Prius Plug-in and Volt Pros and Cons

You really are a troll, Bill.

 

Those mpg numbers can be very useful depending upon what you are trying to measure.
For some, the only thing important to them is how much gasoline is used. They don't care how much electricity is used. For those, the overall mpg is a great number.

For those concerned about the electricity use, the mpg is rather useless.

 

He may be, or he may just be really, really wrong

 

So doing the math, your 5,175 gas miles consumed 140 gallons of gasoline.
A PiP would use 103.5 gallons to go the same distance in hybrid mode.

And you still come here to tout your wonderfully efficient car? LOL!

 

If I had free electricity at both ends of my commute, I'd have bought a Volt, also.

 

damn fine point!
and yeah my lifetime 540 MPG means something to me - almost 30% was free electricity too

also - I believe those 5175 gas miles needed premium gas ? or maybe I just heard that somewhere...

 

Or both.

 

Nope !
I live west of Boston - hellacious first winter for my PiP ! at one point my MPG slipped to 460 or so but its climbing again

but yes my commute is sweet with charging after every drive - highways not so much, just airport runs
My point remains - diff cars for diff needs... and sounds like your choice is a good one

and yes - another point for you - once in awhile I miss the acceleration of my Avalon
Kinda nice not paying for gas though !

 

I calculated my commute in my 2011 Volt today:

98.5 miles EV at 121.6 MPGe
26.5 miles HV at 51.94 MPG
125 miles total at 94.7 MPGe overall
245 MPG overall
24.2 pounds CO2 (non-GREET*)

* where non-GREET means gasoline at 19.4 pounds CO2 per gallon and grid power at 0.524 pounds per kWh (PG&E average) not adjusted for pre-combustion carbon equivalent

The battery ran dry and switched to gas up in the hills which accounts for the somewhat lower than usual 122 MPGe on battery and the somewhat better than usual 52 mpg HV.

With the charging opportunities I had today, I doubt I would have done much better than 80 overall MPGe, 100 overall MPG, and 30 pounds CO2 (non-GREET) if I were driving a Prius Plugin on that same commute route or around 42 pounds driving a regular Prius at 58 MPG.

Once I finally get my PG&E account switched to 100% renewable solar later this year it would drive my CO2 down from 24.2 pounds to around 18 pounds since a bit more than half of my grid power would be away from home plus burning the gas.

 

Oil gets changed just once a year 10k. I've never been a do it yourselfer so there's a bit of savings...

I'm a transplanted upstate NY'r - while this last winter was looong the cold doesn't bother me too much. The heated seats were usually enough. My garage had the car warm enough and I do a lot of daily drives but they're short. Honestly when I did have to use heat or defrost it didn't hammer my MPG that much overall because average that with the fact that almost all my driving is under 13 miles.
If you don't use gas for 120miles the PiP then burns a couple miles worth - so its either that or me using heat every few days if that makes sense...

 

This statement about high altitudes and Prius-style Atkinson Cycle effectiveness is new to me. I'm skeptical about it because a lot of folks are getting very good gas mileage at low altitudes and I'm thinking part of that is due to Atkinson Cycle efficiencies. If the Pseudo-Atkinson Cycle is only effective at high altitudes then why would Toyota bother to use it since the large majority of their cars are probably driven at low altitudes most of the time.

I got 60-65 mpg driving the Prius Plugin after the battery ran out at near sea level altitude. How do you explain this? Do you have any links to articles about this claim?

 

If only a depleted Volt battery would kill Internet connections.

 

MM isn't really needed for driving up long mountain roads at 55 mph. It's needed for driving up the longest and steepest mountain passes at full power and higher speeds like 70 mph. It should do fine for that.

 

Is Mountain Mode when some charge is reserved in the battery and used with both the ICE engaged to the drive chain AND the electric motor providing power?

 

Right. It sets the minimum target SOC of the battery to about 45% instead of the normal 22%. The engine will try keep it there but the motors can temporarily draw it down as far as 18% if they need to when the engine can't keep up with power demand. It was sized to be enough for full performance on the toughest mountain roads.

 

Help me understand. Total energy input is from (a) grid power, (b) gasoline, and (c) regenerated. Going up a steep hill where the battery is depleted, gasoline needs to be burned to not only power the wheels but ensure the battery does not deep discharge.

At some point, the power available will be limited to that from the

No, we're trained to not suffer FOOLS lightly.