Prime destined to be doa?

Do people ever think about why pure EV works so good for now ?
It's because they are rare !
Yes Tesla has built and are building great electric cars,no doubt about that,but what will happen if the Model 3 will be huge success?
Will Tesla be able to make sure they will have enough superchargers to keep up ?
Once there are queues at charging stations,what has allready happened even though there are not many Model S around compared to regular gas cars,the hype will soon be over !
I hope Tesla will have success,but I do have my doubts !

 

How long do these superchargers take? Not like hopping in and out of a gas station?

 

Well to get a good amount of charge between 20-30 min. at least !

 

I don't think it's gonna work until they can come up with way to swap batteries. Yeah, I'm sceptical, think pure electrics have a way to go. And all of this may be eclipsed by another issue: with every increasing congestion, the viability of individual vehicles, of any sort.

 

You mean that you will soon pre-order tickets for the hyperloop for 2018 or 2019, another project of Elon Musk?

 

Have we seen pricing information on the Prime?

I can actually go and touch a $34,000 2017 Volt, even in the Gulf South.
Right now.

Tough to compare it to a car that's >6 months from debuting in (some of? all of???) the states with an as-yet undisclosed final MSRP.

Anybody know what kind of Federal Tax Kickback the Prime will be eligible for?

The Prime might not be DOA, but it might be in the list of endangered species....

 

nothing. toyota says they know they need to be aggressive. rebate is about 4k.

 

$4k places it at a further $3.5K disadvantage....

 

correct. there is plenty of discussion about this.

 

Well.....
The Prime will certainly be more fuel efficient than the G2 Volt, and that might justify a little extra moolah, and there are people out there who will give Yota a few more thou in street cred.
Styling will also sway some people to or from the Prime or the Volt. There used to be a lot less of a difference between the two, but for better or worse the Prime is much more.....ah......"visually distinct."

It's a discussion worth having, but if I had to buy one of the two today, there's only one of the two on the market today.

Advantage: GM

 

always the case, but this thread is about being dead on arrival, not pre arrival. and the o/p's premise is about the superiority of the model 3, which is further from arrival than the prime.

 

Tesla already has battery swapping tech. Even had a station for it. The majority choose to wait the 20 minutes or so charging, plus time waiting for a space, instead of paying around $80 to be out of there in under 2 minutes. Yes, Tesla's battery swap takes less time than a hydrogen or gasoline fill.

I think people are focusing too much on the charging available for long trips when these long trips aren't a majority of the miles driven on the car. A 200+ range BEV will cover a vast majority of people's daily miles driven with just the charge from home. For many, they could forget to plug it in one day without an issue. Most of the gas stations we see everyday aren't serving cars on long trips, but ones just doing the daily drive.

We need to address charging availability for apartments and condos for wider adoption of plug ins in the future, but that has more to do with zoning and local regulations than with the cars and the car makers.

The DC fast charger numbers do have to grow in order to meet the demands of more long range BEVs coming out. More chargers are needed than gas pumps for the same number of cars along a travel corridor, but there should be more options to place them, and less red tape to do so than for a gasoline station.

 

How much pollution does that gas station produce? thought so. and I'm not just talking the station itself. the numbers of cars it 'enables' to continue to pollute. it's not all about nothing. there are no drawbacks to clean air and sustainable transport. NONE of which gasoline is a part of.

Quick edit and a thought. Yes, I absolutely would be in line for a toyota Prius EV with nationwide fast charging for road trips. Where are you? Why can't this also be something toyota came up with? It's beginning to be too late...

 

The Model 3 is a BEV that, at best, is in a pre-order status and is in a completely different category than Priuses are for cost, fuel, availability, and efficiency.

If some 355,000,000 people have plunked down $1000 for a shot at getting into a T3, they would probably be well advised to get into an already available BEV or PHEV while they wait.
As you pointed out, the gestation period for the T3 is going to be even more lengthy than the Prime, and I would imagine that the first models that hit the streets will be closer to $70,000 than the $34,000 Volt2 that I can drive today.

A bird in the hand.

Tesla is to be commended for their passionate pursuit of putting a commercially viable BEV on the street with real world useability (outside urban areas) and at a price that 99-percenters can actually afford, and actually making them attractive enough for 99-percenters to want to be seen in.

I'll commend them when they're done!

Until then, I'll continue to compare the Prime with vehicles of its same type and cost...and even availability.....er.....when its available.

 

I think it is not only city congestion that makes the automobile problematic. It is a luxury to wrap oneself in a comfortable cocoon and move from point a to b dragging a ton of metal along the way. Where is all the energy to endulge ourselves going to come from?

 

Farmers, Truckers, and import companies.

Otherwise, you'd have to live where the food is......

.....and drive a car or (more likely) a pickup truck.

 

Right now they "borrow" a battery pack. When they return on their trip, they get their old one back. I don't see battery swapping catching on.

As Trollbait said, you are not going to be charging at gas stations like you do with your ICE. All charging is done at home except for those road trips. I've had my model S for 10 months now and have made 2 trips that required superchargers. - phoenix to Kingman and phoenix to SanDiego. Time the 40 minute charge with a snack/bathroom break and it is really relaxing. The other 9 months and 3 weeks, I never hit a gas station. Visiting a fillup station is only needed now for road trips. Different concept for sure.

 

Well, in my case, my solar panels will be generating as much energy as my cars use

 

I worry that the underlined may not be true for the coming Prime. The PiP started around $30k. The Prime has a battery pack twice the size of the PiP, and it is going to have finer appointments than the Prius. I have doubts that Toyota will price a base Prime at what the base PiP was at.

The Model 3 will start at $35k, and it likely will be better equipped than a 3 series of that price. The get that large display in the Prime, it will likely cost as much as the 3. The first 3's will have the big ticket options; AWD, auto pilot, and larger battery pack(I think $60k is more likely). Options simply not available on any Prius.

But the Model 3 is a BEV and arrives after the Prime. I don't see it being a big impact on Prime sales. What will be is the Volt, Energis, and Hyundai PHEVs. They all start in the $30k to $35k range that the Prime is likely to have. The only stand out advantage it has is the better efficiency. The four seats will have people taking another look at the Volt, or going to the C-max Energi. Those that want a nicer car will likely opt for the larger sedan PHEVs.

 

the sad part is, we're left without a prius phev, unless hyundai comes thru with something.