US News: the future of the Prius is all about the plugs
The styrofoam hamburger container shape of the Toyota Prius elicits a lot of responses, good and bad. But when was the last time you saw one and thought, "wow"? Back when the hybrid was introduced, amazement might have been a common reaction, but we've seen the Prius in the U.S. for eight years already. What could possibly make us excited about the car now (well, aside from the high gas mileage). Toyota North America's head of product planning Mike O'Brien has been thinking about ways to bring the wow back to the Prius, and it all revolves around a plug. As US News talked to O'Brien and then tried to crack the truth from the rumors about the upcoming Prius refresh. Their guesses:
- An all-electric button to go a few miles on battery power alone. This is a pretty easy guess to make, as the EV button is already available on the Japanese Prius.
- Two-prong outlets. Power your laptop or DVD player right off the powerful hybrid battery? Could happen.
- Plug-in Prius. Um, yeah, this one we know about.
- Lastly, US News thinks that the new Prius could be used as an emergency generator. O'Brien told the magazine that, "There's enough power in a Prius battery to power a 1,200-square-foot house." This would be an option down the road - i.e., not in the Prius we'll be seeing in Detroit in January.
[Source: Rick Newman / US News via EV World]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Luke 8:00PM (5/29/2008)
It appears anything about the Prius is news. Someone could fart in a Pruis and it would get press.
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philmcneal 8:31PM (5/29/2008)
yeah my car does rock :)
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rob 8:44PM (5/29/2008)
Attention Toyota: Those plugs aren't sending power the direction we're interested in.
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Lad 10:22PM (5/29/2008)
There won't be any radical changes to this car until sales fall off; that's the way the industry works. As I understand it, the next Prius will be a PHEV with a bit larger NIMH battery; nothing radical.
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Tim 9:47AM (5/30/2008)
Toyota has come late to the Plug-In Party, but they are drinking from the punch bowl.
Party on dudes!
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Bruce Rheinstein 10:44AM (5/30/2008)
Hairshirt seats to enhance that smug, Prius feeling?
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Kevin Nugent 9:00PM (5/30/2008)
"There's enough power in a Prius battery to power a 1,200-square-foot house." Yeah i kind of doubt that , like realy it woudl be more appropriate if they said the think city cold power a house.
Lad
I also agree with you that is how the market works. With sales at an all time high and a 1 month waiting list at local dealer ships for a pruis why woudl they make radical redesign changes ?? They only do so when sales begin to fall off and the hype is gone . The the engineers just implement what they have been working on for years and call it a day . But what i am looking forward too is a redesign and a slightly more powerful gas motor :).
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Orlando Renta 12:22AM (5/31/2008)
from blog post:
Two-prong outlets. Power your laptop or DVD player right off the powerful hybrid battery? Could happen.
This is already available as an after market part that is a plug in part, no soldering or anything involved. Not real interesting, I mean my Avalon has this, why can't the Prius?
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Bill 1:42PM (6/01/2008)
Power your house?
Sure!
http://priups.com/riddle/answer-1.htm
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