Got The Call!  As I was wrapping up a morning meeting, I glanced over at my phone.  Whoa!  There was a voicemail from my salesperson.  Naturally, he couldn't answer the phone when I finally got to return the call.  Being physically in the office with my wife today, it wouldn't be easy to just make a quick run out to the dealership either.  I had a feeling my 4X had been delivered, first thing on this Monday morning.  Sure enough, after chatting with my wife to come up with a plan, I made phone connect and there was indeed reason for planning.  My vehicle was there.  Woohoo!  Unfortunately, he would be leaving for the day prior to prep being complete and tomorrow is his usual day off.  That meant arranging for pick up on Wednesday.  So, I had them plug it in, so I would be starting with a full battery despite there only being a 120-volt charge available there.  That would work fine.  To my surprise, my wife humored me by saying we should drive by there on the commute home.  When we need, I noticed that rather distinct tail-light through a window in the delivery area.  Going in there to check, sure enough.  There it was.  Awesome!

Lastly, the statement is not informative: "Keep an eye on your battery's temperature, as excessive heat can negatively impact battery health."  Readers were not provided with any context.  DC fast-charging requires heat for speed.  A warmed battery will accept electricity faster.  Seeing temperature raised to 50°C (122°F) in preparation for that is not uncommon.  That should be explicitly stated as acceptable.  It would be very easy for someone to assume that is excessive.

As a customer, knowing the difference is vital.  You don't want to plug into a slower charger if a faster is available.  You don't want to pay extra for faster if your vehicle cannot accept faster.  You also don't want to block a faster charger if the rate your vehicle will accept will be slow due to temperature or state-of-charge.  So even without a technical understanding of what the numbers represent, their meaning is still recognized.

Serving To Confuse.  When you see an article published with this title, what do it make you expect: "Is Slow Charging better for your EV?"  I expected to get something of substance.  Reading through all that was available, I got nothing.  It was so vague, I had to reply.  It was a challenge to find the right words, knowing they could be seen by a very wide audience in this circumstance... many of which have no technical background.  The point was for it to convey some information related to what made faster bad, right?  Completely omitting so many vital facts, it made me wonder if that could somehow be anti-EV material written in a manner to subtly undermine messaging of progress.  After all DC fast-chargers are now getting NEVI money as part of that big IRA bill.  Attempting to portray DCFC investment as a bad choice isn't too much of a stretch.  After all, ordinary consumers will start seeing more and more of them.  This could be a red-flag, a reminder of what we dealt with in the past.  Remember all the misrepresentation used to mislead about hybrids?  Heck, we have seen that with PHEV recently too.  Needless to say, I wasn't going to remain quiet.  This is what I posted:  Using a label of "fast charge" for anything more than 22kW does a disservice to those trying to actually educate ordinary consumers.  There's a profound difference between the typical DC charging rate of around 100kW and those striving to deliver as much as 350kW.  Then referring to the cause of accelerated aging with "excessive heat can negatively impact battery health" doesn't tell readers anything.  People will have no idea what actual temperature excessive refers to.  There's no mention of battery chemistry either, which is of significant importance.  Newer choices, like LFP (Lithium Iron Phosphate) are far more resistant to heat than popular NMC & NCA chemistries of the past.  Basically, the article only served to confuse by being so vague.

Repeated Messaging.  The importance of watching & understanding mi/kWh will come up a lot, especially with my change from PHEV to BEV.  It still surprises me how unimportant BEV owners of the past treated that value.  Most just plain didn't care about efficiency.  Adding more battery-capacity was the solution.  Faster charging was the solution.  More available DCFC stations was the solution.  It was never a topic talked about.  In fact, the only real mentions were that Tesla was delivering superior results.  This is why the debacle in Norway got so blown out of proportion.  That was really the very first time the topic got proper attention.  It's amazing how the industry finally takes notice when Toyota enters the market.  Until that, it was still just an audience of enthusiasts.  I had seriously hoped VW would be able to sway ordinary consumers; instead, we are mostly just seeing conquest & expectations.  Actual change to the status quo is years away still.  That's why I can put a lot into repeating messaging now.  There's still plenty of time to get out of the niche we still see from early-adopter perspective.  That enthusiast trap melts away when someone asks a question like this: "Am I the only one that hopes after toyota does their OTA update there is still an option to show "miles remaining" instead if just battery percentage?  I don't want to do the percent to miles conversion in my head as i am driving."  That's critical thought, a clear effort to see beyond what we started with.  Woohoo!  It's a good sign seeing that.  Rather than gambling on future capacity, speed, or accessibility, attention is focused on how to make what we already have better.  After all, a better informed user is what you want in other industries.  As much as technology can continue to provide improvements, not getting the most out of what you already have is a huge waste of opportunity.  So, I repeat this messaging:  It all comes down to understanding what you see.  That % really doesn't tell you the whole story either.  What people should be focusing on is the MI/KWH value.  Think about it.  When you need to DC fast-charge, knowing how many KWH (kilowatt hours) to add it vital.  Without being aware of how many MI (miles) that will provide, you become reliant on an after-the-fact estimate.  Planning prior to the stop makes a big difference.  That is especially important in the winter, when heater use makes that value drop faster.

