First dealer video on 2020 Prime I've seen

The black accents sure add class even with the light interior.

 

“Exclusive vehicle”. Same as saying we don’t sell many here.

 

If that's the professionalism of their presentation video, I'd hate to see how their service department is. Excuse me while I get a dramamine

 

In my experience, sales people know next to nothing about the Prime model. There are three dealers in my area, and I went to all of them. None of them had a Prime with any charge in it, so we were basically test-driving a Prius with a smaller hatch area. None of them knew any of the technical details (i.e. one traction battery, not two; how the traction battery can recapture energy through regeneration; the various drive modes and what they do, etc.).

 

He did say something about it being in the southeast, hence the rareness. I looked up Parks Toyota. They are in DeLand, FL. There may be more honest politicians than Prius Primes down here. It's the only Prime they have as of this morning according the their website.

And that may have been one of the jerkiest videos I've ever seen!!! Almost couldn't finish it.

 

I’m seeing people in a Prius group on Facebook saying they’re buying the 2020’s out in CA.
I’m waiting until the end of the year, but really want to get inside one for a test drive. Coming from a 2005, every feature is going to impress me lol.

 

Takeaway from this first dealer video is the reveal that Toyota stayed true to their objective of reliable & affordable. Since they are now setting goals for the next-gen design, it only makes sense that they know far more than we do. We've seen this many times already. Toyota carefully studies the market as a whole and adjusts accordingly. That "plan way ahead, but remain flexible" approach makes some people crazy. I think it's great, especially when they take risks. Ironically, antagonists are the ones claiming Toyota doesn't take risks, yet they work extremely hard to hide the fact that it actually happens.

Trying a 4-seat configuration is the "Prime" example. It made sense back then to experiment with layout, knowing the "car" market was on a major decline. Prius needed to be redefined to retain an audience. That's normal next step after being a top-seller for several generations. In this case, we learned the middle seat remains an interest draw, despite the fact that several alternatives are available... Corolla hybrid, Camry hybrid, RAV4 hybrid. Toyota had originally targeted aged families for Prius Prime. Remember? They no longer need that middle; however, new uses... like Lyft & Uber... have emerged since then, raising the question of need again. Toyota adjusted accordingly.

Key is keeping design both reliable & affordable, while still remaining a draw. By adding back that extra seat, it makes phasing out the regular hybrid realistic without upsetting the balance of the overall fleet. It's now easy to see Prius being offered as just 3 variants... Limited, AWD, and Prime. That's what we hoped for all along... Prius turning into a choice that highlights the plug. In fact, that reinforces the "self-charging" promotion. Toyota is setting the stage well in advance. It's their forward-thinking that often takes a beating from "anti" rhetoric, but triumphs in the end.

Beside the seating decision was the battery-pack configuration. That was another big risk. Toyota had the choice between cargo capacity and kWh capacity. The decision for initial rollout was to bring back the raised floor. It's what we saw back with the prototype for Prius PHV that ultimately didn't make the cut. Knowing Prius Prime would be a limited rollout until mid-cycle, it was realistic to try the approach again. Why go from 2 to 4 stacks when you could squeeze in a 5th stack? They were designed to be extremely robust with a heavy emphasis on being affordable.

We now see that Toyota liked the results of their real-world testing. Data collected has so far proven those stacks are very reliable. And since reputation for reliability far outweighs cargo capacity, I back that as a wise choice. As much as I would have liked a better fit, the fallout related to Nissan's reliability decision reinforces taking this route by Toyota. After all, affordability is a difficult tradeoff and fitting cargo into Prius Prime hasn't actually been an issue. Remember, affordability also includes warranty coverage. Toyota's focus is on long-term and we know for a fact any increase in EV is a draw to the Prius audience.

With RAV4 hybrid selling exceptionally well and the fallout of GM continuing to get worse, we see Toyota's effort to position themselves to ready Prime for primetime could really pay off. The market attention on legacy automakers to deliver something now is getting intense. Early-Adopters may praise "in the next few years" annoucements, but that's not what ordinary showroom shoppers want. Seeing dealers embrace Prius Prime for 2020, because it fits well into their inventory and basically sells itself, is an expectation we can realistically see happening.

Very long story short, it's time!

 

These type of videos where they shake all over the place I find distracting. I spend more brain time trying to focus on the subject rather than enjoying the video. In this case, it was a good idea by them, just a bad delivery. Should have gone to the local college and got some students that are thirsty for a project to shoot it. The students get to see the Prime first hand and probably will tell others (possible future sales) and the dealer gets a quality shoot. Everybody wins.