Does anyone know what the future of the plug in Prius is?

Majority of Volt buyers were previous Prius owners. So, carbon footprint increased.

In my view, Volt is one of the biggest environmental hoax shrouded in EV driving experience, funded by tax payers.

 

Depends on where they are at, and what they are using for electric.
Then there are those that bought a Volt coming from a ICEV. It was maybe 8% of Volt buyers being previous Prius owners.

 

I don't know the statistics on how many Volt owners switched from a Prius. I'm guessing that many of them, like me, were from California or other states with low carbon electricity and they likely lowered their carbon emissions by switching like I did.

 

The most commonly traded in cars for the Volt reported in 2012 where the Prius, Camry, Civic, and BMW 3 series.
Chevy Volt Buyers Trading In Toyota Prius | PluginCars.com
In 2011, a third were hybrids.
Who Actually Buys 2011 Chevy Volt Electric Cars, And Why?

Let's play with some numbers.
Through 2014, the Volt sold 116,912 units. Let's assume that 30% traded in for the Volt were Prii, and the others were already low GHG emitting at 300g/mi tailpipe and upstream. Over 15,000 miles, the Prius traded Volts are emitting 16,835,520 metric tons more of CO2 than if their owners had just kept the Prius. The other Volts are emitting 61,378,500mt less, for net reduction of 44,542,980mt per year.

The F150 sells over 750,000 units per year. To keep it simple, I'll just use the 3.5Ecoboost and 5L V8 4WD numbers, since that is what is up at Fueleconomy.gov for the 2015 model. Those 2014 trucks sold are emitting in excess of 7,402,500,000mt of CO2 per year. V6 sales went over the 50% point when the Ecoboost came out. Assuming Ecoboost is 55% of 2014 sales, and the rest the 5L, 3,960,000,000mt comes from the V6's and 3,442,500,000mt from the V8's. Every 5% of F150 sales that shift to the 3.5L reduce the total GHG emissions by about 22,500,000mt.

The 2015 F150 has an aluminum body, with fuel efficiency increases along with it. The mpg numbers for the new 5L V8 are the same as the 2014 3.5L on Ford's site. Assume the same 55:45 engine ratio in the 750,000 sales, GHG emissions for the V8s will be reduced by 202,500,000mt. The 3.5L emissions by 420,750,000. Every 5% of sales shifted to the 3.5L will reduce ghg by 38,250,000mt. Every 5% of the 3.5L sales that shift to the new 2.7 Ecoboost with start/stop will reduce the emissions by 15,750,000mt.

If the goal is net reduction GHG emissions from personal cars, we shouldn't be messing with plugins and fuel cells, but spending tax funds getting truck buyers into V6's and the manufacturers to use aluminum bodies. Then spend on lighter real mid-size sedans and getting people into the smaller displacement engines.

 

Nonsense, once again.
2/3rdd of sales pre 2013 were non GM tradins.

To assume that 51% or more buyers were former Prius owners when only 67% remains is unsupported.
True, in my case one of our Prii were traded in for a Volt and it may be the most common trade in, that number likely doesn't exceed 10%.

 

I was going by what I recall. Something like this was bragged.

In 2013, 70% Of Chevy Volt Buyers Were New To Chevrolet - Majority Were Toyota Prius Owners

 

This was an misquote by InsideEVs of, what I am guessing is, this GM Press release Chevrolet Volt Owners Surpass Half a Billion Electric Miles

In it, GM notes how the Prius is the most frequently traded vehicle for the Volt, which is very different from what InsideEVs said and even more different from your incorrect recollection that

.

If 5%, as a hypothetical, of trade ins were Prii, and no other model of car was more than 4% that would make the Prius the most frequently traded in vehicle.

VERY different from a majority of all trade ins.

 

Perhaps, it was bragged and titled to get false impression.

My point was, those were suckered into increasing emission with the lure of EV driving experience or a presumption that EV miles are always lower in emission or thought higher MPG displayed on the screen means cleaner. There will be cases like JeffN (and perhaps others) where Volt may end up cleaner but $7,500 can clean up a lot more at the power plant.

 

Or carbon emissions just wasn't a major concern for most Volt buyers. As it is for most car purchases in the US.

 

I hope the Gen4 PiP will have a greater range. 17 km isn't enough to justify the high cost. It's got to be at least 50 km or so to be reasonable, I think.

 

You do realize a lot of us purchased our PiPs for at or below cost of a similarly equipped regular Gen3, correct?

 

The 2016 Plug in Prius will need an electric range of at least 30 miles, and at least 50+ mpg when on gas. We have both a 2010 regular Prius and a 2014 Volt. Right now we are getting 42-45 miles on pure electric and about 41 mpg on gas. We can go all week without using a drop of gas with my wifes 32 mile round trip to her business. The plug in prius could not do that...

 

Remember that all these range needs are very specific to each person. I personally find the current range is plenty for around town. And then I have a 50+ mpg beast on the interstate when I need to take road trips. A larger battery will increase weight for those that don't need it as well as cut down on that impressive cargo space.

 

It's a plug-in hybrid, which makes "range" a misleading measure.

The point is to provide a significant MPG boost.

 

In that case, it should be marketed as a hybrid with a XXXX.X mpg rating instead of a stand-alone, plug-in hybrid.
When people are defending the pip or attacking other BEVs/PHEVs they bring up all manner of things from fuel requirements to seating capacity to dependability to political issues.
The only thing that you can accurately compare a Pip with is another Pip, or perhaps a plebeian G3 for all things above.
For operating costs or TCO or how many cup holders each car has, you have to narrow the discussion quite a bit and start dialing in assumptions.

Many Volts and Pips are owned by apartment dwellers who have a hard time finding ways to charge their car. They just needed the car to be able to get an HOV sticker.

I actually like the Pip.
I'm not in the market for a car right now, but if I were I'd probably lean leftover Volt 1.0 or leftover G3.
Ask me next year, and the answer will change because the market on each will change.
I obtained permission from my employer to plug in if/when I drive a non-wireless car to work (just to see what their answer would be and because I have a golf-cart )
A DOT e-scooter or bike is also a possibility.
Move the decimal point on my 3.0 commute either way and my answer will change again.

Back to the original question: No.
Toyota isn't saying.
Pips WILL change because the G3 is going away, and a pip is mostly G3.
I'm guessing that Yota will keep a Phev in the fleet for optics if for nothing else.

If I were Toyota, I would offer the Pip as a $xxxx.xx option for the G4 so that you don't have to buy options that you don't need - but Toyota's mission statement doesn't seem to include getting an up-check from ETC(SS) about model marketing - so we'll have to wait and see.

My bet is that a G4 Pip will come along since they already have the battery and programming and other engineering issues nuked out.
Just graft a bigger battery into the G4 and stick a few badges on it and you're ready to go.

 

no need to guess, they've already confirmed the G4 pip for late 2016 release.

 

Aaaah.
Haven't read that.

 

an interesting conundrum for toyota is the federal rebate. if they increase the battery, but don't go to volt size, they have to eat or pass along the cost.

 

The rebate increases with the size of the battery.
"For vehicles acquired after December 31, 2009, the credit is equal to $2,500 plus, for a vehicle which draws propulsion energy from a battery with at least 5 kilowatt hours of capacity, $417, plus an additional $417 for each kilowatt hour of battery capacity in excess of 5 kilowatt hours. The total amount of the credit allowed for a vehicle is limited to $7,500." Plug-In Electric Drive Vehicle Credit (IRC 30D)

 

thanks, that's excellent! will that cover the cost?