CALCARS could have demostrated a hundred mile electric range Prius three years ago with a hundred thousand dollars; they have greatly helped in making the plug in hybrid Prius real with great resistance from TOYOTA. It is nice to have the higher electric speed. This type of car should become obsolete with the advent of serious series hybrids. Even hydraulic hybrids with no batteries can give most of the fuel efficiencies of this too expensive car. ..HG..

A PHEV-20 (Km) at speed up to 100 kph is a very reasonable first step. A much smaller (7 to 8 Kwh?)battery pack should be enough. The total vehicle price should be a lot less than the new GM Volt. Many more people will be able to afford this limited range upgrable PHEV.

As higher performance, lighter, smaller, cheaper battery packs become available, this type of Prius III-PHEV could be quickly upgraded to PHEV-40 (Km) or PHEV-100 (Km) without major effects on total price.

Making use of an excellent existing mass produced platform is a very wise approach to progressive mass produced PHEVs.

.

an all-electric driving range of about 20 km (12.4 miles) miles...

AWESOME!!! Lets drive it on a cross country road trip to show your typical republican, gas-using, middle-America, morons how great electric energy is! Twelve miles a day... it will only take about EIGHT months to drive across country! We are SOooooo smart! Presently, you can't drive across country in less than one year.

Praise be to Algore.

.

Goracle:

Haven't you realized that this is a first generation PHEV-20 (Km) and that it will keep going as a very efficient (50+ mpg) family car for another 900+ Km before you have to stop for gas or a battery recharge or both?

aym:

This (most probably very reliable) Prius III series/parallel PHEV-20 (Km) may be $10 K + cheaper than the new GM series Volt. It will sell very well outside USA where Volts may not.

The Prius III PHEV-20 (Km) will quick be upgraded to PHEV-60 (Km) and even PHEV-100 (Km) as soon as e-storage units mature. Upgrading could be done every second year or so with the same plaform at very little extra cost.

Prius III and IV and V PHEVs will have a great future untill the BEV version comes out.

This is a very sensible first attempt at a mass-market PHEV. The larger Hymotion battery pack works great, but it's too expensive (for now) to have mass-market appeal. The PHEV Prius has a much better chance at market acceptance than the Volt; the Prius will come to market first; and as better battery options become cost-effective Toyota will no doubt offer longer-range options.

Enough Americans comute (each way) less than the EV range of this PHEV Prius, that assuming that they can charge at both ends, having a plug-in makes sense. Hopefully, this will give employers, businesses and landlords a good nudge in the direction of building out charging infrastructure.

As a firm devotee of the game-changing Volt, I want and welcome the spread of electric vehicles by all competitors. One of the benefits of the Plug-in PHEV-10 Prius, is that the concept of mixes mileage, will be easier to demonstrate to many motorists. The concept of, and the larger benefits of, some fuel mileage coming from the wall circuit, and some from gasoline will spread.

There will be a real-world re-play of the UC Davis experience in the laboratories of the benefits of Parallel-series, Parallel-series plug-ins, and Series-EREV plug-in vehicles. Dr. Frank and his graduate students, haves done this contest before; and his discovered answers will sooner or later prevail.

It will also bump up the EPA figures for the Prius and help bring foreword the day until we can be eliminating petroleum as a security or economic issue, all together.

The sooner that the cartelistic power of the OPEC is broken, and Oil prices return to somewhere near cost of production, the better off the World as a whole, will be. The end of oil cartels, and the corruption it has brought to Oil countries, will help them in the long run too. Congratulations Toyota. Meanwhile...

The ICEage is ending. Embrace the VOLTage.

Everyone on this thread misses the point that the even though a plug in Prius can go 12 miles at speeds up to 62 mph, it can't do that at significant driving power levels. AER is only definable for an E-REV that can actually hold the engine off under all driving conditions.

So even when there is energy in the battery, and speeds less than 62 mph, the engine will go on and off based on power. The power of the battery and the motor and the thermal system capacity will not support full EV driving. So there is no all electric range. There is a partial electric range, not all electric. This means less petroleum displacement on short trips, and way less displacement on longer trips.

As stated, long range battery electric vehicles are bad engineering.

It's relative; the all electric range of a car should be designed to meet the 'actual' needs of the owner instead of the imagined needs. If your daily commute is only 10 miles then this is the right car for you.

As stated, a BEV with a 20 mile range would cover 100% of the trips I needed to do last year.
A BEV with a 100 mile range would cover 100% of the trips I did do last year.
A BEV with a 200 mile range would cover 100% of the trips I wanted to do last year.
Does that mean I need a 200 mile range BEV? No.

I agree with Stan (one of his best posts ever). This provides customers with another electric/ICE combination that widens the choice of offerings. I find I can stay all-electric on my 2005 Prius in many urban/suburban situations (engine always kicks in when speed exceeds 40mph), so having a higher speed threshold for the engine engagement will greatly increase the all-electric portion of the distance driven.

The Goracle continues to haunt the distant fringes; note that few people drive across country these days (and could still do so easily with the Prius III as Roger points out), but a large majority do need to commute or otherwise travel short distances daily, so addressing the need is the priority. This allows a mix of choices, in addition to those for mass transit, telecommuting, cycling, etc.

Anne:

The extra cost (over a Prius III) may not be much over $5K. Lower cost mass produced Hybrid systems + batteries (over 2 000 000 so far) will make that possible.

Lets not forget that e-range will progressively increase with on-board e-storage units higher performance (from 100 Wh/Kg to 500 Wh/Kg) and lower cost (from $1000/Kwh to $200/Kwh).

Within 5-6 years, various size PHEV-100+ (Km) will be common place at an affordable price. The size of the on-board e-storage unit will be an option.

Of course, BEVs will eventually compete with PHEVs within one or two decades. After 2020/25, many will turn to BEVs and forget about ICE and PHEVs (for light vehicles). PHEVs may be an economic solution for heavy long range vehicles for a much longer time frame.

A very interesting transition decade ahead.

There is no magic bullet here - this system will work for a certain percentage of the population and it is a good option to have with the threshold speeds of operation bumped up for a responsible commuter.

If you drive mega mileage every day - sorry this is not the car for you and maybe you should re-evaluate your life choices if you don't like it. Hauling around a thousand pounds of batteries is just brutally counterproductive particularly when you go dumping the ICE - crazy talk at this point in time. For one - there is a complete absence of charging capability - the infrastructure requirements are just not gaining enough traction.

I happily anticipate a highly refined and well developed product as I have come to expect from Toyota. Personally I own a PHEV converted Gen II - I think I am better off with the base HEV at this point - and when considering purely costs of purchase and operation - would probably fair better with a manual Honda Fit or Toyota Yaris.