Top 10 Prius myths and misconceptions

[efusco]

Just looking for good suggestions. I just had a whim to create this list today....perhaps it'll be what I send out to various writers who insist on perpetuating these same misconceptions over and over....

<div align="center">The 10 Most Common Misconceptions about the Prius and Prius Owners:</div>


Since the earliest days of hybrids various misconceptions and preconceptions about them have pervaded the media and the general populace. Perhaps in part due to the first US hybrid being the little 2-seater Honda Insight that is, indeed, little more than a commuter vehicle in the form a very compact car. Perhaps in part due to the short life of the Electric Vehicle era with their limited capacity and abrupt withdraw from availability by their manufacturers. And perhaps it’s just because the press likes to have something that sounds dramatic to draw customers.



In any case, I’ve now been a Prius owner for almost 3 years and have been extremely active on a number of online Prius forums including Priuschat.com. I was one of the very first people in my part of the country to have one of the second generation Prius (2004+) and thus have fielded a number of questions from friends, family, co-workers and strangers alike. Many of the same questions arise again and again. In no small part I blame the press. Perhaps it is due to deadlines or lack of background knowledge to really understand something so different many of the same errors and myths seem to be repeated over and over by these writers. More than once I’ve seen articles quoting misinformation where they use another source that just weeks before we, in the online forums, had been complaining how badly they’d misrepresented the car. And thus the cycle lives on. Recently a writer in the Northwest published an article in her column supposedly to discuss how computers have become so ubiquitous in our society. However she framed the article around her Prius, allegedly the second one she’s owned. Yet she managed to convey at least 6 blatant factual errors that would give serious pause to those considering buying a Prius.



This little list hopes to directly address some of the most common questions I’ve heard and myths and misconceptions that seem to continue to circulate despite a plethora of information available showing it to be false.



1) Prius owners have been duped into thinking they’d save money—On the contrary, most Prius owners/buyers never considered that saving money was a priority. Like those who pay extra to get a luxury car or others that pay extra to get a V8 instead of a 6-cylinder engine in their SUV Prius buyers paid extra for the added features. Those features happen to be saving gas, reduced emissions, quiet ride, amazing technology inside and out and HOV access (where available). That said, a many of Prius owners could actually save money with the Prius over a comparable vehicle based upon the distance of their commute and gas prices, but that isn’t the point. If saving money is of key import then one should never buy ANY new vehicle, you should buy a reliable used car that gets reasonable base mileage (i.e. Used Toyota Corolla, Honda Civic, etc.)



2)The Prius is a compact/small car—Probably the most common thing I hear the first time someone sits down in my car is “Wow, there’s a lot of room in here”. The Prius has nearly the passenger space of a Toyota Camry and more than the Corolla. The hatch-back design provides an amazing amount of cargo capacity. On several occasions I’ve taken my family of 5 and all of our luggage for up to 10 days away from home (including a baby’s Pack-and-Play and stroller) in our Prius with no problem at all. Although the exterior design gives one the illusion that the car is small the inside meets criteria to classify it as a mid-size sedan.



3) Don’t you have to replace the battery after 100,000 miles?—Toyota says the battery will last the life of the car. Experiences from fleet taxi services have shown the first generation Prius lasting upwards of 250,000 miles without need for battery replacement. Few second generation Prius are that high of mileage, but many reports of those over 100,000 suggest that it will perform even better due to the improved battery maintenance regime of the newer generation and superior battery technology.



4) If the battery dies it’ll cost $5000 to replace—This is a little bit of an unknown, however the few batteries that have died have been under warranty (8 years/100k miles everywhere and longer (10yr/150k miles) in California emissions states) and covered at no expense to the owner. I’ve heard of a handful of cases where batteries had to be replaced due to damage from an accident and salvage batteries were found with minimal miles on them for less than $500. Considering there is not a traditional transmission (a common source of breakdown and expense in conventional vehicles), that the brakes will likely never need replacement (due to regenerative braking), and that the ICE (gas engine) will be used approximately half of the time it would on a conventional vehicle (since it shuts down a low speeds and at stops) for the same distance traveled those potential replacement/repair expenses are essentially eliminated. Along the same lines there’s a misconception that maintenance of the Prius is more complex and more difficult because of the advanced technology. Quite to the contrary, little more is required than changing the oil and filter every 5000 miles, routine tire rotation, and routine inspection and replacement of the air filters, wipers and other parts just as on a traditional vehicle. No additional maintenance is required for the hybrid components until the 100k mile mark where the coolant for the inverter and engine need to be changed. Additionally, the brakes may never require replacement/repair and there’s no transmission fluid to check or change either.



