PiP/Volt January 7-11 Switcheroo

In the interest of science and the greater pursuit of good clean fun, devprius and I are exchanging wheels this week from Monday, January 7 until Friday, January 11. The formal changing of the keys ceremony took place yesterday during lunch. As an added benefit I got a rare opportunity to exercise my innate artistic abilities.





I've owned and driven a classic 2001 Prius and an iconic 2004 Prius for the past dozen years and a combined 200,000 miles. I've owned and driven a 2011 Volt for just over 2 years and 39,000 miles. I've only driven a 3rd generation Prius or PiP around the block on a couple of occasions and yet I have followed the PiP developments fairly closely during the past couple of years.

During that time I have formed assumptions and opinions based on my past experience and the experience of PiP owners here on PriusChat. It's now time to validate those ideas by actually driving the car for a few days.

I'm following my usual commute route which is about 91 miles roundtrip in addition to the usual various side trips for lunch and shopping. I can sometimes work at home but this week I'll be driving into the office every day. I can fully charge at home in my garage and can typically get 4 hours of charge time at 120V at work. I sometimes get an additional charge opportunity in the evening on the way back home. I'm told I will have access to 240V charging at work within a few months.

Devprius has a similar charging setup and his commute is almost as far but I'll let him get into those details. We both work at the same office campus in Silicon Valley.

And there we go! We're off on our intrepid adventure.

UPDATE: See the final results at PiP/Volt January 7-11 Switcheroo | Page 11 | PriusChat.

 

Similar to a rental car: we will return our cars with the same tank level that was there originally. We're paying for our own gas and electricity usage during the week.

 

I'm driving the same way I drive my Volt -- 55-57 mph on the highway mostly using cruise control in the slow lane and no unnecessary heating.

Temperatures so far have been in the upper 40's but it is forcast to get 5-10F colder later in the week. There is no rain in the forecast this week but it was foggy this morning.

I reset the trip counter in the parking lot at work before taking the keys.

Here are my stats so far:

10.5 miles EV last night driving home

51.0 miles hybrid

Total segment of 61.5 miles

Total displayed combined mpg of 74 mpg.


11.9 miles EV this morning driving to work

34.5 miles hybrid

Total segment of 46.4 miles

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Total displayed combined (EV plus gas) mpg for last night and this morning is 82 mpg.

I noted that I had 62 hybrid miles as the integer gasoline counter flipped over from 0 to 1.

 

Yes. We reset all the relevant counters as far as I know. I'm still learning and making sense out of the display screens.

Last night it showed 2 kWh when I got home and it showed 5 kWh when I arrived at work.

I've got some elevation drop right as I leave home for around 600 feet over 2 miles of city streets. I glided down the initial part of that in neutral to avoid any issues with the ICE starting.

 

My initial driving impressions:

All of my assumptions have validated so far. I figured I would get around 60 mpg in hybrid driving without any "EV-Boost". I guessed I would get 10-12 miles EV.

The engine in the Prius sounds a bit "tinnier" or lightweight and high pitched than the Volt. If the gas engine must be running, I prefer the sound of the Prius engine.

I also prefer the sound of the Prius hydraulic brake pressure pump for similar reasons.

The Prius has better realtime power usage displays that make it easier to optimize regen behavior and predict engine startup in hybrid mode. I have a good instinct for this on the Volt but it would be nice to have better display information.

On the other hand, the Volt seems to do a better job displaying actual realtime gasoline consumption down to the hundredths of a gallon (although updates are usually at the granularity of .03). Same for kWh used from the battery in 2012 Volt and later. The Prius display is overloaded and some important values are absurdly truncated or display only in whole integer numbers.

I find the Prius brakes to be too grabby. The Volt braking in 'D' is maybe too soft and slow to react. I prefer the braking feel of the Volt in 'L' "gear" where the pedal effort is more reactive than 'D'.

The Prius has better visibility to the side and going forward because the front pillars are a bit less obstructive.

 

Those numbers look roughly right to me. Thanks! We'll see how things average out during the week.

The EV efficiency is roughly equivalent to what I get driving the Volt where I get 125-135 MPGe by my calculations.

The gas hybrid efficiency seems to be roughly 35% better in the Prius for my driving style. Lot's of opportunity for improvement by GM there.... On the other hand, in absolute terms, I'm averaging 46-47 hybrid mpg on the Volt which is about the same as a typical Prius driver zipping around at faster speeds.

 

Update....

I was able to get a full charge at work before heading out to do an errand that took roughly 13 miles of driving on city streets. I think I got 12.3 miles of EV before doing the last mile or so on gas.

In the afternoon there was too much competition for the 120V outlet so I wasn't able to recharge again at work. I drove on gas to a nearby town with free public charging and got dinner and a full charge on my way home.

The final segment was 36 miles home with 12.3 miles EV. By my calculation, I got 60 mpg in hybrid mode.

Overall, I've done 27% EV miles since I got the car for a total of 171.0 miles and 87 mpg combined EV and gas mileage. My EV efficiency seems to be around 25 kWh / 100 miles including charging overhead.

 

Another driving impression I noticed is the PiP doesn't seem to have much, if any, "hill assist". It seems to roll backwards down a hill if I'm stopped and let up on the brake to drive away.

That surprised me a bit. The Volt has excellent "hill assist". I can be stopped on a sharp incline and let up on the brakes and the car won't roll back at all until the assist times out after several seconds. I can lift off the brake and press the accelerator and smoothly drive away.

I'll have to try parallel parking on a steep street to see how that works. My 2004 Prius was good at that. The Volt is trickier because it can sometimes want to accelerate too much and it can be tricky to make short maneuvers in tight parking spaces. The hill assist helps with the Volt but only after you learn to trust it.