Featured OH No! Toyota Might Ditch the Prius c, v (lowercase v for the Prius v wagon) and Plug-In Hybrid

Didn't you hear? NAFTA made Canada and Mexico part of the US

Hybrid sales may grow in Europe, but only among the models made there. The taxes really drive up the price on imports.

Or charge more because of news of the plant explosion

The form factor of the Prius v and C-Max are more popular outside of the US. They have optional third row seats, and the right compromise between size and fuel efficiency with the higher fuel prices. In the US, it isn't hard to get people to choose the small SUV over the mini-minivan. The Mazda5 has been discontinued here because of the lack of interest.

 

it's really a matter of gas prices. people won't choose rav4 hybrid over v at 5 bucks a gallon. if there is still a v.

 

Well, Toyota has officially dumped it's Scion brand. The three remaining Scion models will wear the Toyota badge.
They plan to keep the IM five door, so maybe that might become the replacement Prius v wagon at some point. Just a guess...

 

Isn't the scion IM just a version of the corolla hatchback which is the auris in europe? If so they can probably pump them out pretty easily bring production to the corolla plant in mississippi, or just import the hybrids from England or japan (do they make them in japan?) Its already got a hybrid auris version in europe so that can't be hard.

I would think a v replacement would be taller and wider, to be more of a efficient crossover.

 

Timely:

Last week when I looked at the 2016 Prius, I noted to the sales critter that one area of the dealership had been a Scion area . . . he didn't know what I was talking about. Good thing I didn't mention the Saturn dealership.

Bob Wilson

 

We had our eye on Mazda5 during Cash-for-Clunkers but that program was so short lived it was like musical chairs, and we were at the VW dealer when the music stopped playing.

 

I would. In fact, I think most people would.

 

Well, in Portugal we pay 1.3eur per liter, so it will make a difference, even with a 30USD oil barrel.
SUV pay hard at the tolls also.
And who needs 190hp?

(I hate SUVs, does it show?)

 

In general, the European market is quite a bit different than the North American market. In the North American market, at US$3 per gallon, the RAV4 Hybrid would far outsell the Prius v, but I think even at US$5 per gallon, the RAV4 Hybrid would still significantly outsell the Prius v.

 

Looking back 6-7 years, wasn't the expansion of the Prius line in response to market demand which was keyed to fuel prices?

Seems fair that Toyota respond to current trends even knowing that the market will reverse in another 3-5 years. Phasing out the "v" & "c" and sticking with the Prius & PHV models, which will soon share the same TGNA, should allow for several years of lower sales.

 

Odd as I don't use any special techniques and get 25% more MPG and I'm at EPA and fuelly midpoint at around 29k and very mixed city/country. And the MPG is supposed to be better city than interstate as more time on battery. Did you ever ride with her and keep an eye on the instantaneous MPG gauge. She may have just one thing she is doing "wrong" or she just has a lead foot.

 

lead foot. are you married?

 

It's currently a Corolla platform. However, I suspect that the prius v concept is certainly tweakable. Particularly with the Scion demise.
I speculate that Toyo will have a v-type wagon. It might be their iM "WAGON" in the future. Contemporary design, the 1.8 engine, a refreshed hybrid...

 

Other than the GPS I love mostly everything about my v (lowercase v for the Prius v wagon) I love the space, so cheap on gas. look nice,smooth car it is a joy to drive noting comme close for my need. The regular Prius is better on gas but not enough space for me some seem to think they are mostly the same but I would suggest to look more than number because there is HUGE difference in real cargo space night and day. I dont like the rav4 for me a hybrid cost premium need to be better than 32 mpg. gas is 5$ a gallon hybrid need baterie sooner or later so you need to payback and at 32mpg the rave dont make it. Mazda 5 or cmax would be my next choice. all in all I as much as i love the v (lowercase v for the Prius v wagon) I have a very hard time buying a new one cause they are so ugly...conclusion I love mine even more and will keep it

 

We knew from the beginning that Prius PHV was a mid-cycle upgrade intended for real-world data collection. Expectations were never beyond modest sales. Heck, the first full year had a planned quantity of just 13,000. That resembled the same thing Toyota did here with Prius back in 2000. Both quantity and availability were intentionally limited, it was also a mid-cycle upgrade. No one seems to remember any of that history or how successful that approach was.

We'll end up with a second-generation model designed for mass-appeal, just like the transformation that regular model experienced.

