Next Gen PHV --> AER vs. MPG?

Dedicated plug-in(NS4) showed up at The November 2014 Guangzhou Autoshow. Hope to see this in NY! http://info.xcar.com.cn/201411/news_1711110_1.html

Willing to give up a little range for the spare tire. Would like 15-20 miles AER, 60mpg+spare tire. PIP will probably not more than 15-20 AER while the NS4 will take it from there.

 

But their original idea was to build them in parallel and release in parallel, at least in late 2013 that was the news ;( I like the fact my PiP looks like the Gen 3.

 

By then, Tesla's Model 3 has the real opportunity to make the PIP look quaint. Toyota will probably beat it to market, though, given the inevitability of delays inherent to the nature of Tesla's disruption innovations and this model vehicle in particular.

 

have to question whether anybodies ever going back to the spare tyre. if not, i'll take the extra battery range.

 

I think automakers are increasingly not putting spares in anymore, mostly for cost reasons, so they don't have to put a 5th wheel in every car they make. Which admittedly does add up when you've produced 100k cars that have a spare. Not that they'll pass the savings onto us of course.

Obviously they won't spin it that way. Instead they'll claim "reduce unneeded weight to improve MPG!" or "We're opening up space for you to use in your vehicle!" or "Just shut up and don't ask us questions like that! Now look over there instead!"

No spare tire will probably be the norm for EV's, so that they can pack more batteries into the car. So it'll be interesting to see if the Gen 4 Prius will have a spare tire like the Gen 3 does. Or if they removed it, are they making good use of that space?

 

A fat corpse stays that way for a while.

 

No spare tire - no sale for me. Period.

 

I voted for number 2. But seriously I'd sacrifice a couple of gallons of gasoline to get a little extra EV range. It gets tiresome having to carry around all that weight sloshing around.

 

I voted for #2 for the most benefit to the masses and also the marketing needs of Toyota, but #3 would work best for me.

For my commute and total driving habits, choice #3 uses less gas and produces less CO2/pollution wells/wheel (gas or electric).

Although more AER sounds sweet and would probably come in handy on several trips a year, the rest of the time I am driving around a larger/more expensive battery than needed that also hurts my average yearly efficiency (mpg and mile/kWh).

Why I think #2 is best for the masses and Toyota is that it keeps the PiP the most fuel efficient (mpg) car on the road. So for anyone who commutes less than 25-35 miles roundtrip to work or 50-70 miles roundtrip and can charge at work, one still has the most fuel and EV efficient PHEV. That's a very large number of commuters who would be better served in the PiP than a Volt or other PHEV and it will probably cost less before any subsidies. Hopefully the taxpayers and buyers can appreciate that.

 

seeing that it's currently 50mpg and 11 ev miles, 60mpg and 15-20 miles would be fabulous. okay, 20 miles, 15 might be a little weak.

 

With the Current Prius compared to its PHV, I think you'd gain a little more regular MPG in HV mode anyway. ie, if the Gen III is rated at 50 mpg, I believe in reality the PHV would be 52 mpg.

So going for 55 mpg (Gen IV rating) it could be actually 57 mpg anyway, and 30 miles ev would be fabulous! Or 35, give the Gen I volt a run for its money and Gen II considering the new PHV would be more spacious, and better mpg. I voted 2 anyway...

 

We know the EPA ratings for the current 3rd gen Prius vs the current PHEV -- the highway mpg went up by one to 49 mpg from 48 but the overall combined result is the same. So, basically, no change. The extra weight was likely cancelled out by the slightly improved battery storage efficiencies of the Lithium-Ion battery over the non-plugin's NiMH pack.

Other PHEVs with bigger and heavier plugin batteries like the Ford Energi or the new Hyundai Sonata show a 1-2 mpg decrease from their non-plug versions.

 

because pip is already li-on, it may not improve as much as gen IV lift back.

 

The decrease may not be entirely due to increased weight. In the Energi's case, the cars have a different gear ratio than the hybrid to allow the higher EV speed.