Is an ALL ELECTRIC PRIUS coming?

[sobayimage]

I am not quite sure what I saw today and maybe Toyota USA is trying to hide it in plain site. This is pure speculation but maybe there is an all electric Prius coming. There were three Toyotas parked next to each other in a Torrance Best Buy parking lot today, this is not unusual in it self. One was a Prius, one a plug-in Prius and one next to that was a Toyota pick up with a large commercial Honda 220 volt 30 amp generator running in the back. The generator was charging the plug-in Prius. There are available two public charging stations less than half a mile away, in each direction. So why was the generator in the pick up charging it ?

The thing that set me off to wondering if there was more to that just three Toyotas parked next to one another was the dealer license plate frames. In California there is a great competition between dealerships and each one likes to put its name on the top of the plastic frame, some even put their phone number on it. All of the cars had the same frame with just Toyota on the top and the Toyota USA slogan “Moving Forward” on the bottom. This is a sign these are Toyota corporate cars. The plug-in Prius was about six months old and had HOV stickers and otherwise looked quite normal. If this was a regular plug-in Prius and the battery ran out, it’s my understanding, the gas engine would take over unless this Prius had no gas engine only an electric motor.

If Toyota was testing an all electric Prius they would likely want generator truck follow it around and then again all I saw were three Toyotas parked next to one another.

 

[Dsinned]

Interesting . . . good eyes!!! :mrgreen:

 

[Damchi]

Did it have California or Michigan plates?

 

[TonyWilliams]

Did it have California or Michigan plates?

Why would it have Michigan plates? Toyota USA is based in Long Beach, California.

The manufacturer plate would be from California, if it had one.


http://www.dmv.ca.gov/pubs/plates/occupationalplates.htm

 

[Damchi]

I do not know exactly. But it has something to do with unregistered vehicles or test vehicles. The manufactures can put the Michigan plates on any test car. I see them all the time in Palos Verdes, they run the cars up and down the hills all day long. I have seen almost every manufacture running test cars there.

 

[Kohler Controller]

Speaking of charging from generators, on page 87 of the owner's manual, it says to "not use private power generators as a power source for charging, that doing so may make charging unsafe". What are they talking about? Why couldn't we charge our RAV4EV from a portable generator, especially since it looks like they did it on the PHEV Prius during the demonstration?

One could buy a 12kW generator (~10kW continuous) and charge the RAV4EV using a 40A EVSE, but the run time afforded by the gas tank size would only be for a few hours, not enough time to get a full charge from 0% SOC.

The only thing I can think of is that since portable generators mention run time of "up to 8 hours" when running at 1/2 load, one would need to buy a 20kW generator (~16kW continuous) such that the load it sees from the RAV4EV charger falls into that 1/2 load scenario. This would make the generator last longer since it's not running as hard.

Perhaps they are suggesting not to use a portable generator because if it is not sized correctly (at least 7.2kW for a 30A EVSE), then the generator could get stressed/overloaded/"unsafe".

Thoughts?

Has anyone successfully charged their RAV4EV using a generator? If so, what was the size/rating of the generator and how did it work?

 

[TonyWilliams]

Perhaps they are suggesting not to use a portable generator because if it is not sized correctly (at least 7.2kW for a 30A EVSE), then the generator could get stressed/overloaded/"unsafe".

Thoughts?

Has anyone successfully charged their RAV4EV using a generator? If so, what was the size/rating of the generator and how did it work?

All these "limiting" statements from car manufactures are intended to limit their liability and/or exposure to warranty claims. Examples like "don't tow" or even put on a hitch for carrying a wheel chair!!! Oh, ya, the Rav4 can "no way" handle that kind of load (heavy sarcasm). Of course, the floor mat cautions make sense since people got killed and they are paying millions in claims... I'm surprised ANY Toyota has floor mats in the USA.

When charging with a generator, you may have to "spoof" the GCFI circiut to make it think it's grounded.

I've personally powered 50kW chargers with a generator (it weighed 6000 pounds), and just jammed a big ground rod in the earth.

Like all the bogey man stuff, if you know what you're doing, you'll do the right thing. If you don't know, then maybe it's not for you.

 

[cwerdna]

Did it have California or Michigan plates?

Why would it have Michigan plates? Toyota USA is based in Long Beach, California.

Yeah but from http://www.toyota.com/about/our_business/research_and_development/

For more than 35 years, Toyota Technical Center (TTC) has been the driving force behind Toyota's North American Engineering and Research and Development activities, overseeing the design and development of vehicles. TTC is a division of Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America, Inc. Headquartered in Michigan, TTC has R&D facilities in Ann Arbor, Saline, Plymouth and Livonia. In addition, TTC has R&D facilities in California and operates the Toyota Arizona Proving Ground near Phoenix...

It totally slipped my mind to take pics of the license plates of the test drive cars at Prius Connection San Francisco in ~March 09 where we got to test drive 2010 Priuses about 2 months before they were available for sale. I don't recall if they had CA or MI or some other plates...

On a related note to the OP, see http://priuschat.com/threads/is-there-an-all-electirc-prius.118266/. Interesting the dates are almost the same...