Some of you may know about Car Pool. It's a weekly interview with the interviewer Robert Llewellyn driving his subject somewhere in his Prius and filming the chat in the car. Unfortunately he's recently had an accident with his Gen 2 Prius and is currently driving around in a new RX 450h courtesy of Toyota GB. A few episodes ago he was in the US and interviewed Diarmuid O'Connell, VP of Tesla, whilst driving a Tesla. At the end of this week's show (with popular UK Physics Professor Brian Cox) he trails next week's show which is Robert being shown around a new Gen 3 Prius by Doug Coleman. This show is avialable online at: http://www.llewtube.com It's also available as a Podcast on iTunes (in the UK at least). New episodes are released every week on Friday.
Good job Doug! I enjoyed hearing your comments on the history of the car, its marketing and its sales. I agree with your comments on why people find the car fun to drive, but I think there is more to it than the let's beat the MPG video game aspect. At first the tech was so new, it was just fun learning how it all worked, just like with the new SR and AT, not to mention hacking it to make it work like it should (instead of like the lawyers think it should work!). As you said, a lot of the early adopters just liked having so much tech in a relatively cheap car, which was unusual when it first came out. But I think an even bigger factor is what I would call the electric golf cart syndrome. Because it has small exterior dimensions, a small turning radius, and is so quiet and easy to handle, and also the open-air hatchback design, it has a kind of toy-like aspect to it, like when you zip around on a golf cart, or even a go kart or a bumper car. I can say from personal experience that the HyCam just does not have this same fun factor, due to its more traditional design and dimensions, and its ponderous handling, even though it has exactly the same tech, with the same mpg game possibilities. FYI, I'm loving the tight and smooth steering in my model V, even with the larger turning radius necessitated by the 17" tires.
Look at that Doug ... being all famous Has he got the best job in the world? ... or what! I KNEW the grass is really greener on the other side. I gotta find out if he needs another assistant. Thanks for the vid señior! 71.6mpg ? Hey, that's MY best too ... only it's in the Gen II, and averaged over the whole 700+ miles per tank. The gauntlet has been thrown down .
Did you guys have to wear identical shirts? That was the strangest "buddy movie" I've seen this summer. There was a chemistry, I was expecting at some point that you'd rapidly pull over and both of you would jump out of the car and chase down some criminals. Maybe it was the sunglasses. Seriously, very informative, nice piece. Good knowledge about the history and the proposed future direction of Prius and Toyota in general. I heard you and Toyota claim that it's Toyota's directional goal to eventually offer a hybrid option for every model of Toyota. Every single model? While I think the move towards Hybrid and EV and Plug In Hybrid, almost inevitable as long as singular ICE engines still dominate the marketplace how would that work? I mean, how does Toyota balance offering a Toyota Prius along side a Toyota Matrix Hybrid? Or a Toyota Yaris Sedan Hybrid along side a Corolla Hybrid? You'd think at some point the product overlap would become detrimental to individual models sales. I can also imagine that as long as ICE engine cars are still being produced primarily, the cost of simultaneously producing Hybrid versions would be huge. Could you produce them on the same assembly line as their respective ICE only bretheren? Or would it mean a seperate assembly line for each hybrid model produced? How does this happen today with The Camry? I wondered the same thing when I heard Honda planned to expedite their production of a Honda Fit Hybrid. Seems to me it's almost stabbing their own product (The Insight) in the back. I guess what I'm saying is that until the world changes enough that the majority of people want/need a Hybrid, for whatever reason, gas availability, or cost...then isn't there a point where producing more hybrids becomes counter productive? I tend to upset a lot of people in this forum when I point out that ICE engines are still the dominant product on the road. Until circumstance, reality, or common sense makes the reality of Hybrids the dominant choice, at what point does producing an All Hybrid optional line-up become a economically viable choice for Toyota? Does Toyota see the next decade or two developing in a manner where the "novelty" might become offering an ICE ONLY option, and the "norm" is a Hybrid or Plug In? I'm sorry for all the questions and the sloppy tone of this post. Not much sleep and I had a weird dream where I was driving around with an english guy discussing automotive history.
Let's put it this way, that is our directional mission. How we're going to go about doing that specifically... I don't think anybody really knows. We see future trends leading to a point where it would make sense from a demand point of view, and we should have lower costs due to economies of scale, but there is no 10-15 year product plan. You can't plan that far ahead with specific models - it is unpredictable. The point is that we're invested in the technology big time and we're going to be looking at how to implement it across a wide range of products. Doug Coleman Prius Product Manager Toyota Motor Sales, USA
