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

1917, henry ford was the mediator.

 

Well the good news is, we should have some interesting state incentives. 50-states means we will need to focus on all states incentives...so places like DE, TX, RI, ME, MA, CO, SC, DC, MD, CA, maybe LA. Guess we can read across from CMAX/Fusion basically whatever they get, wherever they get it.

 

I was wondering about the fans to provide fresh air to the battery: are they just circulating the air inside the car? Or are they taking fresh air from outside to do the cooling? Or can they do both, depending on the circumstances? For example, fresh air from outside when the car interior temperature is too high, and air from inside when the temperature outside is too low. Taking fresh air from outside would be better when the car is in the sun.

 

It was back in the days of the Classic. He was struggling to find a way of describing how a Corolla could deliver higher MPG than a Prius. The response to me was the very first post ever with the word "hypermile".

We didn't have an idea of the significance of that exchange. Though, I was the one responsible for being the first to ever state "Stealth Mode" for Prius, which had become common vernacular of the time to describe the electric-only driving.

 

I think bisco meant economically instead of environmentally. In many places of the US, it now costs more to move PiP with electricity per mile than gasoline.

Going by comments concerning range, it seems to be the main concern with ICE cars too.

The gen1 Prius had an exterior vent for the battery. I couldn't tell you if it in or out though. With the gen2, Toyota went with using the cabin air for cooling.

Car cabins do have an exterior vent that is hidden. Otherwise the A/C vents couldn't move air in. Hopefully, the A/C blower will run with the solar charger if it gets too hot.

 

Sorry, not my best day. I meant 0 - 60 mph...

Jan

 

Well I am refering to the surveys. Toyota talks about them here.
The Toyota Prius Prime is the way it is because people complained

Now your clip is about using the engine to suplement heat, and here we are talking about on cold days when there is not enough ev for the trip, they would rather fire the engine at the begining and be in comfort, then shut down. That simply is a finanancial consideration as you need a large liquid cooled battery (like tesla or future bolt) to do many trips with full heat. Here surveys say drivers want a button and the prius prime gives them a button.

From that same autoblog interview

Here we have choice not becuase of volume but 4 instead of 5 seats so that the car is more efficient by a very little bit and costs a little less to produce. IMHO like yours its a strange shoice. I would have eiher added more with a t to go to 12 kwh and 30 mile range, or had the middle seat. I can't belive mpg in charge depletion would fall under 50 mpg, but they want it to be the same or higher than the gen IV liftback. The 4 seat prime should sell better IMHO than the 5 seat prius phv as long as toyota doesn't completely screw up dealer training. Its a better plug-in. It just isn't as good as I think they could make it, which is probably good news for the ioniq phev and the volt.

 

There will always be complaints. Some will complain the battery is too big, others too small. There are people who wish it was a 2-seater because 4 is unnecessary, and yet others who would like 10 seats.

Your 2 criticisms are likely the most widely shared though, and I believe the car would be much more appealing if it had 5 seats and a flat deck.

I agree with the kWh per mile comment. I'd like to see efficiency rated this way, or perhaps miles per kWh. Is there some way to derive or approximate this from the MPGe rating?

 

Not enough? Grocery, Retail, Hardware, Movies, Restaurants, Church and Coffee are all just a 1 to 5 miles from my house.

Having Toyota's advanced heat-pump (with the gas injection) will work out great for me, all EV running errands in winter.

 

What do they mean by "on the fly" charging?

 

Forcing EV replenish while driving, scarifing gas (and trading emissions) for the sake of generating electricity... rather than plugging in.

 

a pointless waste of energy to appease some focus group member who threatened to buy a hyundai.

 

GM focused their efforts on appeasing enthusiasts, those who were perfectly happy with the nich Volt has captured.

Disregarding ordinary consumers was a doomed approach. To draw in mainstream interest, you have to understand what their purchase priorities are... not highlight what a new technology will offer better than other new technologies.

 

i understand. it's their desires and pocketbook. 1+1 = camry.

 

Sounds like "Mountain mode" on a Chevy Volt. Once the battery goes below 40%, the gas engine runs to maintain the battery at that level to help climb steep inclines at a decent speed. If your battery level is under 40%, then it runs a lot harder to bring it back up to that level. It's not an efficient way to generate electricity, unless you're climbing a long steep incline, or test driving a Volt and the dealer didn't bother to plug it in prior.

So then with the Prius Prime, will the gas engine doing the bulk of the work when climbing long steep inclines? Or will it function somewhat like the Volt, with the gas and electric motors both running to provide the power when climbing?

 

it will function like the standard prius, maintaining enough battery to climb most hills.

 

I'm guessing that the Prime may handle mountains better in "EV Auto" mode if the battery is full. We will have to wait for someone to try it out that way. If it does run quieter with lower engine rpm and higher speeds up long steep mountain highways then people may start using charge mode like the Volt's Mountain Mode.

The Volt itself has less need for Mountain Mode than in gen 1 because it weighs about 250 pounds less and has a somewhat more powerful gas engine. The Prime meanwhile has about the same engine power but weighs about 300 pounds more than the non-plug Prius.

 

Hey you are preeching to the choir here. Many will want their prius prime to keep the engine off, and the new one is much better able to do that than the gen I.

Sergiospl brought up a video that talkad about trips in the sonata phev being too long in the cold. In that case its more efficient to use the engine early to warm the cabin, then switch to electric. Toyota gives you a button for that, and now so does gm.

Yep, that should make it more efficient and more able to stay in ev mode in the cold.

my guess is this is mainly for europens that may beable to run with gas on the highway but use electricity in the city zones. I am not sure of toyota's thinking here but it doesn't make much sense for the US.

 

Forced charging is a feature Hyundai offers, not Toyota.

 

he's means in the prime, i think?