Posted on 10/02/2022 10:00:21 AM PDT by FarCenter
I think the Prius is rather nice. Everyone I know who owns one has had good luck with it. I think a hybrid is a better idea than something all electric. I still don’t think I will ever again get more for the money than a mid-sized American sedan I bought lightly used (20,000 miles) a few years ago for $13k. I get 29.8 mpg, I have not had any work done on it beyond the oil/fluid changes, a brake job, new tires. It is the base model so it does not have gadgets that can break like seats that automatically adjust. It’s comfortable to drive on the highway.
I’m not knocking hybrid cars and Toyota is the king of hybrids since they’ve been doing it the longest with the Prius.
The only downside to a hybrid is they are far more complicated than a regular ICE vehicle. Not all techs can work on them which can bump up the price for labor and some parts.
I have seen how the bad batteries in the packs are replaced in a Prius as needed rather than all at once. I think this is wise because the cost to replace a few bad batteries vs an entire pack can be hugely significant as in hundreds vs thousands of dollars. In the case of Tesla that could be $20k. Make the packs work in a bank design so just that one bank is replaced rather than the entire set.
The Prius, because they have now been around for 25 years, has a lot of aftermarket support as well. But, as mentioned by someone, not everyone is comfortable in a smallish econo-box. Different strokes and all that...
Having said all that I believe the hybrid should be the first go-to design for automakers instead of jumping in the deep end of the pool without a flotation device with the all EV design.
This would do two things. It would ease us into the idea of EV’s and give techs time to update their skills to work on them. Getting 50 mpg in an F150 doesn’t sound too bad either. Scale the battery size to fit the work load of the vehicle and make the batteries easy to swap out but not so easy any thief could do it. All of this increases the complexity of the vehicle making it more prone to fail. Such is the price of progress I guess... Perhaps some kind of back up redundancy could also be built-in so people are not left stranded.
The gasoline internal combustion engine with fuel injection, O2 sensors, catalytic converters, tighter tolerance, coil over plug, etc, all computer controlled has become pretty much zero emission output.
Us old people remember when half the gasoline vehicles running down the road were pouring out black or blue smoke. That happened when they were getting up near 100k in mileage. When the rings and/or valves guides were bad, when the choke was bad or not adjusted correctly.
My 2001 F150 doesn’t smoke, has close to as much power as it ever did, has 286k miles on it and the 5.4 liter gets 2-3 times the gas mileage of the old carburetor engines of similar size.
Why is that not good enough?
Because they don’t want us to be able to drive.
I bought my first new Toyota in 1976. 147,000 miles in the cold and mud. Next that was followed by five new Toyotas, 180,000 miles, 297,000 miles, 173,000 miles, 283,000 miles, and my current one, a 2020 Land Cruiser off-roading model at 107,000 miles. All original engine, regular maintenance. Only one ever died while on the road. I was distracted by my girlfriend, didn’t notice the engine temperature going up. The temperature was also going up elsewhere.
Notice the sales chart. Best months were in 2018,2019, 2021... Trump years.
I was distracted by my girlfriend, didn’t notice the engine temperature going up. The temperature was also going up elsewhere.
I’m guessing it was a “manual” transmission.
Did you or her accidentally hit the horn?
5.56mm
Actually, when the Prius saves CO2 emissions, it does so by higher efficiency. But all of its CO2 emissions come from gasoline, unless you have the plug-in hybrid version, which does have a small amount of CO2 coming from coal and methane, if you plug it in. But it won’t go far on the power from the plug, so a Prius mostly emits CO2 from gasoline, just less because of more MPG. That is where the CO2 savings he is referring to come from.
Toyota total sales have been falling worldwide over the past few years, even as Tesla’s sales kept rising fast.
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Where did you get your information? I just looked it up.
“Globally, Toyota sold around 10.5 million vehicles between January and December 2021. The company’s sales tally increased by around 10 percent between the 2020 and 2021 calendar years, growing close to pre-pandemic levels.”
>>Since the Prius launched in 1997, Toyota says it has sold more than 20 million electrified vehicles worldwide. The company says those sales have avoided 160 million tons of CO2 emissions, which is the equivalent to the impact of 5.5 million all-electric battery vehicles.
Almost all of those 20 million electrified vehicles worldwide have been conventional hybrids. So all of that electricity has been generated by gasoline engines.
The CO2 emissions have been avoided because the hybrid powertrains are more efficient and get better gas mileage.
Fair point about them being hybrids.
OTOH, I still don’t give a rat’s tail-section about carbon dioxide emissions. I’m tired of being lied to by de-growth communists posing as environmentalists.
Toyota's U.S. Sales Fell 15% in the First Quarter Amid a Chip Shortage
Apr 1, 2022 — Toyota, which is the world's largest automaker, sold 514,592 vehicles in the first three months of the year, a drop of 15 percent.
Toyota needs to bring back the little dirt cheap stripped down trucks they had back in the 80s.
“This is why Toyota is the top automaker in the world....the listen to their customers, their dealers and their suppliers.”
Yea well.... tell that to the administrators of the local Technical College. Those dumbazzes are cutting Toyota loose after a 38 year relationship. Un-friggin-believable.
I suppose...
I’m a perfect EV candidate, as I drive very little. However, I can a pretty big big piece of plywood inside my Hyundai Sante Fe. I shopped for the biggest flat accomodation and biggest boxy thing that was not a truck. And in my price range.
and if you live in a corrupt state (with extra corrupt utility “regulation”) like Californication,
you’ll pay a royal fortune to charge your E-car
plus, the power can go out at any time — potentially leaving you stranded
Toyota’s U.S. Sales Fell 15% in the First Quarter Amid a Chip Shortage
Apr 1, 2022 — Toyota, which is the world’s largest automaker, sold 514,592 vehicles in the first three months of the year, a drop of 15 percent.
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Really? You are really reaching for straws to try to prove your falsehood. Every car manufacture was affected by the chip shortage and the Covid 19 shutdowns.
However, you said that “Toyota total sales have been falling worldwide over the past few years.”
That is not true. They have sold over 10 million cars for the last five years, except 2020 they sold 9.5.
They are still the number 1 car seller in the world. It’s not even close.
I like the way this guy thinks - no wonder he’s been so successful.
Tesla sales kept skyrocketing through the shutdowns and chip shortages. And EVs use more chips than ICE vehicles.
However, you said that “Toyota total sales have been falling worldwide over the past few years.”
That is not true.
Very true.
Toyota has been at 10 million or a bit higher for quite a while now.
They have sold over 10 million cars for the last five years, except 2020 they sold 9.5.
They are not exactly motoring off are they?
Tesla has increased sales by at least 4 times in the last 5 years.
They are still the number 1 car seller in the world. It's not even close.
Actually, VW is very close to Toyota in total sales.
And by 2030, Tesla will probably be # 1.
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