It might not look like the gen-4 Prius. It may not even be called Prius. What we do know is that it will be an improvement based upon what Toyota learned from the previous.

 

Upgrades of what, the car or the charging stations?

Re: Blink, they were run (very poorly) by Ecotality which they went bankrupt. Ecotality didn't do a good job of keeping their stations working nor getting them repaired quickly. All of Blink's public L2 EVSEs (and many of their residential ones of that era) had crap REMA J1772 handles. Many would overheat and melt at higher amperages (e.g. 30+): Blink / Rav4 Blows Out a Contactor Pin (with gory pics) - My Nissan Leaf Forum.

They ended up turning down the amperage to: While Under Threat From OEMs, ECOtality Turns Down The Output On Chargers To Avoid Failures - Inside EVs and Ecotality Reduced Current on Level 2 Blink Electric Car Chargers | PluginCars.com.

CCGI bought out the carcass of Ecotality but their financials are also very scary. They can't even file their quarterly reports and financials anywhere close to on time and take a look at CCGI Income Statement | CAR CHARGING GROUP Stock - Yahoo! Finance. For 2014, they had only ~$2.8 million in revenue but lost about $22.7 millilon in the process. From what I hear, they also are doing a fairly poor job of maintaining their stations and repairing them quickly.

There are no Blink stations near me but within ~20 miles, there are some, which charge an exorbitant $0.49/kWh for level 2 charging for members. Another major charging network is Chargepoint but they have a different business model. It's up to the station owner (which is NOT Chargepoint except at their HQ) to set the prices to whatever they want.

BTW, I'm not sure if you've seen the sales numbers, when the PiP was still being made. Although it's not apples to apples since PiP was only available in a limited # of states, the best year of PiP sales in the US per Monthly Plug-In Sales Scorecard was 2014 w/13,264 units sold in the US. In comparison, per December 2014 Dashboard, in the same period, 122,776 non-plugin Prius liftbacks (regular Prius) were sold in the US.

 

Wait, wait for it . . . Toyota could rebadge the Ioniq as the Prius c and . . . NOT!

Bob Wilson

 

why do you think the last two are a possibility?

 

And some don't seem to remember Toyota setting the first year global sales goal for the Prius Plug In at 60,000 Toyota rolls out rechargeable Prius plug-in hybrid - AJW by The Asahi Shimbun, and missed it by over 50% Toyota Prius Plug-in Hybrid - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The 13,000 in the US isn't far off from the 15,000 predicted Toyota Plug-in Prius priced at $32,000* and Prius V to start at $26,400*, but for the home market, Toyota really called a GM with 11,000 to the 40,000 goal.

The expected modest sales were so modest that Toyota cancelled the nationwide roll out Toyota Reveals Prius Family of Vehicles at the North American International Auto Show | Toyota.

 

but you have a liftback. Would you pay more for the wagon with worse fuel economy?

He's making it up. Some guy from toyota said the gen IV phv may look more conventional than the gen IV liftback back around 2 years ago. That is likely to be true as I'm sure some people inside toyota that think some of that front end looks uglified versus a gen III or a corolla. No reason for the prius phv to resemble the mirai at all, but not much reason to change the siloette, seats, platform, etc. Maybe a prettier dash more information.

Back before toyota went all mirai crazy in the media they did have a not bad looking phev code named NS4 at the 2012 detroit auto show.
Toyota NS4 Advanced Plug-In Hybrid Concept – News – Car and Driver
That was before they started shipping production prius phvs to the US, and before they found they didn't sell in japan (prius phv was originally supposed to sell 40,000/year in japan alone). Perhaps with the mirai proving difficult to deliver because well its expensive and there aren't places to fuel it, and with phevs having there best january ever, toyota may work on the NS4, or some other dedicated phev.

It is sure thing a gen IV prius phv is coming. We don't know the date. We don't know the price. We don't know the range other than substantially more than the gen I. Its a no brainer. People were doing phev conversions of prius before there was a volt, why would toyota just give that market away to chevy, and audi, and hyundai. Its not that hard people.

There will be a redesign of the alpha, despite what these guys are talking like. Its also a no brainer to export it or or build something similar in america.

The prius wagon is the only car on the chopping block, as it needs to be redesigned with the liftback or gets expensive to make. I think they will keep the prius v, but who knows. If they do, they should grow it taller and put a bigger lithium battery and mg2 in the beast.