Prius Plug In Uk Price Released £27,895!

[Grumpy Cabbie]

Just noticed that the Toyota UK website has updated to show the Prius plug in priced from £27,895!?!

http://www.toyota.co.uk/cgi-bin/toyota/bv/frame_start.jsp?id=CC2-Prius-Plug-landing

The original price is £32,895 minus £5,000 equals just short of £28,000!

Phew, that's a lot. I notice the base Prius has now dropped to £21,100, which means the plug in option to get 13 miles range costs you about £7,000. lol, no thanks.

[Chris Dance]

Not for me. Expensive and range is insufficient.

[Parts-King]

Key Features

15.5 miles of extended EV

134.5 MPG combined cycle

CO2 emissions of just 49g/km

Charge time of just 90 minutes (4.4kwH)

EV speeds of up to 51 MPH

New EV city mode, optimises ZERO emissions in urban driving conditions

No range anxiety issues, operates in exactly the same way as Prius HSD once extended EV range has been exhausted

Average daily commute is 7-8 miles for the majority of people (Source, BBC) You have the best of both worlds, EV and normal petrol engine for high speed journeys

Boot capacity is the same as Prius HSD, and the deck surface is the same

Nearest rival will be the Apmera, however they are having real technical problems and the launch has already been put back

Prius 27895, Ampera 32250

Navigation on Prius, Not on Ampera

Prius 5 seats, Ampera 4 seats

leather, option on Prius, standard on Ampera

8 Speakers on Prius, 6 speaker on Ampera

Kingo

[johalareewi]

It was too expensive at £30,000 so upping it to £32,895 isn't going to grab my attention. And another £450 for metallic paint or £650 for pearlescent paint.

My local dealer apparently only has a quota of 4 for this year.

I see the grant should be available up to 2015.

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Environmentandgreenerliving/Greenertravel/Greenercarsanddriving/DG_191976

[Parts-King]

Yes the grant has been agreed for another 3 years

There will only be 780 units this year, it depends on the size of your dealer but I would imagine 4 being the maximum for any dealer. Next year and the year after they are looking at 1000 units ish per year

Kingo

[Seamaster73]

You can buy a lot of petrol for £7K, more than I would ever use during the lifetime of the car!!

[Grumpy Cabbie]

Good to see you putting a brave face on it Mr King :)

The mpg rating of 134mpg as anyone with half an ounce of intelligence knows is a mix of EV only and petrol over a set distance. The fuel economy of the petrol engine when the 15 miles is expired is no better than the existing Prius, but word on the US forums is that 15 miles EV range is virtually impossible to achieve with 13 miles under ideal circumstances more like it. OK, not a lot, but 13 miles if you feather the accelerator at a steady 40 mph isn't my idea of great. It is also said that it is hard to accelerate upto 50 mph without the engine firing up, unless you drive like you're driving Miss Daisy and likely subject to a road rage attack.

You also draw the comparison to the Ampera at £32k, but not the Volt at £30k. Pay £28k for a Prius PI or £30k for a Volt with a 50 mile EV only range (35 in normal driving).

I know it could be said that the PIP (plug in Prius) is new technology and likely to appeal to early adoptors but that's assuming early adoptors are stupid and I'm guessing they're not. It's ok to take a chance on new tech, but you don't want your leg lifted in the process.

£28,000 can buy you a lot of car. It could even buy you a brand new Fluence ZE (£17,500) with a 100 mile EV range and a new Hyundai i10 (£6,995) for those longer journeys as well as leaving you over £3,000 to spend as you wish!

I just think Toyota should have priced it without manipulation of the £5,000 EV grant, and that way it would have been affordable and worthwhile. As it is, there is no real reason why anyone would want one. Access to the London Congestion Zone is available to the existing Prius and many other cars, which are all subject to £nil road tax.

You show me a benefit of the PIP at £28,000.

Oh I forgot to add - you'll need to have an EV charge point installed at your house which is about £500.

[Parts-King]

Not a brave face GC, just thought I would add to the thread. The MPG figures are like any other figures supplied, very subjective and not based on real life driving

British Gas are the prefered supplier for charging points. They will carry out a free survey of your property and install from £275. You don't have to swap energy suppliers to get this service

Kingo

[Grumpy Cabbie]

780 in the first year? phew

I'll put a tenner on it that you don't!

Put it another way, this forum is full of knowledgeable pro-Prius/hybrid people and a smattering of early adoptors. In the past we've sung the praises of the Prius and its benefits, but slowly these benefits are getting less as the cost of the Prius rises compared to the competition.

Or, we're the very people likely to go out and buy a PIP, yet most feel the cost is just too expensive. If we (collective we) aren't likely to consider the PIP, then who is?

If it was £22,995 after the £5k, then I'd consider one, but £28,000 buys you a lot of something else.

[valmiki]

Is the spec of the plug-in comparable to any of the the trim grades on the normal prius? or are they in addition to the £28k price? Just saying, it could be a case of comparing like for like.

[Grumpy Cabbie]

It's supposed to be similar spec to the t4.

