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The Toyota Prius transformed the auto industry

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Re: The Toyota Prius transformed the auto industry

#51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A regular EV also requires no special infrastructure. Just your regular house electrical system (e.g. 120v wall outlet in the US). Only on long trips do you need fast chargers or does range anxiety kick in. If you do a lot of long drives I can see that being a problem. But if not I'd be willing to bet you'd lose less time charging than taking your vehicle to the mechanic for maintenance and repairs. Because the EV, w…

For many people in cities, it’s hard to secure parking with reliable access to an electrical outlet.

Something that makes it easier to own EVs here in London (UK) are these chargers on lampposts, there are probably thousands of them at this point: https://i.imgur.com/1YdeVwf.png

They're slow (3-7kW), can't be installed everywhere, there are not enough if everyone wants to charge at the same time, and some areas still don't have them, but plug it in when you arrive and you should be fine to go in the morning. It's a good idea and more places should adopt it.

Re: The Toyota Prius transformed the auto industry

#52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You’ll typically add 50 miles of range overnight, which is more than the average person drives in a day. That’s not minimal. Unpredictability is buffered by the large battery. You can drive 200 miles one day then slowly fill it back up. Fast chargers can be a backup for the occasional times it’s not enough. Why would there be an issue with selling it used when doing this?

Nobody is interested in used EVs, therefore resale values are very low.

As written here, it’s presented as a specific disadvantage of charging from a 120V outlet, so that’s not it.

Re: The Toyota Prius transformed the auto industry

#53

I hated the original Prius. It had no right to call itself a "hybrid". It had one source of power: gasoline. This seriously confused the market and the press when the Volt -- a true Hybrid with electric and gas -- came out. I wish regulators defined the word "Hybrid" and limitied its use in marketing. Family Guy got the meaning of "Prius--and the type of self-righteous person who drove it--exactly right.

Huh? It’s a hybrid, by definition, always has been. What is it exactly that you think confused the market?

Re: The Toyota Prius transformed the auto industry

#54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You’ll typically add 50 miles of range overnight, which is more than the average person drives in a day. That’s not minimal. Unpredictability is buffered by the large battery. You can drive 200 miles one day then slowly fill it back up. Fast chargers can be a backup for the occasional times it’s not enough. Why would there be an issue with selling it used when doing this?

Nobody is interested in used EVs, therefore resale values are very low.

I’ve been hearing that for years now, and for years I’ve had an eye on the used EV market, and I don’t really see that happening here in Europe.

Re: The Toyota Prius transformed the auto industry

#56
post #36

I sometimes chuckle that most of the cool Lexuses are now Priuses under the hood! But that’s a good thing. I own a Toyota Corolla hybrid myself, and hybrids are one of those things that I can say I’ve completely changed my mind about. I used to dislike the idea of hybrids, because I assumed that the overall system complexity must be higher than either an ICE, or an EV. And I’m a sucker for simple systems, so I though…

Not a challenge, but a plea: where's your source(s) for this? I'm about where you were, but would love to know more about the internals so I can make an informed choice when my current (ICE) car dies.

Take a look at this:

http://eahart.com/prius/psd/

Also, YouTube helps. Search for “Power Split Device” or “e-CVT”.

Regarding other hybrid tech, it’s a bit of a crapshoot. I basically use ChatGPT with search enabled to have sources, and then ask how the system works. It’s never in the marketing materials, I guess most don’t care.

Re: The Toyota Prius transformed the auto industry

#57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The downside of plugins is that it has both systems (more things that can go wrong, added cost, weight) and they're not amazing at being an ICE car (small fuel tank) or electric car (small battery). In your case it seems that a pure EV would be fine? Maybe not one with a small battery, but 300-400 miles of range isn't that uncommon these days. In any case, the important thing is that it works well for you.

Re: being a gas-powered car: they seem fine in terms of tank size, 11 litres for a prius prime vs 13 litres for a gas corolla from the 2010s. You get better fuel efficiency, too, so your effective range is likely at least as good as a regular gasoline car. The added complexity / part count is definitely a downside, though. Edit: er, now I'm not sure about my second statement: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4274…

Regarding the complexity, I believe Toyota has been ahead of the (hybrid) competition for many years, but a PHEV still has two different systems. Everything that can go bad on a pure EV (battery, electric motors, charging system) is there and even if the ICE part is simpler, it's still something that can break.

With this said, other reports of batteries going bad on old Prius, I haven't read much about them being unreliable, so it should be fine while the car is fairly new.

Re: The Toyota Prius transformed the auto industry

#58

Probably the most influential vehicle in the last century along the Model S.

Last sliding window century?

Yes, otherwise none can match the Model T under some "most influential" umbrella.

I agree it was somewhat confusing taking a "sliding" century as to mean century, should've said something else.

Re: The Toyota Prius transformed the auto industry

#59

I hated the original Prius. It had no right to call itself a "hybrid". It had one source of power: gasoline. This seriously confused the market and the press when the Volt -- a true Hybrid with electric and gas -- came out. I wish regulators defined the word "Hybrid" and limitied its use in marketing. Family Guy got the meaning of "Prius--and the type of self-righteous person who drove it--exactly right.

Let's pretend regenerative braking doesn't exist.

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Re: The Toyota Prius transformed the auto industry

#60

I hated the original Prius. It had no right to call itself a "hybrid". It had one source of power: gasoline. This seriously confused the market and the press when the Volt -- a true Hybrid with electric and gas -- came out. I wish regulators defined the word "Hybrid" and limitied its use in marketing. Family Guy got the meaning of "Prius--and the type of self-righteous person who drove it--exactly right.

Huh? It’s a hybrid, by definition, always has been. What is it exactly that you think confused the market?

[flagged]
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