Just how different is a Prime vs traditional Gen4

In my neck of woods, I see a zillion traditional Gen3 and earlier Prius, but for Gen4, I see more PRIME than traditional hatch, probably due to aggressive incentive for PRIME.

 

Lucky, we used to get 7000$ as the incentive for prime but I got my prime later and by the time i got my prime they had already changed it to 5K
We got a new premier (The "leader" of Ontario) and he is getting RID of incentives for ev's!
If u got a complete ev used to get a 14k incentive

 

biggest difference is the larger battery and charger. anyone claiming that it is more difficult to repair is ignorant.
when the warranty is up, a replacement battery will be a lot more expensive.

 

While incentive on PRIME (Toyota rebate and/or local and federal credit) certainly boosted sales of the car recently, as long as general car buyers, myself included, has to rely on the incentive to purchase PHEV (or BEV for that matter), they are never going to be mainstream cars on our road. Still a long way to go IMO.

 

Around here we are just starting to get Gen III’s but I am noticing more Gen IV but they are still rare

 

Two issues with the original OP.

Here in Oregon, I get a $4500 tax incentive from the feds, and $1500 from the state of Oregon.

I ended up wheeling and dealing and got my Prius prime advanced for $30,000. With both of the above incentives, it ended up being $24,000, less than the price of a Prius 4.

Also read your warranty… The lithium ion battery and the electric motor has a lifetime warranty to the original owner.

 

They are very similar cars, and none of the differences should present any special problems for service technicians. Indeed, many sections of the Repair Manual, New Car Features, and Electrical Wiring Diagram books have exactly the same text and illustrations, and there are quite a few parts that are the same on both models. I haven’t done a part-by-part comparison to see exactly how many or which ones, though.

There’s nothing like that described in the Warranty and Maintenance Guide books on Toyota’s website, nor in the Toyota Warranty Policy and Procedures Manual, available by subscription to techinfo.toyota.com. These documents say the longest warranty is the California Emission Control Warranty, also applicable in a few other states, which runs for 15 years (10 years for the hybrid battery) or 150,000 miles, whichever comes first, and is transferable to subsequent owners.

 

The Hybrid of the Future: Introducing the 2017 Prius Prime


Actually I did more research on the lifetime warranty… I guess it was just individual Toyota dealerships that would offer it for sales promotion, not factory warranty.

 

The prime is the same body style as the Marai, the hydrogen model, which is different than the gen4, other than that and the plug in battery, not much.

 

It’s the Mirai (from the Japanese 未来, “future”), and while it has similar external styling and a few parts in common, it’s a sedan with a trunk, not a liftback like the fourth-generation Prius or Prius Prime. The Mirai is also longer, wider, taller, and about 20% heavier (unladen) than the Prius Prime.

 

Most everything significant is identical: the Prime is a 4th gen Prius with bigger battery, plug-in capability, various cosmetic differences to make it distinct, and a few accommodations to shoehorn in the bigger battery.

Pretty much anyone could type that without breaking a sweat, lol.

 

That’s true, but there are some important mechanical differences: the Prius Prime has a one-way clutch between the engine and transaxle, a different final gear ratio (75:19, vs. 73:21 for the liftback Prius), an electric oil pump to keep the transaxle lubricated and cooled when the engine isn’t running for extended periods, a heat pump system for cabin heating, and of course, substantially different software.

 

Bigger battery, and a mechanism to prevent the ICE from turning backward, so it can use both MG's for battery-only driving.

Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.

 

The Gen 4 is still relatively rare in Minnesota, but I’ve seen them 30x more than a Prime. The one Gen 4 owner I spoke to said ‘I wish we had waited for a Prime’.