To plug-in or not to plug-in...

there are lots of advantages besides cost, but you do have to be willing to pay for them if your rates are high.

 

Does your utility offer some other rate plan choices for EV charging?

 

In my area, (new england), it also seems to be pretty much a wash with gas vs electric. But wait until gas his $4.00/gallon, then see what you pay for one of these babies. And in any case, I'm still getting like three times the mileage of the car I was driving before.

 

I used $3.03 for gas, my last fill up. for EV, I used 26 mile on a charge and $.28 /KWh from my utility bill.I agree that electricity is expensive. However, the EV mode was really not the reason I bought the car. I can charge at work for free so I get 26 miles on a 17mi commute for free.

 

I mentioned earlier that the cost in my area was pretty much a wash, electric vs gas. But then I was thinking, my commute is only 7 miles. So I really need to find mileage cost for that route. While the car warms up fairly quickly, a good portion of that trip is with a car that is less the fully warmed up. I guess I'll do a few commutes in gas mode.

 

So a quick follow up on this. Based on a singe experiment, it probably pays to use the electric mode for short trips. Here are the numbers for just gas mode. (well, hybrid mode):
At 2 miles out, 30 mpg.
At 4 miles out, 42 mpg.
At 6 miles out, 46 mpg.
At 8 miles out, 51 mpg.
It was about 28f out when I left the house, and I drove the car in hybrid mode the whole time. The car was cold when I left. So it looks like there is something to be gained with electric mode for short trips, costwise. Also, I suppose it's better for the engine to not drive it for short distances, but really, when was the last time anyone ruined an engine? Sure, it's possible, but it's not common.

Does the Prime have the coolant "thermos" or anything like that?

 

no, they now warm the coolant by running it along the exhaust.

that is a great point about short trips. my wife and i drive 4 miles each way almost everyday to go for a walk.
we always take my pip in ev, rather than her hycam.

was your test with no wall charge left in the battery?

 

The traction battery was fully charged.

 

doesn't it use any in hv mode?

 

Hi.

Good question in California, here in Québec, the cost is 0,08$ per KWh. I don't have to ask me the questioon.; my cost is 0,50$ (CDN) to fill my battery.


Désolé!

Bonne année!

 

Use any of what's in the traction battery? I'm not sure. If it does, it's not much. HV mode tries to keep the battery at the same level. But I don wonder, if you depart in HV mode, with a full battery, perhaps it does use a bit, so as to make room to put some back. That would seem to make sense, but it would be hard to tell. Maybe I'll try it again tomorrow, but without a full battery.

 

if you look at the battery icon mile estimate, you should be able to gauge how many miles it used by the time warm up is completed. any use would inflate your warm up mpg's above, making an even stronger case for using ev for short trips, even at high kWh cost.

 

It's pretty much the same in price between using gas and electricity around here, so I keep the car charged up as much as possible. For me, it's the ride more than anything else, I like driving electric.

 

cheap entertainment, especially compared to our monthly phone/internet/cable costs.

 

You got that right.

 

Okay one thing. Whan I got my car in February 2017 I went 2 months before I needed to get gas. That's because I had the heat running and I was only getting 24 miles EV charge. When the weather got warmer. I started to get 34 miles EV. My drive to and from work a total of 28 miles. I charged at work when I could. And when I couldn't I still had at least five to six EV before I needed to charge. I went 7 months without putting gas in my car. Now I only spend .007 KWH. I haven't done the math but I do believe I am saving a lot of money on gas. Now that it's colder out I'm going about a month before I have to fill up. Unless my kilowatt-hours go extremely high I'm thinking about getting a electric vehicle.

 

I like the hell out of this post. All we have to do is look at China!

 

I'm not sure that we class as "tree huggers" but why contribute to a problem if you don't have to? Kind of like walking five feet to a trash can rather than throwing your candy wrapper on the ground.

Buying the Prime was Mrs. Bear's idea. I think she was motivated by the tax credits and the fact that she'd been sold on the idea of an electric vehicle after test-driving a Tesla. The cost per kWh here makes it pretty much a wash except for the fact that the Prime replaced a larger V-8 car and we will be saving about $1000 a year just because of the difference in mpge vs mpg.

We make a lot of short trips around town and it's nice to be able to get into the car and go without worrying about warming up a gasoline engine or the effect of constant starting on a battery and starter system.

When you think about pollution, you should also think about noise pollution. The quiet of the Prime is much appreciated both inside the cabin and out.

 

And don't forget, the indicated mpg on the Prime is optimistic by 5-10% in my experience, when I check it via hand-calculation after fill-up, so cost per mile in gas mode is higher than it first appears.