Glad you asked that though. Been comparing the US price vs the UK costs to show why the Prius Plug In has been overpriced to manipulate the £5,000 Government grant. Manipulate is a posh word for ripping off our UK tax payers money!

US Prius $24,000 or £15,000.

UK Prius £21,100

But it isn't as simplistic as this. There is 10% car import duty to pay and 20% vat to add to the US price of £15,000 which then equals £19,800, then add delivery, number plates, registration and dealer costs and you can see that the UK base Prius price of £21,100 isn't that far off the US price.

Now lets see how the US and the UK Prius Plug In prices compare;

US Prius PI $32,000 or £20,100

UK Prius PI £32,895

Now lets add the 10% import duty and 20% vat to the US figure; £26,532. To add the £1,300 dealer costs that applied to the original Prius makes a total of £27,832 or EXACTLY £5,000 less than the UK price. So if this isn't price manipulation I don't know what is.

If Toyota hadn't been greedy they could have sold the PIP in the UK for £27,835, then deducted the £5,000 grant and sold the car for a very reasonable and affordable £22,835, which was the real reason the £5,000 grant was introduced.

I will be emailing these findings to motoring magazines, tax payers alliance and others to show that it is not acceptable for a foreign motor company to rip off our Government and tax payers, especially so in these hard times.

[wass]

Nice to see that someone is on the look out for us GC! I wouldnt have spotted that con had you not pointed it out. I couldnt afford the plug in anyway!

I will be looking around in another 5 years though; by which time I might be able to afford a low mileage second hand unit .... so long as the model retains its reputation :)

[kithmo]

Not for me. Expensive and range is insufficient.

+1, the range is not just insufficient, it's pathetic.

I can't wait until the grant runs out to see what the real price will be.

What's this about a special charging point ?

I though you could charge it from a normal household socket (4.4kWh at 230v in 1.5 hours = 12.6A).

[Ancient Nerd]

If Toyota hadn't been greedy they could have sold the PIP in the UK for £27,835, then deducted the £5,000 grant and sold the car for a very reasonable and affordable £22,835, which was the real reason the £5,000 grant was introduced.

I will be emailing these findings to motoring magazines, tax payers alliance and others to show that it is not acceptable for a foreign motor company to rip off our Government and tax payers, especially so in these hard times.

This is a whole lot like Toyota GB did with the weasel warranty for theearly Gen III. One of the excuses they offered was that they increased the price to cover the cost of the warranty.

However, the value of the Yen appreciated significantly during that time. So on the basis that 75% of the cost was Japanese, with the remaining 25% incurred in the UK, then the increase in UK cost was exactly enough to compensate for the appreciation of the Yen / depreciation of the UK Pound.

[Grumpy Cabbie]

I just hate our tax money being wasted, whether it be '5 a day co-ordinators' or car manufacturers. That £5,000 grant is one persons tax liability for the year. There's someone out there on the UK average wage paying £5,000 tax thinking it's going to good use, and instead of discounting new, modern high tech electric vehicles to enable the average Joe to be able afford one, it's actually going to help Toyota UK's bottom line for nothing. All the tech work for the PIP is done in Japan, the US version is proving popular because it's priced well there, yet here it's ridiculously overpriced.

Well, in my annoyance earlier I fired off a few emails and received a fair few responses already. Some were not interested but one or two were and asked for clarification and details of websites and the like. It appears the mood of the Country is against this sort of profiteering. I wouldn't/couldn't do it in my job, so why Toyota?

Some naming and shaming might be coming their way. In some ways I feel guilty but then again next time you send that cheque to the Inland Revenue at the end of January you hope it'll be used wisely and not abused like this. If Toyota hope to sell 780 in one year, then that's potentially 780 average peoples entire years tax going into Toyota UK's profit. Or £3,900,000 of our hard earned!?!?!

I don't think so!

[Ancient Nerd]

Once you get ripped off by someone, you start looking at them a lot more carefully afterwards. In my case it was the weasel warranty. This was totally unnecessary, but Mr T couldn't resist the quick profit.

Sadly, he's done it again with the extended warranty. This one will go to Trading Standards/Small Claims very shortly. More details later.

Sadly, the £5,000 grant gives Toyota GB the opportunity to do exactly what I'd expect of them.

However, I also think this fits in with the general dubious nature of most grants etc made for environmental reasons. They result in a lot of inefficient windmills/solar panels that make money for the companies providing them, but don't actually do a lot for the environment.

[valmiki]

Sadly, he's done it again with the extended warranty. This one will go to Trading Standards/Small Claims very shortly. More details later.

As someone who may be extending the 3 year warranty soon, I'd be interested in details....

cheers

valmiki

[Red diesel]

Car manufacturers are far too shortsighted imo - Toyota aren't the worst of them but still far from perfect.

I don't think theres anybody that you can say in the car industry - manufacturer wise - that you can truly say - that manufacturer makes

exceptional cars from a reliability viewpoint and really looks after its customers well.

You really need to think long term - in the warranty department its very easy to say - no not honouring that bill for engine failure at 1 month and 10 k miles outside warranty. Looks good for the budget situation in the long term.

