Featured Hyundai IONIQ - Prius competitor?

what would that be?

 

The Malibu and Accord hybrids sound competitive to the Camry.
The Niro is starting to trickle in, and it might be cross shopped with the Prius, Prius v, and Rav4 hybrid. Fueleconomy.gov has the Touring trim posted. This is the least efficient model with big wheels.
Aside from hybrids, sounds like Hyundai/Kia might be posting separate EPA ratings for the trims with different wheel sizes or weights for all their cars.

 

I would like to 'chat' with everyone who screwed up getting the Prius Prime on fuel economy.gov.

Monroney sticker but nothing else?!??!!

Bob Wilson

 

bisco - I started to respond to you post above ... then passed. I'm glad that I did because trollbait said it better that I would have.
I read every one of your post that I see ... and I know your question was 'tongue in cheek.' You know the answer already.

There is no denying that there are many fine vehicle available that will make Toyota try a little harder to do a little better. Trollbait mentioned two, but I think even within Toyota ... the Prime is a far superior product to the Prius lift-back (IMHO). I would not be surprised to see the Prime out sell the lift-back when they are readily available at every dealership. I read every thread heading through about page 6-7 daily, skipping only generation 2 and 3 threads, and I don't see the excitement and conviction for the lift-back that I see for the Prime. I suspect Toyota has a winner in the Prime.

Changing the subject .... Toyota just released a new "Concept" vehicle. One aspect pf the design that caught my attention is the profile. They returned to the beautiful (IMHO) graceful profile from hood to windshield to roof .... even moving the roof peak back towards the rear.

 

Maybe because the lift back is old hat? No reason you'd see enthusiasm like a new mechanical design or radically different vehicle. Plus the old Prius vehicles are so darn reliable people keep em forever which means less trade up within the brand.

 

I'll agree with you in part .... and in so doing .... acknowledge that you may be 100% correct -
But I sense that the lift-back was not well received from the get-go. Also, consider how many people shy away from buying a first year model. In addition ... the second year of a brand new model should not be "old hat." If that is the case, sales of the lift-back will really be a dud by the end of the normal 5-6 year cycle.

Now I completely agree with you re the remarkable reliability of Toyota vehicle. But my original statement was regarding enthusiasm for the product of PriusChat and not necessarily about sals. My guess is that many people will buy the Prime because they "gotta have the PHEV" .... even when their older lift-back still has viable service remaining.

It was just a thought ... we shall see.

 

I own an Ioniq hybrid, and very active over on ioniqforum.

one thing I do note is the input from prius owners who are looking at the Ioniq or looking for more info about is the fact many of them have gen 2 or early gen 3 prius and the fact they have been rock solid for reliability and it is only the age and mileage they are looking at change

the new Prius seems to be a marmite type car, you either love the new styling or hate it, I have not really met anyone with a indifferent view of it. The first one I saw I didn't like the front or rear as they are too different, now I quite like the distinctive rear lights at night but the front definitely hasn't grown on me at all

likewise for me the front of my Ioniq is a little bland as though something is missing.

I did have the Prius and the Kia Niro on my shortlist as I had wanted a hybrid but at the moment the list of manufacturers offering hybrid is quite limited in the UK

the Niro was easily dismissed once I saw it, had a good look round and it just didn't fit what I wanted, so a straight fight between the Prius and Ioniq, both very similar in size interior space and side profile

for me I had

The Prius as

• good proven technology,
• good level of std equipment,
• 4th iteration of a good car

but negatives were

• right on limit of budget or just over depending on model I looked at,
• older battery technology (NiMh),
• CVT transmission
• still couldn't get to grips with the styling of the front or the inside

The Ioniq as

• Aggresively priced and within budget,
• had all the std equipment I want in the mid range model,
• styling I could live with as although fairly bland I liked it,

but it had the negatives of

• new but potentially unproven tech (LiPo battery etc),
• brand new model,
• unproven drive train
• DSG auto transmission (yes I prefer manual)

both cars got 5 star euroncap ratings but if you looked at the figures the Prius was slightly better due to scoring better on the tests like AEB

0 - 60 times are similar for both, couple of 10th's in it which most people wouldn't be able to tell

for me it came down purely to money, a 3 week old Ioniq demonstrator in the colour and spec I wanted with a chunk off the price and a good deal on the finance did it for me

for me if there the prices were similar and the previous version of the Prius front was still current it would have been a much closer decision and I could possibly have been driving a Prius now

I have not registered and post here to push the Ioniq, but thought it would be useful to you guys if you had access to someone who owns one the cars you are discussing, I am happy to answer any questions you have, but otherwise I will sit out the way on the side

answers to some of the things I have seen reading through the thread,

• I currently am getting 67mpg (I am the only Ioniq on fuelly so easy to see my stats) which seems pretty similar to Prius
• the trip computer in my car is between 0.5% and 1.5% optimistic so pretty accurate
• dsg is pretty smooth, but at times you can catch it out if you "surprise it" with a sudden prod of the right foot needing it to change down more than 1 gear then it takes a second or 2 for it to work out which gear you need

 

welcome! thanks for a great write up. i'm sure you'll get some questions. pics would be great if you can sometime. all the best!

