What I don't like about the Prius Prime

Excellent alternative - I'm surprised people don't mention it more often. I'm lazy in ways that make me less than enthusiastic about the concept, but that's a character flaw, not a valid criticism. If one's willing to do this, a lot of possibilities open up (e.g., Honda's otherwise excellent Accord Hybrid, the Prius Prime we're whining about, or even Hyundai's PHEV Sonata if you're in the right state), and even more in the next few years. Interesting.

 

they may not. but they fit in my pip. and speaking of that, i would have to buy shorter plants too.

 

Are you trying to do this with one single car or a car for city driving and another car for longer trips or cases where you are going somewhere with friends/visitors?

 

remember when toyota kept showing us close up images of the gen 3 before it came out? that was a fun game, and created a lot of discussion. seems like they've become the no fun company since competition arrived on the scene.

 

Replace your recycling bins with newer shorter bins and get shorter plants - we must all sacrifice now and then (-;

 

shoeboxes and ground cover.

 

I'm factoring the cost of car insurance and depreciation into the equation as a proxy for representing carbon dioxide emission. So I'm hoping to purchase just a single car that will cover nearly all of my needs. When relatives come and visit and we want to do a road trip together in a single vehicle, I'll rent a 7 seat minivan for those 3-5 days. They rent a car anyways when they visit, so the $20/day rental difference is negligible in the scheme of things.

 

I have curbside recycling with a 95-gallon barrel that you toss all recyclable materials into. I couldn't imagine still having to deal with bins.

 

yes, it's a real shame here. we have to drive to the dump/recycling center, or pay for private pick up. i like the 8 mile r/t ev drive though. then of course, there's the saturday morning dump camaraderie.

 

no idling allowed. that being said, this is a very rural area. 1+ acre lots, lots of farms, no commercial zone, only one stop light, no natural gas, water or sewerage. we're still in the 19th century. not sure if it's better, but it's definitely low stress.

 

Last night I went to visit someone selling a used '13 PiP. Turns out he runs a farm in a very rural area - had to drive down a gravel road, then a long private drive that was barely more than driving through a field. The first question I asked him was "why a Prius plugin in such a remote farming area?" Seemed like an odd choice of vehicle for that need.

Then he went on to tell me they live pretty much 100% off the grid, they use solar power on the roof (but I couldn't see the panels from where we were). So, they had a PiP mainly for environmental reasons, though this motivation is mainly his wife's doing as an activist (however, in his 84K km of driving, his car showed only 11% EV driving, so maybe not as environmental as he was thinking...)

In fairness, he was an elderly gentleman who really didn't know much about the technology (didn't even know what the Power and Eco buttons were), I was explaining some of the features of his car to him.

Anyway, just thought I would share the story in response to the rural comment above... But I digress, back on topic now....

So, to make this post relevant, what I don't like about the Prime is that it simply is not available yet, and I have run out of time with my 2nd gen dying, so I bought a used '14 PiP today instead. Maybe in a couple years Toyota will come out with a 5-seat Prime and I can upgrade.

Cheers.

 

When discussing hybrids, engine is used interchangably with ICE and motor is only used for the electric, well, motors, noob.

I thought of the Outlander sometime after the post. I should have specified my statement was a challenge for actual cars. SUVs and such are taller and could have the required space for the exhaust, and also has a a battery small enough that it might not need to extend rail to rail of the chassis.

To look at this from another angle, take the Bolt. Early in its development, GM made a Sonic EV. GM is using the Trax platform for the production Bolt, which is a taller version of the Sonic's. The Trax used that extra space underneath for AWD. The Bolt is using it for batteries so it can go farther than the 150 or so miles the Sonic EV was reported to have.

The gen2 and 3 have the battery behind the rear seats and under the cargo floor.

Shame, you aren't a noob. I said hybrid, not PHEV. Hybrid sedans loss around 3cu.ft.. If the number you have there is correct, the Prime loses more than double.

I bring up the hybrid midsize sedan, because the ICE version is a very 'mainstream' segment. If buyers can use the 3cu.ft. of lost trunk space as an excuse to skip on the hybrid version, they will use the even greater loss of cargo space in a PHEV hatchback.

The Prius Prime being targeted to a different buyer doesn't change the fact that the lost cargo space and seat are obvious, and more so when there is a Prius nearby to check out. Doesn't matter if the buyer wouldn't consider the Prius itself, it is just the benchmark they can use to make the Prime's losses too big of a con for them to buy.

But does it have a plug to go with the ICE?

 

Not even a battery to go with the ICE, in the standard Mitsubishi i. (And, I thought the i used a 660 cc turbo version of the Smart's 1000 cc NA engine.)

 

What? Did Mitsubishi score a warehouse full of Model T starter cranks that they felt they just had to use?

 

Japanese law for the class that the i was built for. 660 cc max, 64 PS (63 hp) max. They're actually decently high tech engines, that used to be very high-strung to get to the power max, but with modern turbocharging, actually rev low and are torquey.

 

I'm guessing they are started like a motorcycle.