My real-world experience with the PHV

Thanks for the info, Tony. So my trips to the grocery store and the Centennial Trail (for long walks by the river) would be electric, as well as the library and places not quite halfway to downtown, but downtown would burn gas.

I don't mind driving 60 on the freeway, but the distance would mean ICE usage for any place I'd actually use the freeway for.

I would probably be a good fit for my needs, since I could trade off the 2004, EXCEPT that I've got this bug up my nice person that I don't want to burn ANY gas when I can help it. The PHV would not be an improvement over my 2004 for long road trips, and even the Xebra goes farther on EV, and a Leaf or my electric Porsche (if it ever gets done) will go farther still.

Guess I'll stick with the 2004 and an EV, but that PHV sounds like a good compromise. The Volt probably won't go a lot farther on EV, and will probably burn 50% more gas in CS mode.

Say, here's another question:

In mountain driving, where you have LONG downhills, will regen recharge the plug-in section of the battery? Or will it only take as much charge via regen as the non-PHV version does?

 

But I would still like to have a little help with the room cost if anyone wants to chip in. Also I will have an extra bed Sunday night if someone wants to split the cost.

If Tony is going to be bunking with me Thursday night I might as well tag along if you want me to. If Tony does not decide to go I can always take his place.

 

Report everything. Even try to get some EV only distance reports. Do you have a way to monitor kWh usage when you plug in? Like a Kill-A-Watt?

 

I usually track my am and pm commute mileage separately so that would be a great measure. I would also do daily, and total. Also amount EV vs the ICE/reg hybrid vs total miles would be very useful to get a handle on real use. Lastly a feel of percentage of driving by type would be a great added bonus - highway, surface streets, heavy traffic etc, temperature.

 

Who can get Tony a Scan Gauge before Thursday? :-p

15 miles Ev would handle a lot of my usage - to and from work during the winter (and rainy days), most of the driving i do around town for various activities... but it'll only handle one way whenever i need to go downtown (about 11 miles) - and there are 6 weeks a year that i do that drive 5-7 times a week. 30 miles and I'd give up my current Prius as soon as it was available, but 15.. I'll probably wait a bit for that.


It'll be really interesting to see your results. 4 hour drive to the event (annotated with average speeds and hilliness (is that a word?), of course) should give us a great idea of how it acts once the battery is exhausted... and the short commutes should really highlight the power of a plugin (pun intended )!

 

Sorry for picking nits, but "idea" is feminine, so it takes the feminine adjective: "buena."

 

Oh man, this thread is getting filled so fast in a few hours of it's conception.
Tony, you had been touched by the "BIG MAN up-there" for being selected to transport the GREAT chariot of fire. :rockon:
Keep it charging...........

 

Do you have to return it? I can use a black face mask and Hick-jack the car with you and nobody will know....... for a long Joy ride.

 

I wouldn't be so sure Tony... I imagine the headlines would be a bit bigger than even this big news story! http://priuschat.com/forums/freds-house-pancakes/82410-she-fought-law-law-won.html

 

You never know. Get some hot actors to play the parts, and include some sex, and maybe a 30-foot-tall triffid, and a cattle stampede, and a bluegrass sound track. Then find a Japanese Danny Trejo to be the Toyota hard-nice person who tracks them to recover the stolen car, but gets eaten by the triffid in the end, and give it a happy ending (they finally make it to Massachusetts where they get married), and I'll bet you'll have a real box-office hit.

 

hold on a minute daniel... using the Prius as a sex symbol? You never said this was a comedy!

 

The Prius is not a sex symbol in this movie. The Prius is the super-secret technology the Japanese do not want Tony and BigH to deliver to the Prius Chat techs for reverse engineering. In fact, the sex is just for box office. The movie is really an adventure romance.

 

I love how an off topic thread can so easily go off topic.