5)When the batteries die they’ll just contribute more pollution and waste—Toyota has a system set up to recycle the batteries and will actually pay for the used batteries if/when they need to be replaced. They will not contribute to further pollution.



6) The Prius is slow and under-powered—While certainly not a performance vehicle the Prius performs quite well under real-world driving conditions. Zero to 60mph in about 10 seconds with a top speed of 105mph. The electric motor provides a significant amount of instantaneous torque to allow for brisk starts and hill climbing ability. It will merge into fast-moving traffic with ease. If you want a race car this isn’t it, but there’s no need for more power than the Prius has for the normal commuter.



7) You have to plug it in—Despite the number of Prius on the road today and a big campaign by Toyota this myth still persists. In fact there is no way to plug in the Prius without expensive modification—something many Prius owners find disappointing because we’d like to be able to plug it in and take advantage of the cleaner and less expensive electricity off of the grid or generated at home via our own solar or wind systems. The high voltage battery acts more as a buffer for excess power from the engine that would otherwise have been wasted and for a reservoir for the energy recaptured by the regenerative braking that would have otherwise been lost as heat. It then parcels out that energy as need to assist the very efficient but low horse-power Atkinson cycle engine to give good acceleration and additional horsepower when it’s needed. Many Prius owners are campaigning to have a plug in option available for the next generation Prius. If a larger capacity lithium battery were available with higher ‘all electric’ speeds one could virtually have a perfect ‘cross-over’ vehicle with the benefits of a full Electric Vehicle (EV) and of a conventional gas vehicle. The ability to use cleaner energy like electricity for normal short range commutes balanced with the ability to take long trips without worrying about recharging the car seems to be a great way to go for many. Presumably fuel economy would exceed 100mpg for local commuting thanks to the Plug-in ability of this new plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV). Regardless, it would not be necessary to plug it in, but to get maximal benefit of the larger battery and extended EV range one would probably prefer to plug in whenever possible.



8) In a crash rescue workers could be shocked and killed—The hybrid battery is completely disconnected from the car in the case of an accident. If, somehow, that system failed and the car remained ‘running’ and connected the only way an injury could occur is if the rescue workers intentionally cut into some of the clearly marked cables wrapped in bright orange covers. Normal rescue techniques (cutting off the roof, using jaws of life, etc) pose no additional risk…all high voltage cables are under the hood, under the car, or in the battery area only.



9)They don’t really get as good of mileage as Toyota claims—First of all, the mileage numbers are determined (in the US) by the EPA. Toyota cannot claim higher numbers in their advertising and would be foolish to use lower ones. Also, those numbers are quite legitimate given the conditions under which they were determined. The EPA testing is quite out dated and not consistent with current driving conditions. Indeed they tend to artificially inflate mileage numbers for all vehicles though few people pay close enough attention to their driving to see by how much their vehicle is off until they get a Prius. A look at a web site like Greenhybrid.com’s database shows the wide range of fuel economy numbers for the Prius and other vehicles. The hybrids do tend to be a bit more sensitive, on a percentage basis, than conventional vehicles to specific driving situations and driving styles. Those with near ideal commutes and good hybrid driving habits can significantly exceed the EPA numbers. Those who accelerate hard, follow close, brake late and have short commutes achieve significantly lower than EPA numbers. The majority of people, however, once their vehicle is broken in tend to get within 5-10% of the EPA rated mileage.



