Fair point. What I was thinking of is their line of pluggable hybrids. Where if you keep it plugged in at night it acts as all electric for a 16 mile each way commute.
Prius Prime is their main PHEV but they are also making trucks and SUVs pluggable.
They've been selling partial-electric cars since at least 2014. The Prius Prime allows for electric-only driving up to about 30 miles per charge. That's enough for my commute. I got 3500 miles on my first tank of gas.
Toyota has only recently put into production PHEVs that seem a lot more practical.
For example, the electric-only range for the 2012 Prius PHEV is 15 miles, not enough for many people's daily commute unless you can plug in at both destinations. The 2023 Prius Prime is around 40, which is much better, so maybe you can just plug in at night at home.
It is only the 5th generation Prius that is truly designed around having a higher capacity battery pack, ditto for the recent RAV4 PHEV model. The 4th gen Prius fits in the larger battery pack as compromise, with reduced cargo area and wasted volume.
I would have bought a Prius Prime in 2017, and tried to get the tax credit, but there were several issues. There weren't many available in my area, the standard 2017s had driving and parking assist, while the Prime did not, reduced cargo area with no spare tire, and the price, because even with the tax credit was a bit too high for my liking. Just went with a standard Prius instead, and definitely have not regretted the choice. Today I'd buy a PHEV RAV4 or 5th gen Prius though.
I really think PHEV would be idea, if only they had just a bit more electric-only range. Many of them only get you 25 miles or so on electric only, so you would still end up using the gas engine quite a bit. Bring that up to 40 - 60 miles, then you can do 95% of your driving on electric only.
So I've heard the argument about "why haul around a gas engine you are only going to use 5% of the time". The same thing can be said about all electric -- in that case you really need a 300 mile or so battery instead of the 50 mile battery, but most days you will be hauling around 250+ miles of extra battery you will only be using 5% of the time.
Also, on a PHEV, I'd like to see the gas engine be just barely enough horse power to drive the car (and keep some minimal charge on the battery). And have it use that in conjunction with the electric motors for acceleration. That way the gas engine can be kept even more light weight.
I might be going with a plug in hybrid next. I wanted to go all electric, but I'm not getting a Bolt because they don't charge fast, and not getting a Tesla because reasons. A Prius Prime would cover 99.9% of my trips in town on battery and would enable my several-hour road trips with great fuel economy. And they're relatively inexpensive.
Still a bummer to have a more complex drivetrain, though. The simplicity of an EV is wonderful.
My mom just bought a Prius Prime, a plug-in hybrid, a few months ago, and it seems to solve all the problems of dealing with poor charging infrastructure in Texas. It can go around 25 miles on pure electric power, so that takes care of 90% of her driving (charging at home at night). For longer drives, it's a hybrid, so it still has a gas tank and can go just as far as a regular hybrid or gas car.
I'm not really in the market to buy a car, but I was thinking the prius prime was a good compromise. Basically it's a plug in hybrid with a large enough battery for a lot of day to day city driving (44 miles), but hybrid after that. Seems fairly low risk in terms Toyota having pretty extensive experience with hybrids.
In terms of improving the environment it would seem like not driving/using public transportation trumps any ev or hybrid anyway.
Is a PHEV any more complicated than a regular hybrid car? You still have gas and electric motors, just a bigger battery pack in the PHEV. The Prius has proven that even with a gas motor, they can be super reliable. These cars are beaten and abused by taxi fleets and Uber drivers for over 20 years now, and they still hit over 300,000 miles reliably. The electric motor takes so much work off of the gas motor, the gas motor is still usually in really good condition after that many miles.
And if you buy the right PHEV, like as in, you buy the one that fits your commute, you probably don't have to gas up much at all. I know people with PHEVs and they love them. They rarely ever put gas in them, except for long trips. All their commuting is done on electric power. They work great. I don't really get what you are on about.
Maybe you are biased as a Tesla fan and Tesla driver. I mean, I'm not even sure why else you would have mentioned that. Maybe as a disclaimer that we will know your post is biased? The fact that you're a fan has nothing to do with the reliability or quality of a PHEV, and is totally irrelevant otherwise.
The Pacifica seems interesting as the only PHEV around. 32 miles on electric will take you a lot of places while still having a motor means you can haul heavy stuff or even tow without range dropping to nothing.
I've been looking at plugin hybrids recently and the Prius Prime looks to me like an interesting competitor to the Volt (and it's a very different beast from the old Prius plugin). It has half the electric range of the Volt, but it's more efficient and (something that matters to me because we like car camping) has more cargo room. The Prius Prime gets a full charge in 5.5 hours on 120v.
Regardless, these both seem like awesome cars and I'm excited that there are cars that give you both electric drive every day and the ability to go as far as you want using gasoline.
> (I don't consider the Volt a PHEV, btw, but a range extended electric vehicle. It is the only "plugin hybrid" on the market that can operate purely electric without using the gas engine. And even when the gas engine kicks in, it performs like an EV.)
Not true at all: Prius prime, Pacifica Hybrid can all run on the battery without the engine.
I can get 30 miles on my Pacifica hybrid without the engine turning on, I even drive it at highway speeds without the engine turning on.
Depending on your drive cycle, you could consider a plugin hybrid that has enough EV range for your daily commute, but can easily go 300+ miles on gas if needed. We have one, and we barely use any gas, since most of our daily driving is within the EV range.
The selection of PHEV options are really great now. They include the Chevy Volt, Ford Fusion Energi, Ford CMax Energi, Chrysler Pacifica Minivan PHEV. If you are looking for a performance or luxury PHEV, even those are available: Volvo XC90 PHEV, Audi E-tron, and a couple BMW models.
There are a ton of PHEVs out there now, but many are luxury models that also emphasize performance (combining the output of the gas engine and the electric motors) rather than emphasizing "you could run this on electric-only most of the time".
I don't understood why plugin hybrids aren't more popular. The Toyota Prius prime is like a 'just take my money' car for me. My commute would be all electric... but I can still use gas if need be. Best of all worlds.
Prius Prime is their main PHEV but they are also making trucks and SUVs pluggable.
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