Some insider notes on the 2017 Prius Prime

it would be interesting to know how many tenths of a mile per hour it would charge in full sun, before getting too excited.
Wow, merge morning fornbisco

no cost yet, hopefully competitive.

 

Let's say the area used for the two solar panels is at most 2m2, then solar panels of 400Wp in total would already be a lot. On a sunny day (with sun above you) you could get an incoming power close to 400W then, which is 0.4 kWh in one hour. As 1 kWh can realise 7 km or 4.3 miles, this 0.4 kWh would give you additionally 2.8 km or 1.7 mile in one hour time. When your car is parked for 8 hours at work (or at home), for example, this can give you 8 times such an hour, which is 22.4 km or 13.6 miles. Actually, this is more than I would have expected. But this is calculated under most optimistic assumptions. In reality it will be a bit lower. For example, maybe the solar panels are not 400Wp but 300Wp, which will make the outcome 25% less: 17 km or 10 miles for the 8 hours.

 

The Fisker Karma had a solar roof but it didn't add much to the battery in terms of miles. It used a thin film design because it was flexible enough to fit the curve in the roof and I suspect the same is true for the Prime solar roof option in Japan. Thin film panels collect less energy per square meter than conventional crystalline panels.

 

Yes, if they use thin film (what I would not advise) the numbers will still be lower. I don't think they would need to use flexible panels as the car is rigid. They 'only' have to produce the panels in the right shape.

 

Whooaaa! That looks totally awesome! It carries the black tone F to R and seamlessly fixes that weird black useless painted portion above the back hatch glass. Too bad we can't have it.

 

Tideland - can you ask why in the world did they get rid of the 5th seat? Is there something we are missing here?

 

I'd love to know the max kW output of the battery pack. The two motors combined can apparently handle 95 kW but I suspect the battery peaks at closer to 70-80 kW.

 

Err, then why is it sitting on top of the cargo deck?

 

because they didn't plan enough space, when redesigning the prius lift back chassis for the 8 kWh battery. maybe they were hoping battery miniaturization would have happened by now.

 

You're saying the battery under the seat, under the deck and on top of the deck? That's crazy for such a small battery.

 

how small is it? 16 times more powerful than the lift back?

 

It's just 8kWh - about the same size as the Tesla Powerwall 1.0, which isn't very big - 51.3” x 34” x 7.2”.

 

sounds about right, don't know if it's the same exact as tesla, which is pretty advanced. if you measure the usable space under the gen4, you'll probably find about 54 x 44 x 4, with an extra heap on top of the deck for good measure. the charger goes in the spare wheel well. and they enlarged the gas tank too, for some strange reason.

 

Maybe customer feedback. IIRC, there were some on this forum who were unhappy with the smaller size gas tank compared to the Gen 3 lift back.

600+ mile range is impressive, but most of us don't need it and could quickly fill up with a fresh tank of gas on those long trips during a needed restroom break.

 

agreed. i would be interested to know what kind of feedback they got. i would happily give up a few gallons for more deck space and a fifth seat. toyota always takes two steps forward and one back for some reason.

 

Must have gotten feedback from those people complaining about Tesla range... you know, I drive 500+ miles per rest break, type of people.

 

Hyvee gas discounts are good for up to 20 gallons at a transaction. Twice the tank size could mean the difference between being able to save up a $1.80 per gallon discount instead of just $0.90 by only having to buy gas once a month instead of every two weeks. The savings could easily add up to over a $120 per year.

 

Hahaha! Yeah, that's tiny. That could go just about anywhere back there and not intrude on space.

I can't wait for the Mr. Fusion tech to be available (wait, Oct. 2015 is already behind us), so I might be able to suffer the 3" less vertical stowage space in back, as long as my groceries still fit in there somehow.

 

now double would have taken up the whole hatch. can you fill two 5 gallon jugs and take it with you?