4th generation coming 2015!

This is not a discussion about *EV, but rather whether a bigger capacity battery will improve HV performance. Meaning NO plug-in.

 

WS, here is another argument for you:

Toyota has delayed the G4 Prius to try and eke out the 10% generational improvement. If a bigger HV battery improved performance, that sure sounds like an easy and cheap solution. So how come it has not been done in the generations so far ?

 

I totally understand that. Some in this thread keep talking about a past experiment by an end user as though it proves that there is no benefit to a higher capacity battery. I'm saying the technology change allows for a more effecient design. Larger capacity at the same weight would be more usable / increase effeciency. People are so hung up with how it was and how it is they don't want to see how it can be or will be. Worse terminology confuses the issue

bigger battery = volume
heavier battery = weight
higher capacity battery = electricity

I'm saying if you use the same tech and add more weight and volume you may be right that it isn't worth doing. But if you get more capacity per weight it changes things.

I'm also saying that battery tech has improved dramatically since the prius battery pack size was standardized. There is room for a rebalancing with new tech pushing to a higher capacity at the same or a different weight but market forces still apply and Toyota won't bother to do this until they are forced to by other players stealing their leadership position.

You might disagree but I fee marketing wise that the Prius, Leaf, and Tesla are all in the same bucket as efficiency vehicles and any pricing/availability/capability change in that category affects the marketability of the existing vehicles from the other players.

 

cost

 

All these experts here talking about the advantages of Li Ion batteries and questioning Toyota's rationale for not incorporating them in the Prius.

Did anyone consider the effect of battery capacity depletion in Li Ion battery tech? Just visit the nissan leaf forum where owners experience first hand how their leafs charge capacity drop with every passing year. These are batteries costing several times the prius battery, just imagine the dissapointment seeing its capability drop with time - slowly eroding, decaying and getting weaker with every passing day.

Every battery tech experience this downhill path and so does combustion engines but if you try to work out a figure for the rate of depreciation for current Li Ion battery tech, it will not match the economics behind a normal prius. This fact alone will make Toyota think twice.

I for one will not buy a car which I know will perform significantly less after just a few years.

 

True, but just remember Toyota could/might achieve the same "decline" in their NiMH batteries the NEXT time they revise the software for your or my Prii. It's all under computer control...or lack of control (as heat & cold).

 

Tesla bathes their batteries in coolant to keep an even temp whether hot or cold.

But this is not about pitting our wits against trained skillful engineers of the best in the world, it has more to do with marketing, profit, and setting a precedence.... Once they go forward, they are committed and can go back... More profit milking old technology till competition makes it cost prohibitive.

The engineers would "love" to do it and flex their muscles.

 

Ah-h-h-h-h-h, but aren't most armchair/keyboard auto-enthusiasts actually "frustrated wannabe engineers" at heart (wink,wink)?

And, marketing "hype" aside (temporarily), isn't what the customer THINKS is important of more importance than what the engineers THOUGHT was important, more important?

 

Over time, no. Apple, Inc proved that decisively.

The reason that most of us do not have a job at Toyota is because we are inferior thinkers. Not a pleasant thought, but true. The lines blur a little when one talks of preferences but even there, most of us prefer what someone else thought up.

 

Did he just call us dumb?

 

Naw, he just said we weren't UP to being "Apple" lovers...and we didn't speak TOYOTA-dialect japanese.

 

Having worked with the auto industry and NASA as an engineer, I can truly say both were equally challenging, but I definitely liked working with NASA more.


iPad ? HD

 

LOL !

 

I'll be happy to wager that if you are not using Apple products you are happily buying Apple imitations.

 

"Not I..." cried the little red hen.

I'm a DOS kinda guy (aerospace/defense & tank/automotive USArmy), in my world, Apple is best either (1) drunken (cider) or (2) eaten (pie)!

 

My condolences.

Is there a DOS phone you carry ? How about computers used by family at home ?

 

So everything that isn't Apple is an imitation thereof? And what does Apple imitation cover exactly, any input device with an interactive touchscreen?

What a disappointment this thread has become having veered so far from the topic at hand (of which I freely admit there's little news).

 

I'm not tethered with a "digital leash." And, PC's are just the lesser of two evils...I still remember CP/M.

 

So any more news about Prius Generation 4 ?

What sort of improvements are expected apart from the obvious (i.e. improved mpg, performance and reduced emissions) ?

Looking at the 2013 Gen 2 Auris HSD and comparing with Prius Gen3 and Gen 1 Auris HSD, I'd say we can expect:

* Better dashboard material and improved overall build quality - hopefully no more rattles
* Improved sound deadening and a more simplified dash - hopefully it shields road noise better
* Better i-CVT gearbox - so hopefully it will whine less especially at motorway speed

One thing I am really hoping for is the option to have smaller (& higher profile) tyres in every grade. I just can't understand why it is assumed that everyone wanting to go for higher spec'd grades will like to have low profile tyres. Yes bigger wheels usually look better but at the expense of more road noise, harsher ride, reduced mpg, increased CO2 not to mention the cost of bigger tyres.

 

My PiP seems to whine more as the temperature goes up. Can be irritating when the windows are down. But yeah I agree less road noise and less whine unlike what I'm doing now!