SUNDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2006 - PRIUS CLUB MEETING AT THE YELLOW COYOTE TORTILLA FACTORY, noon to 3 PM
1901 Calle Barcelona, Carlsbad, CA 92009 (in the FORUM Shopping Center)  (phone: 760-633-3070)

Brunch/Lunch in the PRESIDENTE ROOM included the following items:

• Chips, salsa, tortillas
• Breakfast Burritos
• Huevos Rancheros
• Beef, Chicken or Vegetarian fajitas
• Grilled Fish Taco Platter
• Coffee, Tea and Sodas included
• complimentary champagne (with either of the Brunch items only)

Sev MacPete brought the club up to date on some Prius related news:

The HOV sticker extension has passed and was signed by the Governor, but will not go into effect until January 1, 2007.  When it goes into effect it will extend the HOV lane privilege to qualifying hybrids with stickers to the year 2011 and adds 10,000 stickers for a total of 85,000.

The Tax law for the Prius changed on Oct. 1, 2006. For those accepting delivery before that date the credit was $3,150 (as long as you were not subject to the Alternative Minimum Tax). For delivery from Oct. 1, 2006 through March 31, 2007 the credit is reduced to $1,575. For delivery from April 1, 2007 through September 30, 2007 the credit is $787.50. For purchases starting Oct. 1, 2007 there is no tax credit.

Dave Hermance brought a 2007 touring edition Prius.

 

Two special guests were Jean-Francois Migolet. and Maika Hoffmann of the San Diego Alternative Energy Meetup group. You can visit their website HERE.

Just how many Prii have been sold in the U.S.?

53,009 Classic 256,530 2004-2006 as of October 1, 2006 (This is number sold and does not reflect any cars removed from the road due to accidents) Sales of the Prius are averaging about 10,500-11,000 a month. Sales for the Camry Hybrid average about 5,000 a month. Toyota hopes to double sales next year.

By unanimous vote the Prius Club of Queensland was voted our "Sister Club".

Dave Hermance, Toyota Executive Engineer for Advanced Technology Vehicles brought a Barcelona Red 2007 touring edition Prius to the meeting. Dave gave us a new presentation he just developed regarding battery technology. He is a knowledgeable and entertaining speaker and is open to lots of questions from our membership, even about rumors of an eventual Plug-In Prius model and other hybrids to come from Toyota.

Dave gave us a primer on battery technology. You can view the powerpoint HERE.

The bottom line is that hybrid car batteries are such a very small niche in the market there is no incentive for manufacturers to develop the specialized batteries hybrid cars need. Toyota will probably have to develop it's own batteries. The Prius is on a 5-6 year redesign loop. The 2009 Prius will probably not have Lithium/Ion batteries and will probably not be a plug-in. It also won't have side signal mirrors, but that is a whole other thing.

update: November 26, 2006 Dave Hermance was killed yesterday at approximately 1 pm in the afternoon off the coast of San Pedro when the stunt plane he was flying lost power and he crashed into the ocean. Dave was a great friend to Prius enthusiasts, always willing to come talk to clubs and donate his time to what he loved....talking about cars. Dave was an engineer for Toyota when he died.

In memorium: Dave Hermance

Phone: 619-280-6662