Been busy with summer B 4 winter hits here in upstate NY. Managed to put over 33,000 miles on bay blue in 11+ months. Blue has other brand envy. My Baby has asked me to take out the gasoline engine and put in a larger battery that charges quickly. He tells me he has seen so many charging stations here and there that his range worries have been cured. He sees all the competition at our J1772 stops charging twice as fast and going up to 10 times as far between charges. He just doesn't wan to spend the rest of his life waiting for Toyota to embrace the future. Can anyone here help me with that? Hope a Tesla or some other great True EV is in your future. Even if Toyota re released the RAV4 EV that would be a start. Overall MPG is 107.1 MPG per gauge. Much prefer 999.9 which I have averaged in three of the warm months. Charge on, well and fast! Received a $50 offer from Hyundai to test drive a Kona EV. Will have to park Baby Blue at my office and use alternative transportation so Blue's heart is not broken. John Past 4 new cars have been Toyota . . . the string may get broken.
??? Not trying to be dense, but just what are you rambling about? I guess I’m missing the point of your post...are you asking for a recommendation to which a Tesla to purchase or if anyone knows if Toyota is coming out with a PEV with a larger battery?
Who is "My Baby"? The Car? Your partner? If you want a car Toyota does not make, it will be a non-Toyota. Deciding you don't have range issues, before surviving a winter in Upstate NY seems ill advised. I wish you all the luck in the world.
I'm not sure how you can have range issues with a Prime. After the EV is exhausted, you have 10+ gals of gasoline that will take you another 500 or so miles.
In the OP's defense, he is saying that he now would not have range anxiety with a full EV and wishes Toyota would make one because he has been a loyal Toyota buyer. The post is intended to be humorous. Lighten up folks.
You have been enlightened and now sit at the doorway of early-adopters. It is a "grass is greener" situation. You see better choices, but don't have enough exposure to really assess what that really equates to. Think about where I started 20 years ago. I was watching electrification struggle to break out beyond a niche through the PNGV (Partnership for a Next Generation of Vehicles) program, a federally funded effort to help research & deliver 80 MPG vehicles. Prius came about as a counter-measure as a result of that. Toyota's technology revealed just how difficult it would truly be to provide via choices for the masses. That's why GM was doomed to fail with Volt from the very start. I made a lot of enemies by taking on the enthusiasts who pushed aside real-world data in favor of hope. Their desire to embrace the idea of a miracle break-thru clouded their judgement to an extreme, enabling a group-think which ended with disastrous results. What a waste of opportunity. Looking for actual merit in the advancement forward is rather disheartening, if you want a solution for the masses right away. Status Quo has remained intact, despite the successful rollout of Model 3 from Tesla. It's an amazing vehicle without any real influence of change for our greatest barrier, legacy dealers. Understanding how they are the true customers of legacy automakers brights about the next-level of enlightenment for you. Think about who the "competition" actually is. Knowing that is how you will begin to see Toyota's "death by a thousand tweaks" will overcome the barrier. It's not exciting to watch the seemingly glacial pace forward, but it sure is assuring to know that there is no turning back. Toyota's electrification push is across the entire fleet. With the newcomers of Corolla hybrid and the seriously impressive next-gen Camry hybrid and RAV4 hybrid, that should be easier to see. Looking forward, we can set focus on Prius. For anyone who has closely studied the history, starting even before the dramatic reveal of Prius back in October 1997, will know how much Toyota plans ahead and builds flexibility into their approach. We can see how the stage is being set for Prius to become a PHV by default. Having the plug be standard, and the no-plug optional, is that paradigm-shift many have been dreaming about for a very, very long time... except, it will then be realistic. 25 years is a freakishly long time for a consumer, but not from the perspective of an automaker. This is why "know your audience" is so important. Toyota's goal is to deliver an affordable & robust design. That's why this generation of plug-in Prius has that rather awkward sized battery-pack, but has a tradeoff of production-cost being low enough to compete directly with other vehicles on the showroom floor... an absolutely vital aspect of true change. We won't see status quo budge without that profit reality... which informs us as to the design for the next-gen Prius... a better fitting pack, with a modest capacity increase and faster recharging, at a highly competitive price. That may or may not be the greener grass you are looking for, but it is certainly what legacy automakers need to move forward.
