Quote:
Originally Posted by redpoint5
It's crazy that Toyota is throwing their credits away with small batteries in the Prius Prime.
They should have done what Chevy did and build the smallest battery that qualifies for the full credit amount. By doing so, the government more than subsidizes the cost of the battery, which is the most expensive component of plug-in vehicles.
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If you read the Prime tear down reports a large unused gap between the normal spare tire area and the battery exists and the battery sits up to high to have the normal flat full size storage area.
It appears the Prime was designed for a 6.5kwhr battery.
The insiders state that dealers wanted a larger battery and Toyota caved to market pressure and shoehorned in a larger battery while wasting space and loosing a seat.
Toyota is very battery adverse and is very worried about loosing R&D and is being overly cautious on entering the BEV market.
They are building a joint large battery plant but they are glacial on making a dedicated plug in platform, both the PIP and now Prime are afterthoughts shoehorned into an existing platform.
The Primes future is murky, Toyota is basically silent on their future CHR Bev.
Read the John1904a posts if you want the Toyota spin on why its good not to offer a larger battery.
Ah well, I’m told Toyota will have something compelling and plug in a few years from now.