal. Depending on what PHEV exactly qualify for stickers, there may not be a big market with them for the Prime.

You owe me a mil. I already stated that. Not as precisely, which is why I'm only charging a you mil.

 

Don't hold your breath for wireless charging.

 

Getting industry agreement for a wireless charging standard will take major work still.

Just look at public charging-stations for some perspective. Notice the pricing and who should even be allowed to use them is far from consistent. After 5 years, we'll still having to deal with differing approaches.

 

But have you guys seen the new Rav4? I mean that booty is just... I don't know wrong

 

"If you want to, you can hit the EV auto mode. That allows the engine, sometimes, to kick on if it deems it more efficient to that. Sometimes if you're really flooring it, it might be more efficient to actually run the engine just for a short period of time than to kick off. A lot of people want only the EV experience, so we made this an option.""

- The Toyota Prius Prime is the way it is because people complained

So, if Gen 1 PiP had a "blended" 11 miles of EV range, with only 6 miles of pure EV... I wonder how much the blended miles the Prime would get with it's EV Auto option; probably not nearly double that of the first gen, but hopefully 30+ Miles. IMO, if you're gonna have a gas engine, it makes sense to actually use it when it's more efficient to do so.

 

That's not the way Prius PHV actually worked. There were certain individuals who mislead about the total capacity available, using the EPA test where there was a hard-acceleration to make people believe EV was totally exhausted at the 6-mile mark.

In reality, the engine may not start for the entire duration. In that case, the battery-pack would end up delivering around 11 miles of EV.

The effort to greenwash about "blending" was really unfortunate. They really wanted people to believe once the engine started, it would not shut off again and that no electricity would be available for EV afterward. That's sad.

Sweet! Thanks for the link. It provides a bit of detail we hadn't uncovered yet... how much the electric power output has increased:

It goes from 37 kW [in the first-gen Prius Plug In] to 68.

btw, the documented HP for the current plug-in is 38 kW. I think the 37 value may have come about as a result of rounding when converting from horsepower.

(It looks like from 51 to 91 hp.)

 

A big cell phone,at least by the width of a Galaxy Note 4 !
Anyway there might be some hope !
It says "Prototype" on this Prime,so maybe they will offer a version with 5 seats if feedback isn't good and who knows maybe they can manage to get that battery placed a bit deeper.

 

The second electric motor most likely draws significantly more energy under acceleration, if your round-trip commute is under 22 miles, EV mode would obviously be better, but for those with longer range commutes, it's great that the Prime has that EV Auto option to boost overall efficiency. Anyway, thanks for the explanation on how that how blended thing worked on Gen 1, always found it confusing.

 

That's the thing. They tarted up the front and rear, basically to make it "distinctive". No heavy-lifting engineering in the area that's crying out for attention: accommodating the battery. And it's poor cousin, the near-dead temp spare.

I don't admire their game plan of late.

God I'm grouchy today.

 

The first gen Prius Plug-in's 95 MPGe is dragged downward by the 0.022 gallons of gasoline that EPA recorded as being blended in during the EPA EV range test cycles.

The new Prius Prime's 120 MPGe estimate is high enough to strongly indicate that the gas engine does not blend during the EPA EV test cycles anymore.

So, no new equivalent to the "6 mile AER" nonsense.

 

that makes perfect sense - because going from the old 61mph max electric to 80mph electric - you'd necessarily need that much more horsepower. Colaterally you can floor it & it doesn't have to turn on the ice.
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I'm sure if you "floor it" in its default driving mode that the Prime's ICE will blend in. The 68 kW of battery output is the same as the max EV output of the Ford Energi models and they only do 0-60 in around 16 seconds although they are heavier than the Prime. However, many sedate Prius drivers (like myself) may be perfectly happy with the Prime's acceleration in its optional "EV-only" driving mode.

 

Fortunately, reality is more forgiving than paper. Dropping the pedal down to the floor is rare. How often does a person actually start from a dead stop and need maximum acceleration in a very short distance? Ordinary highway merging into traffic takes longer and typically offers space to do it. That's normal. Shorter highway merges (like a clover-leaf ramp), you're already moving. Shorter suburbs, you tend to wait until on-coming traffic passes.

Put it this way.... I've merged onto the highway on quite a number of occasions thinking the engine would fire up, only to notice at a critical time (too busy to reach down to push the EV/HV button) that I was actually using up precious limited electricity. Seeing EV happen like that without even trying is good confirmation Prime will be able to handily deliver.

 

oh, I don't know, maybe for fun? 'dropping the pedal'

 

Anyone remember when they announced the first pip? Or did the not announce it? There was some sort of driving program that was successful.

My question is... Didn't the production model change? The prototype I believe had two batteries, one nimh and another li-ion with a larger range. Charge port in front and I think the trunk was protruding as well.

Maybe Toyota can fix the back and have a 5th seat. Please Toyota. And bring in the solar trickle charge also. Interesting they'd list models as prototypes because generally they do differ from their production counterparts

 

Apparently, my assumptions were faulty. Prius Prime is an EREV!

At least according to Tideland Prius and Toyota spokesperson Nathan Kokes quoted in AutoBlog:

 

Toyota engineer states the 5th person would require more reinforcement for a 250 lb person for large Americans...

OK, so how did the energi, volt, and ion do it. I think most of them weighed more. Maybe they wanted higher hv mpg or get that 120mpge