Prius Plug-in and Volt Pros and Cons

Well the thing is people drive what they like. For me the Prius plug-in fills the bill for me based on my needs. The EV range is sufficient for my short trips and the HV mode has fantastic efficiency for when I make longer trips and where I don't care to take the time to recharge the battery.
Also the hauling capacity for when I go on vacation is there for me if I want to buy something big when I am on vacation. One fine example: the wife and I went to Frankenmuth, Mich.,we had luggage for several nights and we decided to buy a Christmas tree while there. Actually an 8 foot artificial tree.Well I took the tree out to my 2010 Prius IV. A guy sitting there said you will never get that into that car and your luggage too. The tree was broken down and boxed, but big boxes. Anyway I got it in and the guy said I should do a commercial for the Toyota Prius, he couldn't believe it all went in and my wife did not have to ride home on the roof.

 

I can do that without a plug, check out my fuelly. I can get over 80 mpg in town. once I got over 80 for over 40 miles.

 

Nice!

I think I could do better then 58 mpg with my plug-in if I would slow down a little. However, when I am driving all day on vacation I am anxious to get where I am going ASAP.

 

when I am on vacation and drive all day to get there I am driving a ford V10 pulling a large 5th wheel and wife +4 kids that thing gets less than 10 mpg like that

I just take 10 mpg and times it by 6 for each one in the car. That helps a little

 

Well then Nort, why don't you enlighten us with the numbers that ARE impressive to the initiated.

 

Since I got the 59 MPG yesterday morning without plugging in, it was free.

That assumption is a likely conclusion to draw and common fodder for greenwashing. It isn't correct though.

Ever think about how computers cool themselves with only a fan available? They alternate CPUs and banks of memory.

That elegantly simple approach is extremely effective. It's lower cost too. It doesn't require on-going maintenance either.

 

That's not really a cooling system, nor is it elegant. It's a strategy, but the cooling is accomplished by using heat sinks, fans and sometimes liquid cooling systems.

 

That strategy prevents heat build up, rather than allowing it to happen in the first place.

When isn't being proactive better than waiting until afterward to react?

And like I said, greenwashing. You unknowingly fell victim to it, switching focus to semantics rather than sticking with the topic of battery longevity.

 

How often does that scenario ever actually happen? This is a great example of FUD, especially since we already know the charge rate is varied and there are thermal sensors within.

If I were to plug in with the interior of the car hot, which doesn't make sense since I wouldn't have been driving that way, I'd just hit the A/C button to cool off first.

 

Any car parked in the hot Phoenix sun is at risk of having the interior getting overheated.

 

THERE YOU GO MISQUOTING ME AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If you are going to be nit-pickie then you need to pay better attention to what you are picking on.

Quote: Even at 75 to 80 MPH when I travel in South Carolina, we do 700 miles in one day going to Savannah GA and I got 49 to 50 MPG in my 2010 Prius IV.

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Quote: With my Prius plug-in when on the interstate I drive at an average speed of 70 to 75 MPH and in HV mode get typically 56 to 58 MPG.​

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When on the interstate driving hundreds of miles getting an average of 57 MPG at 70 to 75 MPH, I am not stopping to recharge the battery for a mere 12-14 miles of EV at a cost of an about 1.5 hrs sitting and waiting. Also as I explained previously 56 MPG with a headwind and 58 MPG with a tail wind is typical of what I can achieve, thus average of 57 MPG.​

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I am a retired engineer and paying attention to the details was my job, so if you intend to pick on details I present make sure you quote them correctly.​

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Might be worth people making it clear here whether they are quoting the speed as per the speedo or via something more accurate like GPS. If the speedo, then we're probably talking up to 10% less, which will account for part of it.

My EV ratio since shortly after I got the car is currently 35%. My Fuelly log has run from about the same time. If you adjust for US UK gallons, I think I'm around the mid fifties for HV use only? There is a range of driving in there, but the vast bulk of it is motorway, and you can't do less than 70 nominal on British motorways without getting the car behind you's number plate imprinted in reverse on your back bumper...

As everyone has said (and to which Bill sticks his fingers in his ears and chants Nyah nyah nyah)', it's the combination of a smaller EV range but one that doesn't impinge on the ICE efficiency too much which makes all the difference. The more I've learned about when to be in one mode and when in another, and how to drive, the better the mpg gets, even when only comparing with the HV mileage.

 

None of this really makes makes financial sense, but I am also guilty as charged. Buying a hybrid is a bit like spending $10 to save $5, but the satisfaction of getting over 50mpg is hard to put a price on.

 

And the high resale value is an added bonus.

 

On a slightly irrelevant note...
One of the reasons we cling to the old Imperial gallon, nigh on 40 years after we switched to the metric system here in Canada, is that it sounds damned good to be getting 60 IMPG when it's actually 50 USMPG. The problem is that all the vehicles here display fuel economy in L/100km which takes a bit of mental gymnastics to convert.

 

No good at all. Electric mile economy is measured by miles per kWh. Wh/mi is used as well.

I averaged 212 Wh/mi (with 15% charging loss deducted) in the first year with PiP. It is great that PiP keeps track of the kWh consumed as well as EV miles.

PiP also tracks the miles driven on gas. I averaged 56 MPG.

SAE recommendation was to keep both numbers separated for both fuels and NOT combine them. As you know, dividing the electric miles by gas gallon would result in funny numbers that don't make sense.

 

Now, if you took a leak into it, would it still be just the Milk River?