But alas when it comes to a couple of years down the line - theres been a fair whack of these engine failures and customers being very unhappy - the repeat business figures start looking interesting for all the wrong reasons. Sales budgets start looking embarresingly out of kilter - the fleet sales guys not happy because his leasing company buddy has just told him that our manufacturer is out of the running for the new 100 car lease order because leasing manager has just about had enough of these constant problems.

Oh dear

Red diesel

[Grumpy Cabbie]

One of the few times I agree with you Mr Red lol :)

Our local Toyota dealer is great and a credit to Toyota. The cars however are starting to be questionable and not just the Prius.

A few of the taxi guys in town have diesel Avensis (or is it Avensis's) who have had problems with one of the engines. I'm not sure if it's the smaller one or the more powerful one, but they've been dreadful - breaking down with serious mechanical failure, coolant leaks inside the engine, holes being blown out etc. I used to say they should have got a Prius, but even that is now starting to look a little delicate now the miles are pilling on.

A lot of the guys have replaced their Toyotas with Ford Mondeos, a smattering of Peugeots and the odd Hyundai. Sure, not very exciting cars, but cheaper and just as (un)reliable. Not worth paying the Toyota premium in their minds. Also, most will get them serviced through their own garage so save on servicing costs - so my excellent Toyota dealer lose out there.

I'm wondering if the same person in charge of pricing and marketing at Toyota also works for Lexus? They're basing their decisions on Toyota as if it were the premium Lexus brand - it isn't. Or maybe it's the old London centric decision - buy a Prius and save the £10 a day LCC, without realising that more than 80% of the population don't live or work in London, let alone the central LCC area.

[Ancient Nerd]

I'm wondering if the same person in charge of pricing and marketing at Toyota also works for Lexus?

No, I think he is a mole, working for Ford, Peugeot or Hyundai. It is the only thing that makes sense in all this.

[johalareewi]

Sadly, he's done it again with the extended warranty. This one will go to Trading Standards/Small Claims very shortly. More details later.

As someone who may be extending the 3 year warranty soon, I'd be interested in details....

cheers

valmiki

+1

[wass]

I was just thinking about the new plug in price and it occured to me that Toyota need to show exactly what is included in the new model which justifies the additional cost of £7000.

Is one to assume that the new style of Battery with its new style of charger cost £7000 to replace over and above the standard Battery cost, should they go wrong ( plus fitting cost because lets not forget that the standard prius has a Battery fitted as standard)? Large capacity fast chargers dont cost that much so just what is it with these new batteries which make them cost so much?

[Ancient Nerd]

Large capacity fast chargers dont cost that much so just what is it with these new batteries which make them cost so much?

The batteries are Li-on rather than Nimh. They have to do this to get the extra capacity.

However, Li-on batteries tend to be much more temperamental - note the large number of laptops and mobile phones that have had Battery recalls as a result of batteries catching fire.

Also, I'm not sure if Toyota can extend Battery life in the same way they do with the current Prius. In any case, restricting Battery capacity does rather defeat the point of a plug-in.

My feeling is that I would not touch a plug-in with a barge pole, unless the battery was a lease/exchange affair in the same way as Renault appear to be doing. Or unless Toyota give a real warranty on the battery, California style.

Also, as Toyota appear to be loading the UK price by the £5000 of the Government grant, it really doesn't make sense.

Finally, I am sure that Toyota can find some way to bite early buyers on the bum, just like they did with the Weasel Warranty for we early Gen III buyers.

Don't do it. It is likely to be a very expensive mistake.

[Grumpy Cabbie]

I was just thinking about the new plug in price and it occured to me that Toyota need to show exactly what is included in the new model which justifies the additional cost of £7000.

Is one to assume that the new style of battery with its new style of charger cost £7000 to replace over and above the standard battery cost, should they go wrong ( plus fitting cost because lets not forget that the standard prius has a battery fitted as standard)? Large capacity fast chargers dont cost that much so just what is it with these new batteries which make them cost so much?

This again confirms Toyota are ripping off the UK tax payer. Lets assume the original gross cost is £32k and a base Prius costs £21. Does it mean that the plug in hybrid Battery side demands £11,000 premium? If it does, what would it cost should it go wrong? As others have said, the existing Prius has a Battery worth about £2,000, yet the plug in premium is £11,000 over this. Does it mean the HV Battery for the plug in will be £13,000 as there are no other reasons for the higher cost other than the built in charger. The motors and drive unit I believe is the same or vitually the same as the existing gen3 Prius.

It just sounds all wrong to me. The HV battery is the Leaf is about £7,000 and can power the car about 100 miles. The extra cost of the Toyota Prius Plug In is £13,000 yet only goes 15 miles (though that's disputable). Now can people see the Prius Plug In is WAY WAY over priced for what it is.

[don21]

No doubt about it this is blatant manipulation of the grant.

The government will spot this sooner or later as its not just Toyota at it.

I really hate the way these days every company you deal with is trying to rip you off.

And I mean every company.

I am over the moon with my Gen2 Tspirit which was on a 58 plate and had 69k on it when I got it. Paid £6800 and I know I knicked it at that price.

So I will wait three years and see what price a 3 year old plug in with 70k on is.

I am guessing around £9k if I shop around.