$40K Price tag- Fair Guess for initial roll-out?

Yes, Toyota could have offered a larger battery to get a larger federal credit as well. The issue is, the 2012 is not a new design, it's the 3rd Gen 2010 design, there simply isn't a place for that much battery KW. That will have to wait for the next generation design, and for battery costs to come down as well.

The point is, I think most here would rather buy a Generation 3 Prius PHEV from Toyota, who's been doing this for 10 years+, rather than GM's Gen 1 product, considering GM's past history with EV's, there abandonment of pre bankruptcy customer warranty issues, and GMs general contempt
of everything electric. It's not just about the money, Mort

 

Your comment I was responding too was pretty focused on cost. I agree there are other factors to consider and Toyota's long track record with similar technology is certainly one of them.

I'm not espousing everyone forsaking prius and coming over to the dark side. I think they are both cool cars and will suit different buyers really well.

I'm happy with where the production specs and price on the PHV shook out. I think it will keep them both competitive, and competition is a good thing. I really believe Toyota wouldn't be moving to Lithium now if it weren't for the other players bringing it to market.

I hope you get and enjoy your PHV as much as I enjoy my Volt.

 

It's not clear what I am buying yet, I have a Leaf reservation since 4/20/2010, I'm signed up on the PHV list, I considered the Volt, but the dealers are too sleazy and dishonest (I put down a $1,000 deposit with a dealer 65 miles away in another state, all I wanted to know was when the order could be "allocated" 4 months later no response from them, had to file a credit card complaint to even get the deposit back.

I just bought a Schnieder EVSE at Home Depot for $729 - $50 coupon code, I'm eventually getting something to plug in. FYI EVSE's are now down to a reasonable price range, and you are often better off from an AMT tax calculation to take the EVSE charging equipment credit in a different year from the vehicle credit, that's the main reason to get an EVSE before the car in 2011

It's probably down to a choice between the PiP and the Leaf at this point. I don't have the patience to wait for a Model S

 

If you include the standard equipments, it is a $26k Prius with $2.5k plugin premium. $3k plugin premium is what I expected. HOV sticker in California is known to boost $3k in the resales value.

The level of standard equipment is higher than what I expected.

Hopefully, when the nation-wide roll out occur in the coming year, we'll have a trim with less standard equipments.

 

Or, there will be a cost/size breakthrough in Lithium battery technology in the next few years, and Toyota decides to make all Prius's "plug ins", just to simplify production and models. By then, they will probably have "pack" size options to choose from as well.

 

I read somewhere that Toyota will have all Prii plug in by 2014. I don't remember where I saw that comment.

 

Toyota denied it. See http://priuschat.com/forums/prius-h...standard-prius-2014-nikkei-4.html#post1323144 and http://priuschat.com/forums/prius-h...standard-prius-2014-nikkei-6.html#post1323668.

 

Yep. I underestimated the base feature set in my guess, but in retrospect should have realized the first roll-out would be a higher end package.

Maybe by G2 plug-in if acceptance warrants it, we will see a package II + plug-in option.

 

You're targeting the advanced model and not the base model. The base model is just under $30k after the tax incentive.

 

Yea, the initial launch is targeted to early adopters that has to have the most advanced Prius. The Advanced model has features loaded with those only found in $100k luxury cars.

 

What features are those?

 

Like a wine chiller and a coffee making.