Comments on: Toyota Is Working on a Seven-Seat Prius

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 18:29:29 +0000

this car is very good

By: ex-EV1 driver

ex-EV1 driver — Thu, 27 May 2010 20:07:12 +0000

Dont Pollute,
Unfortunately, higher vehicles have more wind drag than lower ones. "that dumb bar" also is there to improve aerodynamics.
Those are those physics issues it's hard to get around.

By: Dont Pollute

Dont Pollute — Thu, 27 May 2010 19:55:52 +0000

it has the front of a prius with the back of a more conventional utility vehicle. I have a ’08 prius, i like the improved fuel economy over my ’02 CRV, but the prius is too low to the ground (Scrapes parking bumper) and has poor visibility esp with that dumb bar across the back. This looks to be similar in concept to the GM MPV5 (Larger version of Volt), hopefully they will make it higher off the ground.

By: ex-EV1 driver

ex-EV1 driver — Thu, 27 May 2010 19:06:34 +0000

Shines,
100,000 miles on a battery for a 100 mile per charge EV means it needs to last 1000 complete charging cycles. This isn’t inconceivable.
As a real world (although not our world example: NASA’s Mars Exploration Rovers, have been living for over 2000 days when they were expected to only last 90 days. They have been able to do so because of the wonderful performance on their Li-ion batteries so it is possible for Li-ion batteries to last well over 2000 cycles if they’re taken care of.

By: Shines

Shines — Thu, 27 May 2010 18:27:28 +0000

Lithium Ion batteries… If that is true that would make me believe Toyota has determined the battery technology capable of lasting well beyond 100000 – 150000 miles. That would be great news.

By: Max Reid

Max Reid — Thu, 27 May 2010 04:33:16 +0000

Why 7-seater, why not 8-seater, today's minivans are all 8-seater.
This will allow Prius to compete with minivans and even with 40 MPG, it will outsell the minivans.

Infact the current Prius can be made slightly wider and made a 6-seater (3 front & 3 back).

After all, Hybrids are meant to be space efficient.
I wish Ford comes with a Hybrid Fiesta that could compete with Prius.

By: Elliot

Elliot — Wed, 26 May 2010 19:08:40 +0000

Others beat me to the punch with the Mazda5 analogy. This literally seems like a clone with a hybrid system.

Mazda is very innovative with styling and body types, unfortunately they don't seem to take gas mileage very seriously. I have a Protege5 and it is stylish and fun, but its mileage stinks considering the performance level (i.e. if this thing was half as fast as it looks I would understand the mileage I get....but its not).

Gotta say I would like to see something even a little larger offered as a hybrid. That third row is almost certainly going to be for 8-and-under.

Also, while I am a Toyota fan, this doesn't seem terribly groundbreaking to me. Not sure why it will take quite so long to get this to market. Now, if they brought over a plug-in lithium-ion Sienna we would be getting somewhere.

By: FamilyGuy

FamilyGuy — Wed, 26 May 2010 13:43:19 +0000

Mazda already has a hybrid. It's the Tribute. I've been waiting for Mazda to apply that technology to a version of the Mazda5 hybrid for a while now. If the Alpha comes out first, it could be a winner. Just based on the picture, the Alpha is missing the sliding door that the Mazda5 has. Also, the Mazda5 has the captain seats in the second row and those are key to have easy access to the 3rd row of seats. This allows for infant/toddler car seats in the 2nd row without having to worry about those seats having to fold back in order to get to the 3rd row.

It'd be interesting to see a cub-type door coupled with the back seats doors to gain access to the 3rd row (sort of like the Mini Cooper Cub has to get to the backseat).

I'm holding onto the family Subaru with 113k miles hoping to get something like the Mazda5 or Alpha in the next few years. Hopefully time will allow for choices.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 26 May 2010 05:19:25 +0000

The devil will be in the pricing scheme. How much will this puppy sell in the environment of declining rebates?

By: Jonathan

Jonathan — Wed, 26 May 2010 03:02:53 +0000

My first thought also was that this is a lot like the Mazda 5, which I own. That’s a nice mini-minivan, but we’ve been waiting for the right opportunity to buy a hybrid. If this new Prius or something similar ever gets to America, we’d be happy to switch.