Should I get Prius Prime

The Prime is a regular Prius with a larger traction battery that can be charged from a wall outlet. Once the traction battery gets down to an indicated 0%, the Prime then drives like a Prius, with a bit more battery to absorb regeneration charge. The larger battery allows the owner to drive on EV up to 30-ish miles from wall power. For the round trip drive you describe, if charged from the wall you could do the entire trip easily on EV only and not run the gasoline engine.

If there is an outlet near your parking spot, you could run an extension cord to it. I'm not familiar with Strata - why would they implement a no car charging bylaw? Is Strata where you live, work, etc.?

The Prime can charge the EV battery from the gasoline engine, but the mode is not EV Auto. If you press and hold the HV mode switch for a few seconds, then Charge will indicate on the dash and the gasoline engine will charge the traction battery to 80% (not 100%). However, running your engine to charge the traction battery does not improve efficiency on the commute you describe, unless perhaps you charge the battery on Monday while commuting, then on Tuesday you do the drive in EV, then on Wed drive in HV and charge the battery again.

 

Personally, I'm waiting to see what the the 'next generation' of Prius/Prime brings us. Hopefully our current ones will hold out until then!

 

Here are my thoughts (FWIW)
Economically, you're nearly always better off driving a three year old car a few more years.
A LOT better off.

You're basing much of your purchase decision on being able to charge a car that only has about a 25 mile EV driving range.....basically a "compliance" vehicle. Also you're nearly always better off buying cars from dealer stock rather than ordering one.
I'm PRESUMING that you do not live in a part of Canada where block heaters are non-optional equipment, but you may not even get 25 miles of EV range in the part of Canada that you live in.
Canadian laws are going to probably be different about deposit money for cars, contract or no contract - and your tax benefits are going to be different than each of our 50 US states as well - so you're going to have to factor all of that into whatever math formula you use to justify the decision.

So here's how it would play out for ME:

If the $500 is refundable, I'd only buy the Prime if it were as cheap or cheaper than the wireless (regular) Prius....and even if it were I would think very VERY seriously about just keeping the C.

If the $500 deposit is not refundable I'd go through with the purchase, maybe, but I'd put the car under a microscope and complain about every single little mark and flaw on it and document everything BEFORE I signed for the car, and then I would become their social media nightmare.
Many of our US states have a 'cooling off' period following car purchases, and Toyota of North America HAS to have better customer service in Canada than they do in the US, so you may get some relief there as well.

---all of this is presuming that you signed nothing when you put down the $500 deposit - which is also very curious.

I'm thinking I read that they're going to stuff a 5th seat somewhere in the 2020 Prime.
This wouldn't normally be very interesting to someone who drives a C-type...unless you're family situation is changing, BUT one presumes that three years from now a gently used Prius with 5 seat belts will be worth more than gently used Priuses with 4 - beyond the extra year's depreciation.

Your call.

 

You have already answered your question. You have no way to charge the car either at home or at work. Get your deposit back, unless, you were getting the car for a carpool sticker. Then it’s your call.

 

I don't know what Strata is but if that's some kind of homeowner's or neighborhood association or using a bylaw to prevent car charging you need to expose them and get people to let them know as often as possible that they're moving out, or canceling their plans to move in due to anti-climate hate/discrimination. I'd also get a lawyer to look thru your basic rights, contracts, agreements that were signed and then write a letter, that will make them have to hire a lawyer to respond. That's the kind of pressure it will take. Similarly in Canada when they rescinded tax credits for Tesla buyers, Elon sent a pack of Lawyers after them and the greedy evil-doers of fossil fuel dominance backed down right away!

 

In the US, rebates and incentives would be by state, I have not lived in Canada since 1987, so I am not up on rebates by Province.

Since you do not list a province everyone is going to be very generic.

Canadian gov’t outlines EV incentive details, list of 27 eligible models and trims | Driving

Electric car incentives in Canada — what to know about the rebate that includes Tesla 3 - National | Globalnews.ca

"The federal rebate works in addition to any provincial zero-emissions vehicles incentive, which is currently only in British Columbia and Quebec."

 

This is a bit of a stretch.

 

Perhaps... But banning plugins use for plugin cars is wrong-headed and anti-progressive and about as dumb as banning people from buying plane tickets online and forcing them to only buy through a local travel agent. It's so far behind the times that the reaction people will have will keep getting worse and worse and if they don't back down there's gonna be lots of name calling and wild accusations... And I'm eager for it to get to that point!!!

 

The banning plugins thing is probably more about people stealing the electricity from a common plug than anything else. I would guess people are free to have their own charging station or plug in their own garage where they pay for electricity.

 

Maybe this?
Condo Smarts: Owners reject upgrades for charging stations | Times Colonist

 

It appears that the association does not want to fund charging stations for use of a few members. That sounds reasonable. The few members should fund their own charging.

 

There's a big difference between funding full blown charging stations vs. banning people from running an extension cord to their car... The former is a major accommodation, the latter is no more than letting them do it, or at most having a maintenance guy add an extra exterior outlet so the extension cord doesn't have to be so long.

But as is so often the case here the new person posting didn't give enough details and we don't even know who/what a "Strata" is... So the conversation is heading towards a waste of time real fast, as is so often the case here.

 

In the reply above you will see it is a Canadian association similar to a condominium.

 

Umm no. The person would be stealing electricity from the common account all the residents pay for. Why should everyone have to pay for someone’s gas savings. 100% right to ban plugins in that situation.

 

Strata Housing - Province of British Columbia
I believe "Strata" is the type of a housing option available in B.C., but not knowing where the OP is located in Canada, it may not. Who knows. Yeah, without OP providing more info, it's only speculation.

In any case, if OP has no way to charge the car, and PRIME does not provide substantial incentive over regular Prius, I would get the deposit back.

 

yes, you should back out of the deal. prime would be a costly mistake for you. stick with your c

 

This is pretty much why I will refuse to live/own in a condo, HOA, or similar housing situation. Too many people involved in decisions means anyone can have a veto and anything new is likely to be rejected.

 

Believe it or not, that argument tends to find some weakness when you realize what condo associations often share collectively. In my own, we have shared water, garbage, and garage electricity (although the circuit is too small to put on much more than lights and door openers.) Of course, we also have snow removal, lawn care, and other maintenance--but these are more evenly spread out than the former resources.

Some people have whole families in these units, and I'm a single guy--I pay the same rate even though I use considerably less of each resource. I'm not terribly worried about the "communal" price of electricity, especially when we're at a low rate in NY per KWH in my region.

I raised the charging issue here, but right now it's not on anyone's mind enough to care. You pick your battles, and I bought the Prius Prime realizing I'd almost certainly have to drive it as a normal hybrid. And considering I got it nearly 11k off and cheaper than a normal Prius, not regretting that decision.

 

Even if you lower your Prime charge current to 8 amps?