[TF110]

Originally Posted by Akrapovic

Yeah but a Prius also isn't a performance hybrid. You could make the same argument for a petrol car - why does a racing car cost millions when I can buy a Ford Fiesta for £20? If you want a high performance one, it costs more, a lot more.

Toyota have done a very good job of making the Prius profitable, but it hasn't always been. It was losing $20,000 per unit in the 90s, but Toyota stuck with it, betting big on it and it paid off. Most other OEMs haven't gone through that, and even binned non-profitable EV/hybrids before (Toyota did with the RAV4 EV too). The BMW i3 doesn't turn a profit per unit, and the last figure I heard for the Chevy Volt was they were hoping it would finally be profitable in 2017, after losing $50,000 per car originally. The Bolt full EV is still losing $8,000 per car on release day, which isn't that bad for a brand new EV/hybrid. And a lot of these are just compliance cars, to make sure that as an OEM they meet emission regulations over the entire range, rather than try and seriously produce an EV/hybrid.

This stuff is expensive, and the Prius went through rough times to get to the stage it's at. I suppose to put it in perspective, the Prius was first announced before the Toyota GT-One even raced at Le Mans.

Edit: I like your idea of optional hybrids. Or (and some won't like this), standard hybrids. Plug and play hybrids. It'd require a fair bit of work to actually make one, but it could be done. And I know we'll all be moving to electric road cars one day (can't wait to own a Tesla...just need a lot more money), but it'll be a sad day when race circuits are quiet.

My point is that the Prius is over a decade old, approaching two. It runs on technology that is not expensive and that can be applied to race cars. A kers unit is not hyper expensive. Have a look at Super GT and the prius that run there have road car hybrid systems from Lexus's. A simple kinetic hybrid system isn't state of the art and won't give you 500hp, but it can be an option if they want to keep hybrids around.