Rumor: dealers reluctant to sell plug-ins?

I agree; the Prius is the best blend of performance, fuel economy, interior space, price and reliability compared to any hybrid on the market. Each generation has improved over the previous by at least a 10% margin.

You can't get there without outstanding engineering.

 

Before I bought my Prius, I saw a lot more reluctance on the part of sales people to sell the Volt. They seemed to be implying that it wasn't really a well-proven technology, and "you might want to go that way if you were really into that stuff."

 

Considering the loud "avoid EV operation with the regular Prius" for best mileage statements. One might wonder about the Volt. However, the ICE/generator should be running at its optimum efficiency when charging the battery as that is its designed function.

 

I think you're touching on one of the many developments that go together to make the Prius the Prius. In my opinion, nothing else even comes close.

 

Toyota wants to leverage their hybrid experience. They are pooh-poohing BEVs, primarily due to charging time. So the question for their hybrids is: "battery + ??". Currently they have the PiP, which is battery + ICE. Their fuel-cell proposal is replacing the ICE by hydrogen fuel cell.

At least that is what their promotional material seems to be saying.

(Aside: criticizing the PiP as technologically inferior to the Volt is just trolling. Both have lots of innovative technology. )

 

I don't mind if someone claims the Prius has inferior engineering, but they have to provide the evidence to back it up. That's not something I've heard very often.

 

I'm not sure how you can say this. Can you explain how this would work, in 2014? I don't know the details but I would think that Toyota (PIP), GM (Volt), Nissan (Leaf) and Tesla (Model S) are far above the quota and it is only the other car makers that have to worry about meeting the compliance rules (else buy credits from those 4).

This can't be a serious statement based on the facts. The PIP is my 4th Prius and is superior to all the others in just about every way (The only downside is lack of spare). I drive to and from work with no gas. I drive all over the state, through mountains or wherever with higher mpg than any other car, including my previous Prius's or my other car, which is a 2010 Prius.
You may not like the design requirements of the PIP (battery small enough to fit in the existing Prius with no loss of upper trunk space)...but the engineers did this quite well.

Mike

 

Do you actually "know" this? The only way would be by looking at the EV ratio display (for trip 1 or 2) and noting EV miles of 80 and HV miles of ~50,000. Any reset of trip 1/2 would zero out both the EV and HV mile counters.

Mike

 

Why would any dealer want to stock a large number of them shortly before model-year clearance time?

There have been a small number of Volt owners who flaunted "vastly superior" and were happy to belittle & insult Prius PHV. Their attitude stemmed from seeing what Toyota did well, especially when they clashed directly with unmet expectations from GM.

It was quite interesting to watch the fallout back in late 2010 and early 2011. All these years later, we're seeing how claims of being "inferior" don't actually hold up when detail is revealed.

Not understanding audience continues to be the biggest challenge. Goals of cost-reduction and depleted-efficiency were easy enough to get agreement on. But as for that question of who, the claimed lost customers continues to remain a mystery.

Toyota is focusing their hybrid technology squarely on the masses. It's a replacement for traditional vehicles. That means it must match up with mainstream purchase priorities... a reality some Volt owners don't want to acknowledge. In other words, it's the outcome that matters. Whether or not the system stays in EV mode or it accomplishes that efficiency through blending isn't of any interest. They just plain do not care... as they do now with transmissions. They don't care how an automatic works, they just want it to work well, be reliable, and be affordable.

 

To quote someone from a recent, previous thread,"There once were three billy goats gruff..."