Featured Open Letter To Toyota USA: Go All In On The Prius Prime, Kill The Regular Prius Hybrid

My read...HE just wants to encourage Toyota to keep moving forward to BEVs. The advancement and balance between tech, cost, infrastructure and convenience is gradual...just as is peoples willingness to embrace it. Just remember what we used to drive decades ago...considering that most here are in the autumn and winter of our lives. Things are and will change, just not as fast as some would like.

 

Manufacturers have been doing universal platforms of some degree for decades now. TNGA is going to save Toyota on development costs, but it doesn't appear to have, or they are unwilling to give it, much flexibility. It was designed for ICE cars and hybrids that could work with a battery that would fit under the rear seat. This is why the quick and easy battery pack for the Prime takes up so much space in the cargo area.

With time and effort, a pack could be devised that made use of the spare tire well built into the platform, that is now empty, wasted space in the Prime, but there will still be space loss. Compared to the Ioniq, it is clear that a large battery wasn't given much consideration in the Prius development. Look at the platform used by the Cruze and Volt, and it can be seen that GM was willing to alter the basic components to accommodate the large battery pack.

Had one, and the only complaint is that the seats were as bad as the ones in the gen2 Prius.

 

Ever since I started visiting this site all the internet advertisers have responded as if I were a retiree.

Still just a word in the dictionary to me...

 

i was working when i bought my first pri

 

Let’s design a taxi. The Prime Long Range

Large, low liftover cargo area, with LiIon battery underneath. At least 30 mile EV range, ideally 60.

Charging under the rear seat, 40 Amp, uses a 50 amp circuit. Fast charging will help taxis waiting for customers.

Seats 5 in US, sliding rear doors, tall roof line, flat back hatch

I am happy with the 1.8 l, due to added weight I expect to be geared lower, top electric speed of 75? Top speed of 101 MPH? 48 MPG?

To be an ideal Jimbo vehicle, the rear seat folds flat with cargo floor.

I am describing a larger Prius v as a PHEV, other example vehicles a Mazda 5 as a PHEV, a Kia Rondo as a PHEV, a smaller Chrysler Pacifica.

It could be a second gen Toyota Verso PHEV Toyota Verso - Wikipedia

It would sell as a Uber/Lyft/Taxi. It would sell as a cargo van. As a cargo van, ideally you would have 110 outlets for the job site, with a locked in place P mode.

In the US, our ‘minivans’ grew to be the size of the vans they replaced; this would be a minivan, again.

 

jimbo's open letter to toyota

 

Fixed it for you. Gotta leave something in it for the finance nerds.

I always liked the Mazda 5 on paper. I don't think it was ever executed very well, but small van with sliding doors, electrified? That plan has potential.

 

When I first read that, I thought, "why would they need so many outlets?"

 

The future of humanitarian aid.

 

Now I want to mount 7 of these.



I meant 110 volt outlets, I am sorry if I evoked medusa like visions of cords. Unlike normal people, at one point I owned 36 eight inch extension cords .

 

I'm not sure why you really would want that many 110v outlets in a vehicle. You can't power that many high loads. You'd really want a lot of small amperage 5v USB ports and it would be more efficient with one good quality transformer for this.

Mike

 

Hint. Transformers work using AC not the DC provided by Prius batteries.

 

I don't think most people would keep a running total either

It would however be very cool for powering a touring rock bands equipment. "Party in the Desert", "Rock out in the Mountains" and other future random scenery venues.

 

I was networking copiers, supporting a mental health organization's network, and an electric power cooperative's network. So I was using a lot of devices with wall warts. I was in a hardware store and they had 3 packs for $2 (should have been $7) and I bought them all.


I have 3 left in retirement.

 

I have a hamper full of its somewhat more internationally accepted cousin for my travel work:


(and all the other bits to adapt in/out/around it)

 

i for one would love the corolla hybrid station wagon if it was sold in US market. I think that would be a great option for our family, if it had the same rear legroom as the sedan.

 

the hatchback is tiny inside. Almost no rear cargo space.

 

Exactly. That's why you don't want a dozen AC outlets, plugging in a dozen small transformers (they are actually transformers and rectifiers). What you want is an inverter (DC to AC), a transformer (AC to AC, 12v to ~5v), and rectify (AC to DC)to 5vdc for many USB connections. Of course you will still need some AC outlets for devices that need more than the 5v provided by USB.

Mike

 

I doesn't matter to me if Toyota makes a Prius and calls it a Corolla or Camry hybrid hatchback. That does not make the Prius concept dead, it is simply renamed.

Basically US plug-in advocates are asking Toyota to do for PHEV what they did for hybrids, which is redesign a vehcile around the PHEV concept. But that requires a new chassis which is something we do not get very often from the auto companies. That seems to be a huge commitment for the autos to do that, and Toyota is not seeing the need, considering Japan is not so Plug-in fanatic as some enthusiasts are here.

 

^^^spot on^^^ when has a car maker ever catered to enthusiasts and not gone bankrupt, or fired a manager?