693 PiP sales Feb '13 in US, what's up?

I think it plays a large part of it. The federal incentive is not based on efficiency, emission nor gallon of gas a plugin could save. Instead, it is based on the battery capacity.

There is a strong draw to the want to get higher EV ratio but bigger battery also come with lower gas mileage and less interior room.

 

I only plug in every other day now. That's because my weekday driving is 2-4 miles. Sometimes I plug in every 3rd day.

In the weekend when I drive more, I would plug it in every chance I get. There is a rewarding feeling with it.

 

Interior room is a design decision. A bigger battery does not necessarily, in and of itself, mean less interior room.
In the case of EVs this is especially true. In the case of hybrids (either series or parallel), it is much more difficult as you have to include both an engine and a motor and the support structure for both.

 

With mileage like that, you could be driving a Hummer and still not be using that much gas.

 

Wow, that's very little driving now. You had well over 100K (120K+?) miles on your 06 in late 2010.

 

Yup, I was talking about PHEV. Tesla did a great job with Model S with the available interior room despite having the furthest range in EV.

Na, Hummer with so many short trips would be a gas hog, not to mention the emission it'll spill out of the exhaust from those engine warm-ups.

I don't use gas in the weekdays and PiP is perfect for a city dwellers or those lives close to work. I go out of state on some weekends and I have been getting about 54 MPG on gas miles.

PiP has taught me to drive less. We do everything closer now. My wife and I choose trips and combine them when we can. The important thing is, to keep the electricity and gas consumption low. Since PiP has no "short trip MPG penalty", it has opened many opportunities for me.

I did about 1,000 miles/month for the first 3 months. For the last 2 months, I did about 700 miles per month.

My 2006 had 164k miles in the 77 months I owned so I averaged 2,130 miles per month. That was when I had 90 miles round trip commute. My brother has it now at 173k miles, still on original brakes. He said it drives like new. LOL.

 

High price point for a 10 mile range. The Ford C-Max Energi is a 20 mile range, has leather seats and nice bells and whistles and the same price as a basic PIP and Ford is giving 3.5K rebate + all the tax incentives.

PIP needs a 5K price reduction or more EV range at the same price point. They also need another model inbeween the basic and advanced in features and price.

 

I got my PiP for $25k before tax (after tax credit and cash bonus).

 

You said it all, makes no financial sense in the face of a regular Prius.

 

I got my PiP for about the same price as Prius III. It has remote AC feature on top of what's equipped with Prius III. So the plug option is virtually free for me after the federal tax credit.

The cost of my electricity is pretty expensive compared to national average but I still save money vs. over gasoline. Emission from my electricity is cleaner than gasoline as well.

 

Since making sense is subjective, it would be nice to know what cost/range people have in mind now.

20 km for $3,000 to $5,000 was the initial target.

 

$27,000 for a midsize hybrid delivering 50 MPG along with a 20 km (12.4 mile) plug capacity is quite a stretch.

$25,765 for a model 3 Prius along with the charger & battery shows that's just not realistic in 2013.

The next generation could be a different story. But that's still years away.