Endless Complaints, narrative disruption.  The point of provoking a trapped enthusiast is to disrupt their narrative.  I clearly did: "we're talking about prius here".  Just like with narratives for Volt, introducing other data to their carefully cherry-picked presentation is unacceptable.  We couldn't ever have an exchange of ideas about technology.  It was always Prius being the antithesis, period.  He went on to say: "your comments are ridiculous and out of context. you have no idea who the prius audience is".  Frustration emanating from my focus on audience was quite clear.  I had figured out how to end his complaints.  That discussion thread was about strong & weak points.  It served as a venue for trolling, an invitation to focus on his biggest grips.  Moving on to feedback of whether a weakness was actually a con wasn't acceptable.  25 miles of EV range for gen-2 Prius Prime was obviously a weakness, but that certainly wasn't any reason not to purchase it.  For those who had very short drives, or a commute like mine where work had chargers available, it wasn't a problem.  That range was fine.  Lots of EV driving still happened, which was a pro.  Needless to say, that type of close-minded perspective is a narrative.  Just because they don't like it doesn't mean other people will feel the same way.  Our market is quite diverse, people & product must vary to address a wide variety of uses.  You'd think that wouldn't have to be stated.  Instead, I get told that information is "out of context".  Ugh.  Oh well.  History tells us it will not be favorable to those who disregard facts like that.  I put it this way:  Understanding why certain decisions were made is how strong & weak points show use the bigger picture.  From that, we can see the role Prius Prime will play on the team.  We already know from history how it will end if that context is disregarded.

Endless Complaints, more appealing.  It seems like useful feedback: "the thing is, they could have made it better looking without making it so difficult to get in and out... none of these things were necessary to try to make it more appealing to the general driving public."  That was the reply I got back.  It was a great example of why progress is so slow, why enthusiasts don't know their audience.  When you don't actually convey any information or even state goals, what do you expect the outcome to be?  That question of "Who is the market for Volt?" came about from complaints about sales.  What enthusiasts believed was "more appealing" wasn't at all what ordinary consumers found a priority.  There's an emotional/logic difference they don't see.  The difference between want & need... hence asking about audience.  An enthusiasts will pay a premium for something they want.  Ordinary consumers tend to forced to address need, unable or unwilling to give in to want.  That's where diversity plays a key role in success.  That's why specifics explaining what "improve range" and "lower hatch floor" are so important.  Without detail, they are just endless complaints... no progress.  An escape from getting stuck in that trap is to ask about audience, drawing attention to purpose with the hope of flushing out detail.  For example:  For whom?  Again, know our audience.  We have consumers here in the United States that wouldn't touch a "car" in any form... sedan, hatchback, wagon.  They couldn't care less.  They want higher seating that Crossovers & SUVs offer.  Prius would never appeal to them, period.  The sleek, low seating of Gen-5 Prius is for an entirely different general driving public.  You know there is a Gen-2 CH-R on the way.  You know that is based on the Prius platform.  You know there will be a PHEV model.  You also know there are PHEV models of Crown and a Harrier/Venza.  There is obviously a RAV4 Prime already too.  This is exactly why I called you out for complaining.  Focusing entirely on Prius is a disregard for the other choices Toyota is striving to deliver.  It's an act of denial at this point not acknowledging the bigger picture.  So what if Prius Prime does not fulfill criteria for a specific audience?

Endless Complaints, not happy.  An owner of the first-generation plug-in Prius went on and on and on today about how Toyota had failed on the new Prime.  With over 102,000 posts on the big Prius forum, stirring activity there is what he did for entertainment.  He still doesn't quote what he's responding to either.  That's quite inconsiderate and makes posts harder to follow... if the complaints weren't so consistent.  That behavior made this statement about the third-generation plug-in Prius very easy to predict: "...an awful lot of negatives for a car that only needed to improve range and lower hatch floor. after initial excitement of the new styling wore off, i'm left pretty disappointed."  That's such a waste, still vague and not at all constructive... just endless.  Imagine being so disappointed for so long.  It's what Volt's barrier was all about.  Enthusiasts got stuck, unable to articulate a clear message of mission.  GM never learned that lesson, thinking the hype represented progress.  Clearly, he's stuck in that trap.  Ugh.  Not sharing detail of any sort is what gets to me.  Some people just like to dominate discussions and are unwilling to accept change, so it becomes part of their nature to see beyond the immediate.  I'm quite curious how little relevance his comments will carry forward.  Will anyone listen?  Being 2 generations behind gives you almost nothing to work with anyway.  His material has was exhausted long ago.  I'm sure he'll try though.  Gaining attention of newbies could still happen.  In the meantime, I let him know what I thought of his opinion:  We knew you would not be happy under any circumstance.  After 6 years of complaining, it's easy to move the goal posts in any direction.  Fact is, some simply don't like the journey.  There's nothing wrong with that, but so much is missed along the way.

Back To Basics.  You can see topics emerging for a User-Guide.  We clearly have an audience of 4X newbies.  I see comments posted by owners who are completely unaware of their options available.  An example this morning was not knowing how to shut off the heat-pump.  Their quite reasonable assumption was incorrect.  It was believing that shutting off the HVAC was the only choice.  Changing the temperature from the numbers available to "LO" will deactivate the heat-pump.  We learned that long ago with Prius.  If you want a fan to simply pull in outside air, that was the setting.  It makes sense if you really think about options.  There is a "vent" setting in gas cars, why not in hybrids and plug-ins too?  That is critical thinking.  You seek out something that your gut tells you should be supported.  It works well when there is some basis to relate.  Charging doesn't work that way though.  It is an entirely topic.  How to address that requires practice.  When someone asks a question, feedback from the answer you provide reveals some insight to what really needs to be conveyed.  It takes awhile to find achieve that simplicity.  You'd be surprised how striving for the basics can be quite difficult.  Finding myself back in that position is interesting though.  I really look forward to it.  Here's another short & sweet reply toward that effort, in this case a question about portable EVSE value:  Level-1 provides roughly 4 mph for charging speed.  (That's 120 volts * 12 amps * 3 mi/kWh).  People that don't drive much can manage that minimum, but it isn't easy.  The device comes in handy as a portable means of backup though, just in case.