Prius v (AKA Alpha/+). 3rd row seat numbers produced question.

I would definitely buy one, but this model was not available to us.
The rear sliding seat feature is useless to me.

 

Sliding the rear seat forward all the way allows some extra cargo room without bothering my little kids. I would have appreciated a third row seat though. Love my v so far but having a third row seat would have been even better. Even if it took up the majority of the cargo area, as long as i had the ability to take it out completely when I didnt need it. Guess you cant have it all sometimes.

 

Is the battery of Prius+ large than ours?
I would be curious to know what mileage are they getting on those batteries?
Though, they would need to convert it to US MPG (not imperial) when posting.

 

hard to believe there's enough power for six people.

 

Mine did 55 mpg UK which is 44 mpg US (4/5 of UK) on the last tank, calculated on Fuelly. The trip seems less optimistic than the Gen3 was, as this one said 57.2 mpg (UK) when I filled up. I do a lot of short urban trips and the trip is showing 53.8 mpg (UK) on the present tankful. The battery is smaller in size and weight but it is a more efficient Li-Ion battery instead of the NiMH.

 

I just actually read about the Prius+ and it's third row. The more and more I look into it and try to start thinking numbers while maintaining reasonable thought for the platform is seems as if our US series cannot gain from having the third row. Much less make it marketable. What do you think?

 

It was sales/marketing data from other US 3 row optional vehicles that made Toyota-USA not sell the 3 row seating option in USA. The car buying population has not liked the (squeezed in) 3rd row. Has that changed over that last year? I'll have to check.

 

So Toyota would have had to drop the 150,000/10 year battery warranty, and may not have been able to sell it in CARB states.

 

I think the Mazda5 is an excellent reason why small 3rd rows don't Sell in the US. After 8 years it's seen one competitor come and go, Kia Rondo. It owns the market all to itself and it isn't exactly selling like hotcakes. Dodge Caravans used to be sold in two sizes. There were few takers for the small one. Honda Odyssey sales exploded when they moved to full size minivan in 1999.

The cost to move the NiMh batteries to the front and switch to Li-Ion is significant. I looked at the Prius Alpha, the only version sold in both 5 and 7 seat versions in Japan, the base 7 seater costs $8000 more than a base 5 seater. Assuming the same delta exists in the US, that's $32k starting price for a 7 seat Prius v. Some of it, I expect is also higher trim option packaging on the base 7 seater sort of the like the PiP base is really equivalent to a Prius three trim.

So, there are few takers for small 7 seaters in the US. If the Prius v were sold in 7 seats, it would cost as much as a minivan. I'm sure there are people who would still buy it but it would be a small number. Ford made the same decision with the C-Max, only 5 seats available here. In the US, we identify smaller with lower cost. That's why the Mazda5 is still hanging around at it's smaller than minivan size and lower than minivan prices.

 

Thanks mModem for bringing up the other big difference in the 3rd row Prius v, THE Li-Ion Bat, and detailing the 3rd row sales history.

Quick questions about "Ford made the same decision with the C-Max, only 5 seats available here."; Did Ford make other decision with the C-Max somewhere else (china/japan)? Would you not need a bigger frame for 3rd row in C-max?

 

1./ Li-ion batteries are far more expensive than NiMh; one would expect a far higher price point.

2./ "Bigger" American ergonomics (average height and mostly, weight) may make a fully occupied 3-row configuration impractical/unusable, put it over the max gross vehicle loading, or alter the f/r weight balance to an unacceptable degree.

 

Ford sells the C-Max in both 5 and 7 seats in Europe. They're not hybrids though. Ford shoehorned a hybrid drivetrain into an existing model for the US market. Original decision was to offer both 5 and 7 seat versions in the US but somehow along the way, they decided on being a direct Prius v competitor instead.