Also, don't lose track of what true leadership is either. Unlike what enthusiasts try to convince us of, it's not about bragging rights. Toyota has been quietly introducing unique gains to give them an edge later, when legacy automakers suddenly discover HSD is an very effective means of delivering PHEV choices able to compete directly with traditional vehicles without any subsidies. It's amazing how often the carbon-fiber hatch and the dual-wave glass get overlooked. Both require very high levels of quality, something that takes quite a bit of effort to achieve at both low-cost and high-volume. Combined that with the refinement needed to deliver both a highly efficient traction-motor and highly efficient heat-pump, you've got a winning set of technologies beneficial to plug-in vehicles. So whenever you seem to get a little frustrated, seeing greener grasses for enthusiasts, remind yourself hoe Toyota is quietly striving to get an edge on the larger consumer market as a whole. Their pre-work to set the stage, prior to the masses taking an interesting in plugging in, to prepare their entire fleet. That readiness of design we see in Prius Prime and Corolla PHV clearly demonstrate the massive amount of potential. It's not far-fetched to consider a plug-in model of RAV4 hybrid becoming enticing enough for dealers to stock them as regular inventory. Unfortunately, just like all the other successes of the past, a great deal of patience is needed in the meantime.
Thanks to all of you for your posts. The good side of the 2 hour wait to charge back up when on the road is it has become a discovery time. Plenty of good places and people to while away a little time with. Besides Blue gets often tidied up on those pauses. I looked at my current car's color for 3 weeks before taking the plunge. A surprise to me is that Blue gets a couple of complements a month about that green shade of blue. Even the postman that delivers at my office has Blue Magnetism envy. Going from 2 or 3 miles at a time in stealth mode to twenty and even as many as forty five in summertime with a bit of elevation decrease before hearing the the gasoline engine has been a true pleasure. Even going those 20 quiet miles in cold snowy weather beats the old days. It would be nice if I could find a Leaf or Tesla or some such longer distance car to rent nearby. Rental companies are even way slower to adopt than Toyota.. The closest Tesla rental is in State College. I am certain to take advantage of that offering someday soon? Charge New York has certainly stimulated the number of stations in the state making it possible to go in stealth mode a hundred miles or mile in all directions when I want some leisurely fun. Kudos to all the early charging station adopters! And a special thanks to John 1701a for his tireless explanations, enthusiasm and promotions about hybrids and now EV's. Still loving stealth quietude after 18 hybrid years. John
I think if I were waiting 2 hours on the road to charge for 30-ish miles of range, I would quickly discover HV mode.
don't feel bad, my wife receives 95% of what's humorous as a agrivating head scratcher. Driving electric is addictive. You might say it's the fault of the first plug-in Vehicles, because once you get a taste, you want more & more. Higher efficiency, less maintenance. That said, and taking Upstate New York into account, you might want to look at the Kia Niro. For an extra $1,000 it will come with a heat pump, giving it even longer range than the standard + model 3, once temps dip below freezing - because so much of the batteries' energy won't have to go to keeping you warm. Having a few years under my belt in Montana, I can still NON-fondly recall having to wear gloves getting into the car, so my hands wouldn't practically freeze to the steering wheel or the door handle or knobs. Now, so many cars come with steering wheel heat it's almost ubiquitous. I turn that bad boy on as soon as it hits sub 55° .
I was just marveling at the carbon fiber hatch the other day. I saw an old 2000's sedan with a trunk with a burnt out 3rd brake light. The trunk was just a bent piece of sheet metal with an old incandescent light behind a red lens. The carbon hatch with special glass, LED light bar, and plastic interior must cost 10x as much as that trunk lid (although maybe it's not bad in high volume).
