New 2017 Prius Plug In

[Borgholio]

Watched the live stream at the New York Auto show during the debut. It only gives 22 miles of electric range and they're proud of that? That's 1/3 what you can get out of the Volt. They claim to have listened to customers which is why it can now go up to 84mph in pure electric mode, but if they really did listen they would have given it 50 miles at least. They totally blew it. Chevy, Tesla, Ford, even Hyundai are going eat them for lunch.

[GrandMasterTerwynn]

Not really. They're just catching up with most of the other plug-in hybrids available. The Ford plug-ins only achieve ~22 miles of electric-only range, and can hit 80 MPH in electric-only mode. The Hyundai offering is only 27 miles, and I don't know where you're getting "1/3 the range of the Volt," as the Volt's electric-only range is 53 miles.

I agree that Chevrolet is going to eat them for lunch, but only because they're coming out with the fairly inexpensive all-electric Bolt ... beating Tesla's Model 3 to market by a lot.

[Borgholio]

The Volt is EPA rated at 53 miles but I've read many accounts of people being able to go 60+ when they religiously use as much regenerative braking as possible. So the new Prius is actually close to 1/3 the real world range of the Volt. As far as the others, you're right...the Prius is just catching up. And that's a bad thing. They should have leapfrogged the competition but they didn't. The Ford plug-in has been out for almost 4 years already and Hyundai is still known as a cheap car company and even they have higher range than the Prius. The Prius Prime should have been at least 40 miles on battery. Combined with the 55+ MPG of the engine, that could have been a major selling point vs the Volt...since even though the Volt has longer electric range, the gas engine is only 42mpg and the interior is rather cramped. The Prius could have won on the gas engine efficiency and interior comfort, despite having a slightly smaller battery.

I just feel they don't really care about plug-ins or pure EVs because they're pushing the regular Prius and their fuel cell vehicle.

[Arthur_Tuxedo]

Toyota execs have gone on the record against BEVs (Battery Electric Vehicles) for years now, and as much as I'd love to take them to task for not embracing the green tech of the future, I can't argue from the POV of profitability for the world's largest auto manufacturer. At current gas prices which are likely to persist as long as the fracking boom does (~10 years), the Prius is equally as ecologically friendly in most states as the Chevy Volt, Nissan Leaf, or any Tesla. Only in states like California and parts of Europe are plug-in vehicles superior either financially or environmentally, and Toyota must necessarily ignore those special cases.

While Toyota does pursue hydrogen cars that will probably be a technological dead-end since they are a solution in search of a problem, they devote a very small percentage of their total resources to hydrogen cars and can easily pivot toward BEVs if and when those prove to be the way forward (probably ~c2025), instantly eclipsing any other manufacturer's spending and retaining the ability to simply buy any company that has built up a large enough lead in BEV technology.

As much as I would love for Toyota to embrace EVs, they wouldn't have overtaken GM as the world's leading auto manufacturer if they were the first to jump on every technological trend. The 2017 Prius Prime provides enough electric range for most local trips under a marquee that most Americans understand and maintains 50+ MPG on the gas-only engine. That's an important advance, and more meaningful overall than anything that Chevy or Tesla is doing, even if their vehicles are technically superior and more closely resemble the cars of the future.

The major gains in efficiency for the US vehicle fleet in the next 5-10 years will come from 48v "mild hybrids" (aka gas cars that incorporate start-stop tech and regenerative braking), turbochargers designed for increased efficiency over power, more efficient transmissions, greater aerodynamic efficiencies in places like side-view mirrors, and the continued proliferation of lightweight materials. As much as I love to follow EV technology and never again plan to buy a car that doesn't have a plug, it's the conventional vehicles that really move the needle on climate change, not the Nissan Leafs, Chevy Volts, and Toyota Mirais. The 2017 Prius Prime may not be a game-changer, but it's an indication of where the average car will be c~2025, and I consider that to be very encouraging.