10)Prius owners are all just trying to make a statement about Global Warming—While there are a number of people who are very involved in the conservation movement and might be considered “greenies” one will find the profile of the average owner to be quite different. Many Prius drivers are older adults, many are professionals and large percentages are not active in any conservation movement. There are republicans and democrats as owners. The common threads tend to be 1)support of improved technology, 2)desire to save fossil fuels by burning less gas (not necessarily to save money), 3)generally interested in making a smaller negative impact on pollution. A few admit to HOV lane access as being the main reason for getting a Prius. I think the bottom line is that we can ‘have it all’ with a Prius. We can help save our environment, we can reduce dependence on foreign oil, we can send a message to auto-makers that we want and will pay for better vehicles that help us do those things if they’ll put the effort into getting better technology.



List created by Evan E. Fusco, MD

9/7/06

[Rancid13]

Very well-worded, doc! I like it. Two big thumbs up.

With regards to paragraph 1 (now that I've reread it) should that read "key importance" instead of "key import"?? (or is my grammar way off?)

[ScottY]

Doc, I believe the battery warranty is 8 years/100k miles outside of CA emission states. For CA emission states, hybrid component (including the battery) and emission related components are warrantied for 10 years/150k miles.

[Frank Hudon]

very nicely stated Evan, I'll print off several copies as I know several people who would benifit from reading it.

[Charles Suitt]

THANKS Dr. Fusco.... KUDOS for your post.!!

...for a very informative "list" or Prius misconceptions. Reporters, reviewers and sadly, Prius salespeople misquote Prius capabilities and features frequently. Sometimes they "make up an answer" when they really don't know and are too dumb to simply look it up or simply say "I don't know but I'll try to find the answer for you."

[efusco]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(ScottY @ Sep 7 2006, 12:01 PM) [snapback]315782[/snapback]</div>

Doc, I believe the battery warranty is 8 years/100k miles outside of CA emission states. For CA emission states, hybrid component (including the battery) and emission related components are warrantied for 10 years/150k miles. [/b]

So edited, thanks!

[eagle33199]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(efusco @ Sep 7 2006, 11:50 AM) [snapback]315776[/snapback]</div>

2)The Prius is a compact/small car—Probably the most common thing I hear the first time someone sits down in my car is "Wow, there's a lot of room in here". The Prius has nearly the passenger space of a Toyota Camry and more than the Corolla. The hatch-back design provides an amazing amount of cargo capacity. On several occasions I've taken my family of 5 and all of our luggage for up to 10 days away from home (including a baby's Pack-and-Play and stroller) in our Prius with not problem at all. Although the exterior design gives one the illusion that the car is small the inside meets criteria to classify it as a mid-size sedan.
[/b]

Change that to "no" instead of "not". Other than that slight typo, i thought it was very well worded, and a great little article.

[qbee42]

Nice job Evan. I hope it gets wide circulation.

Tom

[Scott_R]

Very nice list! But (editorial gloves being put on, though I'll avoid being anal about it):

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(efusco @ Sep 7 2006, 12:50 PM) [snapback]315776[/snapback]</div>

<div align="center">The 10 Most Common Misconceptions about the Prius and Prius Owners:

Since the earliest days of hybrids various misconceptions and preconceptions about them have pervaded the media and the general populous.
[/b][/quote]

The word you wanted was populace (the people living in a particular country or area), not populous (having a large population; densely populated).

1) Prius owners have been duped into thinking they'd save money
[/b]

I might emphasize that using less gas itself is a laudable goal, even if it doesn't save you money.

7) You have to plug it in—
... The ability to use cleaner energy like electricity for normal short range commutes balanced with the ability to take long trips without worrying about recharging the car seems to be a great way to go for many.
[/b]

People will note that pollution is a side-effect of electricity production. Therefore, note that mass-produced electricity is far cleaner than equivalent gas usage.

[Tideland Prius]

So far so good. I think the idea that the Prius is a compact car arose from the 1G Prius. It was a compact car and thus when the 2G came out, people never really realised it moved up a category, especially when they see that the new one isn't all that much longer.

Here's a suggestion for no. 9

9) [They] don't get the exceptional mileage that Toyota claims

For no. 6, perhaps make a blurb about how people should prod the accelerator harder lol. The same thing happened to my dad when he test drove the Camry Hybrid. He thought it was underpowered (and that he was close to flooring it) until the salesman told him to press harder (we were already doing 130km/h). He was pleasantly surprised that there was so much more pedal travel.