the Prius Prime is starting to look good to me.. someone slap some sense into me.

 

Each to his (or her) own.....much of that is subjective. You're entitled to your opinion, and I'm certainly not going to disparage or make fun of you. I looked at the Prius Prime at the Toyota display at the D.C. Auto show a few weeks ago, and sampled one on a brief test-drive on the show's loop-circuit. It wasn't enough for a true test-drive or review, but I could tell, just in those few minutes (and from the show's display), that significant improvements had been made in this new 4Gen Prius, over the 3Gen, in powertrain, road manners, sheet metal, trim, and interior material quality. However, the rather geeky dash-design remains, and the general body styling, IMO, is more fitting for a Halloween mask than an automobile.

 

Prime > Regular Prius

 

After sampling one, I'd have to agree.

 

Prime might be better than a regular Prius, but it is still very behind in overall hybrid/electric technology. The Volt, a similar plug-in hybrid electric drive gets more than 2 times the mileage on electric only and charges in the same time as the Prime with twice the battery size.

and both have Disney Cartoon Interior Designs.

 

The Hybrid aspect with the ICE and eCVT (PSD), Toyota is best in the business. EV part of it, absolutely they are behind.

 

I'll agree with that.

 

i agree with you lol, i was driving one the other day in EV mode behind the dealership and i was genuinely having fun, it's like a slow tesla haha

 

I'd get a Volt new or used over a PP

 

Don't give in to it. We can't reward Toyota for bringing us such ugliness. They are banking on us not caring about styling, and only caring about efficiency and reliability. We deserve better! We deserve good fair styling AND efficiency! By supporting these horrible designs, we send the signal it's okay to not do their job or understand the U.S. market.

 

Agree with Hoovey. But you are trying to compare oranges with grapefruits. The Volt sits on a HUGE battery (the centre tunnel right through and under the back seat is all battery); the Prius Prime battery is smaller so it will, of course, have less EV range.

 

Age is state of mind. Has nothing to do with cars.

 

and thus my point, the prime technology is behind the times, their battery takes the same amount of time to charge as the volt which has a battery over twice the size.

It it gets less ev range (21 miles) and takes 5+ hours @ 110v to charge, same as the volt for 50 miles.


But back to my original post, I like the styling of the Prime over the Volt, and as much as I love huge power rwd sport coupes I seem to be starting to lean toward more of a commuter vehicle.

Ive been driving my wife's new Camry hybrid, I couldn't stand to drive her 2007, the car felt cheap and it was uncomfortable for me, but the 2017 I like driving and it's getting 41mpg average right now compared to my RCFs 21mpg.

 

One thing to note, Volt is not called hybrid, it is EV. Non-plug in Lexus hybrids are just that. While you are driving the RX hybrid for an example system electronics controller constantly charging and discharging(powering electric motor) like a flip flop depending on the driving condition. But it won't let it discharge battery too much
because this ~200V battery pack has to start the engine. There is no starter, no alternater. Little 12V battery is just to keep the ECU alive. If 12V battery is weak, car may not start. Also it may lose all stored memory settings. To drive an EV or hybrid, one has to learn to drive it differently from that of gas powered cars. Once you get used to it, fuel savings comes along.

 

The Prius Prime takes 5+ hours to charge when plugged in to the normal household outlet of 110V. The Chevy Volt, plugged into the same 110V outlet would take 13 hours. The Volt's charging time is reduced to 4.5 hours if plugged into a professionaly-installed 240V charging station.


GM calls the Volt an "extended-range electric vehicle" but that is just a marketing label. Looking at the technology, it is a parallel-serial hybrid vehicle, very similar to a Toyota Prius, but with an extremely large battery that allows it to travel approximately 50miles on a full battery charge.

Parallel-serial hybrids can operate as a parallel hybrid, where the internal combustion engine can assist the electric motor by providing extra torque (2 engines operating together, both providing power), or as a serial hybrid, where the internal combustion engine only generates electricity to drive the electric motor or recharge the battery.

The strictly serial hybrid, where the ICE is not connected to the transmission that drives the car, would be the simpler concept for an electric vehicle with an onboard range extender. Yet GM has designed this complex parallel-serial (or Power Split Device) transmission (very similar to the PSD that Toyota uses) that allows the ICE to assist the electric motor.

GM did not want to label the Volt a hybrid; it wanted to differentiate the car from the Prius and seem more similar to the Nissan Leaf electric vehicle, which it wants to be compared to.