Any AZ Prius Plug-In owners?

Ex USPHS Tooth Repairman...FBOP

 

Right Toyota in Scottsdale has a sister dealership. I think it is Toyota of Orange County. They might be able to get you a PIP from their sister dealership pretty easily. I bought my '08 liftback from them.

 

Talk to the Fleet and Leasing mgr at Bell Toyota. Her name is Cora. We bought our PiP from her in December. She had to look in California, but she found one in the color we wanted, and we had it in about a week.

 

I bought my PIP at Precision Toyota in Tucson last August, must have been the last one they sold.

 

Do you own an AAR Cuda? Awesome car.

 

I remember the muscle car era and it was wonderful, while it lasted.

 

Our Gen1 (2002, 265k- 2nd HV battery) was brutally totaled in a head-on outside Sedona last week. We're in Tucson, thanking the airbag gods and driving a rental Chevy... moan. Anyone in the neighborhood have a used Plug-in Prius they can make us a deal on? No, really! Anybody??

 

True. But gas was plentiful and cheap, around 30 cents per gallon.

 

Sad to hear, but hope everyone else is OK. You should be able find a number of used PIPs at great prices. Going from a Gen 1 to a Gen 3 Plug In will be exciting.

 

Can anyone from Arizona please tell me how has been his or her experience with the Prius Plug-in especially the batteries. Asking because I live in an area with high summer temperatures (113 +) and would soon be owning a Prius Plug-in imported from Japan since local Toyota only sells conventional hybrids.

 

Not sure about extreme hot temperatures. But it's a given that the PIP prefers warm weather over cold. I'm experiencing about a 25% increase in EV range with the temperatures in central Virginia in the mid eighties and low nineties. It would interesting to know what is the "optimal" temperature range for PHEVs and BEVs?

 

Lithium-ion batteries are generally happiest at the same temperatures as humans. They have the best balance between battery life and usable capacity from about 65-85 F.

Colder than 65 their capacity starts to be reduced and warmer than 85 their lifetime starts to degrade faster, especially at a higher state of charge (especially 80% or higher or thereabouts).

These are all generalizations. Some chemistry variations are more delicate than others. As temperatures and charge levels get higher the degradation rate spins up faster. As a very loose example, a battery at 65 F and 40% state of charge might degrade 1% per year but the same battery at 100 F and 95% charge might degrade 10% or more per year.

There have been many studies of degradation rates at different temperatures and charge levels but I'm too lazy to look up an example right now.

 

In the last 2 weeks I spoke to several salesmen at Right Toyota and they don't sell the PiP. They tried to talk me out of buying one and backed it up with questionable facts. The same is true of at least one other dealer in the valley. Makes me wonder if Toyota discourages sales related to the harsher summer climate.

 

I bought my 2012 Plug-in Prius from Findlay Toyota in Flagstaff as part of the Toyota pre-order contingent. Apparently I was one of 17 total customers for this car at Findlay, and they haven't had any since. In the interest of settling this question, I just called Findlay and asked if I could buy another one, and the answer, paraphrased, was:

Toyota is not selling the Plug-in Prius in Arizona. Findlay can't get them and, presumably, nobody else can, either. In fact, the guy I spoke with said they're only selling a few in California.

That would seem to be a pretty definitive answer, at least if you need to buy in AZ.

Richard

 

Or maybe it's because they can't make a commission on a car they can't sell you. $$$

 

Please see the link. May be it is this character of the Li-ion battery which is forcing Toyota not sell PiP in hot weather areas.

http://www1.eere.energy.gov/vehiclesandfuels/pdfs/thermoelectrics_app_2012/wednesday/cunningham.pdf