Note for the US people: Therefore, this price information applies to Japan only. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ A JP site scooped the JP pricing, 5,250,000yen before government incentive. 5,250,000yen Prius Plug-In : too expensive! It is almost US$60k. The expected government incentive will be 1,320,000yen(US$11,700) which is a half value of price difference between the normal prius(2,360kyen) and the plug-in(5,000kyen) before tax. It means the Plug-In premium is 2,640kyen(US$23,400). People are feeling it's too expensive. edit: the official announcement will be held at 11：25 or 14：30 JST on December 14th. Prius Plug-In introduction event Ken@Japan
If one plug-in takes the number of batteries needed for one or two additional, regular Prius, and the price is about right. The choices: One Plug-In Prius - 2x regular Prius battery capacity ($50k) Two regular Prius - each with 1x Prius battery capacity ($50k) Bob Wilson
A regular Prius, a Hymotion pack and TheForce as my teacher for PHEV driving lessons. And I'll save $10,000. Wayne
Especially considering that I thought the Volt was going to be $40k before the tax rebate. $20k premium is way too much for Prius PHEV. I suspect Toyota is keeping the price high to limit demand. I would expect the premium to be on the order of $10k - what the plug-and-play PHEV conversion kits cost these days. Government incentive should reduce the premium to half that or so.
This is ridiculous pricing. All they need for this type of PHEV is 4 kWh of onboard battery, and the original 1997 Prius had a 1.9 kWh battery! Given that lithium-ion is cheaper than NiMH (per kWh), and you can buy automotive LiFePO4 for around $300 per kWh, there is absolutely no wholesale cost reason why Toyota are pricing this PHEV so high. It could easily be manufactured for no more than $2,000 over the base Prius. Crazy!
Just wait until the "is a hybrid cost-effective?" journalists get a hold of this. (shakes head) Well, actually, if we consider the BEST case scenario, in which you NEVER put a single drop of gasoline into the car during it's entire lifetime...
Following up this 2010 PHV leasing price for fleet users... Rumors said... 2011 Gen3 consumer version PHV: 4M yen 2014 Gen4 PHV: 3M yen Ken@Japan
I believe it's too simple to say that the price of the plug-in Prius should be the price of the 2010 Prius plus the price of an extra battery. Toyota did a lot of developement to change different things on the car, like a different way to heat the car or to pre-heat it, and I'm sure they put in some extra stuff, and a lot of testing to ensure safety and durability. Cannot compare to a Prius with Himotion.
So, anyone hear of someone converting 2010's yet? I can't seem to find anyone doing it currently. The best thing I have found is buying a sigma gte or something like that.. it's an electric kit-car for 20k. It looked pretty well finished, and can get really fancy for 40-50k. lol I want my Prius though, love this car. I just want an awesome battery in this sucker, and hopefully they can hack the software like the genII to favor the electric propulsion.
$60K for a PHV Prius? I'm predicting that competition from other automakers will influence Toyota to reconsider that figure.
I would personally pay $3k-$4k more for option such as this, if it also brings us extra 20hp (at least).... thats just my personal biting point (for 2012 or 2014).
