Did I miss anything?

Nothing said about the GPS display and functionality including ability to get traffic information and map updates. Is this unchanged or has it been improved?

It looks like the only changes to the 2017-2019 models are the addition of the middle rear seat, Apple car play, black trim on the steering wheel and shifter, and a more convenient location of the switches for the heated front seats.

No mention of giving up all the cell-phone remote functions like climate control pre-conditioning, car locator, charging monitor and management, charge station locator, etc... and the beloved ECO dashboard sheep.

I did like the explanation of the trade-off between EV range and overall MPGe efficiency.

 

AoA’s reviews are almost always super-thorough. I like them a lot.

 

Quite refreshing to watch an actually informative car review video that's full of facts rather than subjective blather.

However, things he missed:
- No spare tire, still only goo tire
- No mention of the plug compatibility besides voltage (i.e. 120v v 240v) (would be nice to show it getting plugged in)
- Would have been good to mention the wide variation in EV range based on season (i.e. lower in winter, higher in summer) and based on driving efficiency

These are mostly just nit-picking as, overall, its a very good review. Also, the nice looking black interior makes me wonder why Toyota choose the god awful white interior trim in the first place.

 

Does the 2020 model include the "advanced parking guidance " system? I only tried it once or twice on my 2017 and found that it was more trouble than it was worth -- not ready for Prime time, as they say.



It always seemed to me that this was an experiment by Toyota to see if "self-driving" features were something owners wanted. If Toyota improved this system, great; if not, no big deal.

 

New longer traction battery warranty on the 2020 too. 10 yr./100K miles.

 

Actually, 10/150,000

 

I saw the announcement, and saw the 10-year and 150Kmile numbers. What I can’t recall seeing was how much degrade (in %capacity or range) it warrants against in that period.

 

I don't think that they ever gave any numbers for that for either the PiP or the Prime. If I had to guess, I'd guess they would say that if it doesn't throw a code, it isn't broken.

 

Looks like they are taking the CARB-state warranty coverage of the battery nationwide.

 

Yup! And it's transferable, unlike some of the competitors' HV warranties.

 

I am in CARB state, so I have a 10 years/150 K battery warranty on my 2017 PRIME.

 

do not know either, but that’s a reasonable guess. So, I suppose the question is “what could throw a code?” So presumably that’s at least partly a function of what all the battery has sensors to detect...

 

Take a look at the video about the Prius Prime battery by John Kelly of the Weber automotive program:

At 37:30 into the hour-and-a-quarter long video, Professor Kelly explains the Prime's battery ECU which monitors the battery right down to the performance of individual cells.

This is a diagnostic screen of a Prius hybrid battery (not a Prime) which shows the kind of block-level detail which is available:



A similar diagnostic for the Prime should show any problem cells which were not functioning at a level consistent with the rest of the battery -- but whether or not that would constitute the basis for a warranty repair is a good question.

This is probably why so many automotive technicians decide to go back school to earn their law degrees.

 

I have used the parallel parking system many times on my 2017 Prime and for me it has worked very well.

 

On a tangentially related matter: If Prime's battery is indeed 8.79 kWh, shouldn't its electric-only range be quite a bit longer than 25 mi? Is Toyota lowering people's expectations to avoid disappointment, or the 8.79 kWh is a theoretical figure and not the available capacity?

 

8.79 is the actual capacity. In order to protect the battery, Toyota does the same on the Prime as with all their other hybrids by not letting the car dip into the bottom of the battery's charge or letting it completely fill the battery. Useable capacity is around 6.8 kWh or maybe a little more. If it let the car use the full battery, you could go a lot farther on EV, but at the expense of replacing a very expensive battery way more often that you would like.

 

Oh, that ... didn't the same confusion occur with the "Tesla killers" iPace and e-Tron, when they were reported to have "90 kWh batteries", which turned out to be good for 234 and 204 miles respectively instead of 300 miles many buyers had estimated, based on the interpolation of the TMX and TM3 mi/kWh values. From what I remember, one of the reasons of such poor performance was that the usable battery capacity was a lot lower than the declared 90 kWh.

 

From most reports and my own finding with my PRIME using Hybrid Assistant, the actual usable battery capacity for the full EV range is more like 5.5 kWh.

 

Thanks! The figure makes perfect sense, because (a) 25 mi on 5.5 kWh is a Prius should get with pure electric traction, and (b) 5.5 kWh vs 8.8 kWh implies a good 15-20% cushion on the low- and high ends of the battery's SoC.