In our region, there is not much to balance. How often does our climate ever experience dry conditions? If one drives sufficiently defensively for wet conditions, then the dry conditions take care of themselves with no bad surprises.
Wouldn't this be dependent on how many miles someone drives in a day? I thought it costs .50 to charge overnight? Lastly I recently purchased a 2013 Prius IV loaded with all the goodies. I'm looking to purchase a 2012 or 2013 PiP simply for the better MPG since I drive approx 200 miles/day. Driving the Prius IV I'm getting about 51mpg / day (80% city 20% highway for the 200 miles) What kind of MPG should I expect in the PiP vs the regular Prius I currently drive?
Assuming one overnight charge, the more you drive daily the less impact a PIP will have for you. OTOH, I think even without plugging in, the PIP has a slight mpg advantage? If I was in your shoes I would stick with the 2013, it's near-new, for starters.
It depends on the utility rates for the area. I pay about 8 cents per kWh with Clark PUC. That translates to $0.24 per charge, or about $0.02 per EV mile. Gas would have to be $0.99 per gallon before it broke even with EV for me. You should keep your current Prius because you won't see enough improvement in fuel economy to offset the cost of the trade, unless you happen to get a good price in a private party sale on both ends. The longer the commute, the less it makes sense to purchase a PiP. 10 miles of EV range is insignificant on a 200 mile trip. I'd say you have the ideal vehicle for that much driving.
Rates are as follows: See pic below Longer commute makes less sense even in the city going 40ish mph?
pip won't save you any money. we need your total payment, and total kWh used. or you can do the math for us to figure your kWh rate. divide total dollars by total kWh. my brother is in florida, and his electricity is really cheap. do you have time of use rates?
Won't save me any money when comparing to the Prius IV that gets 50mpg is that what you're saying? So u wouldn't be able to get 75ish MPG since the battery would be regen charging (some charge at least) during my 200 miles/day?
no, without plugging in, you might get 1 or 2 mpg better than the prius IV. see my edits above. if your electricity is cheap enough, you might save a few dollars, but that would only be if you can get a pip for the same price as prius III.
here's the math on last months bill (this is also the typical bill amt) total bill $90.96 / 832kWh = .1093 is this good? Regardless if we get a PiP or not, we still will be getting a car payment on whatever car we get. Can get a bare bones 2012 36kmiles $12,900 (no haggle price dealer so they won't go lower). the PiP seems dumb if i can only get 1-2 more MPGs than my IV....my IV charges the battery while i drive the PiP doesnt charge it up enough to keep using some of it to get more MPG?
no, it is actually inefficient for the engine to charge the battery. regen braking isn't enough to charge more than the regular battery, unless you live in mountainous area. .11/kwh is excellent imo, we pay 24 cents. i like to figure it like this: i can go 60 miles on a gallon of gas = $2.00 i can go 15 miles on a charge X 4 = 60 miles. a charge will cost you around 40 cents X 4 = $1.60 but driving 200 miles a day, you won't be able to charge enough to see savings. when gas goes back up tho... i pay more to drive ev, but i like it, and there are other reasons.
I'm in SW FL so there's zero hills. Thank you for the explanation it makes sense now. Even with FL electricity rates, like you said it won't be a $ savings. Soooo it looks like we will wait until we find a nice V with Leather, LKA and DRCC and hopefully sunroof to go along side our IV with leather and ATP
Very crudely, a non-plugin will use 4 gallons per day (200 miles / 50 mpg). A PiP will get about 10 electric miles and 90 gasoline miles each way, assuming you recharge both at home and at work. That means 180 gasoline per day, consuming (180 miles / 50 mpg) = 3.6 gallons per day, plus a few kWh of electricity too. Your effective MPG would be boosted to not quite 56, very short of the 75 you hoped for. That higher number would be the result of this calculation for a shorter commute of about 60 miles per day. Actual figures will vary, but this is the general drift of it. Expect to save very approximately a quart of gasoline per full plug-in cycle, which is offset by the cost of extra electricity.
I knew the PiP got around 11 on EV but figured using the normal mode it'd get better than 56 but obviously I'm way off. For me there's just no way I'd get a PiP unless I was commuting a short distance to work and can run EV. Other than that I personally like the IV with ATP or V much more aesthetically than the PiP..I was only getting for the MPG but just doesn't make sense for me.
I get about 56-57 with my PiP on average so with your math and values I'd veto the PiP for you based on my experience. But I'd love a second one if you are just really itching to buy one - I'll shoot you my address!
