OK, so as information on the Prime has gradually appeared in various articles what we have now
Range: 22 miles AER estimated.
- Welcome to unblended range, Toyota!
- Meh ...
- ... but 51% of round trip commutes at 20 miles or less
- ... and 70-% of one-way trips are less than 10 miles
- ... and it will be efficient
- ... so it could be worse.
Curb weight: 3,322lb.
- not as low as some initial reports-
- those extra hundreds of pounds are likely the reason for it being a 4 seater
EV speed limit: 84mph. Now more than enough for most people.
EV performance:
- defaults to full EV mode, where pressing the accelerator won't cause the engine to run
- can accelerate using both motors (where have we seen that before?)
Charging: 3.3kW
- OK, typical PHEV
- (CHAdeMO, along with the nifty back-up power stuff available in Japan)
EV heating: gas injection heat pump. (Gas injection can improve heat pump efficiency at very low temperatures by nearly 20%)
- can heat without running the engine. At last
- will be interesting to me to see winter electric range reports
- will the heat pump avoid an ERDTT mode?
- Andrew, when will that development you said was needed be done so the Volt can have a heat pump?
EV efficiency: 120mpge estimated
- Nice.
- While not as good as the i3, it's better than the i3 REX
Hybrid efficiency: not yet known
- Will make more use of EV at lower speeds.
Price: not yet known
- Prime 3 and Prime 4 models available, with some options
Unknowns ...
Price:
- Base (Prime 3) will supposedly be cheaper than the PiP, but hmm.
- (Of course, with the tax credit, it's not going to be much cheaper than the Volt.
EV performance:
- no 0-60, or even 0-30 yet
- given the curb weight and dual motors it shouldn't be as sluggish as the Energis, but it's still a heavy Prius so shouldn't expect anything special.
Hybrid efficiency:
- it is expected to be a bit better than the PiP (51/50) but it'd be by small amounts and with the extra range I think that maintaining efficiency (highway efficiency especially) would be good enough.
Yes, the range, yes, it's a Prius, but I think there are some goods things there:
- It's much better than the PiP: 12 extra miles x 200 days per year = 3600 miles per year. And that's ignoring the gasoline displaced by removal of the limitations.
- Efficiency: improved in EV mode, despite doubling the battery capacity. Burn less fuel to produce each kWh, and use less of a kWh to travel each mile.
- Heat pump: if it's included at the Prime's base price point, then it's a sign that we'll soon see one (or something better) included in every BEV and PHEV.