 

my theory about the new Prime front-end look is that Toyota deliberately wanted to make their failing hydrogen car look more acceptable by styling the prime's front end look somewhat similar - u call it the big gaping holes look of the mirai. So yes, the front-end look of the Hyundai is much more pleasant. Still, looks are quite subjective & as bizarre as it would seem, I suppose some people think it looks great. More power to them.
.... but ... "marmite" ?
Always thought of myself as a kind of wordsmith, but that one, I had to look up. Which reference are we thinking, Marmite earthenware or marmite on toast /spreadable yeast superfood. Yea - either way - that's most likely a noun that's not in anyone's wheelhouse. Nice pull!

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Thanks for the review. If I hadn't previously owned a Hyundai, and was looking to buy at the time the Ioniq and Prius were out together, I bet I would have bought the Ioniq. Two and a half years owning the Hyundai, and dealing with Hyundai were a miserable time. The only real new car thrill came between buying it and the first shocking fill up.
If I can prevent just one Hyundai sale by telling of my own experience, it will go a little way to making up for the £9,000 wasted in depreciation of a car not worth keeping for the planned 10 years!
I was averaging high 60s with the Prius when driving for economy, probably mid 50s now it's in power rather than eco mode (about the time I came off Fuelly!). I still love the look of the car, and I really like the white cabin detailing and the HUD. Not seen another cockpit that comes close to the Prius for a comfortable and futuristic feeling. It's fun to drive in Power mode, and I'm still getting decent MPG.
I was a manual only snob all my life (despite never using an auto!) but I think the CVT is smooth and fabulous, I'll always want this transmission from now on. It makes me try and avoid using the previous best car, our 6 speed manual Honda CR-V.
Anyway, just want to keep giving it proToyota and anti Hyundai, sorry if it's getting boring!

 

the thing about marmite is you either "love it" or "hate it"

its a very binary opinon

 

What part of it is failing? It's a specialty vehicle in the early stages of customer rollout. There is no intention of widespread or high-volume production until sometime in the next decade.

It's odd that you'd associate the look. Who else would do that? Prime has the large-grille fronts in common with Lexus. People will readily recognize that similarity.

Only the ECO model is NiMH here. All the rest of the packages use Lithium.

 

thing is I know the sort of issues you are saying, I have experienced similar when I owned a ford and repeated the mistake with a vauxhall many years ago, but as you know you can find good and bad dealers, good and bad cars from all manufacturers,

and the worst thing of all is what one person sees as a bad car someone else will love, all comes down to preference and what your expectations are

main thing on a forum like this is to respect other peoples views as you don't always know the full background

 

Toyota is planning long-range battery-powered electric cars for 2020 as its hydrogen fuel cells cars are failing | Electrek

Hydrogen Fuel Cell Cars — #FAIL, In Depth −

Why hydrogen cars in the US are going to fail

Which electric car is greener: Battery or fuel cell? - Futurity

https://thinkprogress.org/tesla-trumps-toyota-the-seven-reasons-hydrogen-fuel-cell-cars-are-stalled-56d71312e6bf#.rvl6rwyd3

Your best read is a hydrogin treatis written by a NASA hydrogen specialist & physics phd titled, "The Hydrogen Hoax". The hydrogen hoax claims (every 10 years, since the 1970's) it'll be available, "in 10 years".

So yes, pouring millions into lobbying for Calif taxpayer dollars .... and for anti plugin ad's and (even as Toyota finally gives into the ever-growing acceptance of EV's) flying in the face of those ad's, have finally agreed to build EV's .... and spining a yarn a mile long that they'll have 10's of thousands of 'em on the road in 3 years, when they can't unload (even with huge price cuts) the few hundred they've pushed on various municipalities ...

But fail? The above articles are not my words ... just what i read.
sorry to the OP for letting my self be lead off topic.
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Only in North America and Japan for the big markets. Europe only gets the NiMH.

 

In defense of NiMH, it has no known generation of inert reactants. Solve the terminal seal problem and is good for hybrids.

Bob Wilson

 

just double checked the brochure I got and yep, only NiMh mentioned for UK, thought I had missed it

one question
one of the reasons I went for the Ioniq and LiPo is my years in IT I remember the days of NiMh batteries in laptops and the memory effect reducing capacity and LiPo is no affected by this as much, I assume from what I have read from owners who have older gen 2 / 3 Prius car that is not a major issue the way the charge levels are maintained by the car

 

Way, way off topic... It didn't even address the visual comparison to Lexus either.

 

lexus off topic was YOUR tangent - I already made my apologies to the OP by responding to your question. sheesh
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(eating popcorn emoji)