Just realized I forgot to mention last Sunday’s Mercury News column. It was about the new Toyota Prius (note: annoying Flash download) hybrid sedan and why I’ve been thinking it’ll be a smash hit.
Several readers observed that I hadn’t taken into account the possible high cost of replacing the batteries before the vehicle’s normal life had expired. Great point, and I plan to look into that question when I get home. If a $3,000 “repair” is a mandatory feature at, say, 60,000 miles I won’t be buying this car after all.
Posted by: GerenM on September 12, 2003 10:08 AM
I would guess that the hybrid version of the Honda Civic would suffer the same problem, though I thought that part of the idea with these cars was that the system was supposed to be charging when assist wasn’t required.
Posted by: hey on September 12, 2003 12:47 PM
I like tech and work in the tech biz but I don’t want a car that’s all tech. I like the hybrid idea but certainly don’t want a video display on my dash board (as this car has). I’d prefer simple / reliable analog gauges.
Maybe I’m crazy.
Posted by: Jonathan on September 13, 2003 10:48 AM
If you buy a Prius, you’re buying hype.
It’s horrendously overpriced. A loaded Toyota Corolla S or Nissan Sentra costs only $15,000 – and they feature more room, comfort, performance, and reliability.
The gasoline savings doesn’t approach the price difference – if you drive 12,000 miles per year at 50mpg in a Prius, you use 240 gallons of gasoline. At 35mpg in a Corolla, you use 343 gallons. At $2.30/gallon, the difference is $237/year. There is no discount rate that makes the Prius a better value because of its fuel savings – even at today’s temporary high price. Gasoline would have to go to at least $8/gallon to justify the extra cost of a Prius – and it won’t ever reach that price. Higher annual mileage generally doesn’t affect this conclusion because the Prius freeway mileage advantage is very small.
A Prius battery pack replacement will cost $3000-$5000. Toyota says the batteries will last ten years and guarantees them for eight, but that means that a ten-year-old Prius will be worthless (and consider the environmental impact of that, as well as the environmental issues in processing or disposing of hundreds of pounds of burnt-out batteries!).
In contrast, a ten-year-old Corolla is still excellent transportation – and worth around $4,000.
Hybrid cars such as the Toyota Prius are a terrible waste of resources and indeed are ticking pollution time bombs.
Suburbanites want to feel like they’re doing their part to “save the environment.” Sorting the trash is harmless, but buying a Prius – like installing a home photovoltaic system – is simply wasteful.
Posted by: enoch on September 12, 2003 09:58 AM
another problem i remember reading about in road & track is that the battery assists when the engine needs more oomph. for example, hills, accelleration. but when the battery runs out, that assistance ceases. the r&t driver was going up a bridge, and decellerated precipitously from 60 to 45 mph when the battery ran out. sounds a bit dangerous to me.