Plug in Prius or LEAF?

My local Toyota/Mitsu dealer just got one of these.

$31k sticker and about the geekest thing I've ever seen. Rear wheel drive!

"Based on independent EPA testing, the Mitsubishi i can travel 62 miles on a full charge, in typical driving conditions. Incidentally, the EPA's MPGe ratings came in at 126 City and 99 Highway for a combined 112 MPGe—making the Mitsubishi i the most efficient electric vehicle in its class."

Might be the first real production EV in N WV ever. No Nissan dealer close by.

 

MiEV / Mitsubishi i Electric Vehicle / Mitsubishi Motors





The 100% electric Mitsubishi i. Powered by MiEV.

As low as $21,625
net value, after tax savings*

Arriving early 2012

 

Get the Pip, reason: flexibility. Citywide power outage, no problem, extra cold weather and bad headwinds, no sweat. Need to make a sudden drive from work to a 3rd destination no problem.
The Leaf is a fine short distance commuter vehicle, but that is all it is and with the length of your commute that's all it can be.

 

The MiEV is just too cartoony for me, I couldn't deal with the constant egg jokes!

 

An article in today's New York Times reports that a Leaf charging off the Colorado electric grid emits as much greenhouse gas as a gasoline car getting 33 mpg, because of Colorado's high dependence on coal.

So one might think that the greenest choice is to get a PIP and only charge off your solar panels, not at work.

That's probably correct, although it's more complicated than it looks. Your solar system is tied into the grid, so it'll be replacing dirty electricity independent of your power usage. In other words, as far as location is concerned, you're charging with the same mix of clean and dirty power at home and at work. (Granted, your solar contribution could reasonably make you feel entitled to 100% of the green good karma.)

Getting back to the big picture, Colorado's power mix could still vary depending on the time of day. At home you could use the timer to charge in the wee hours, when demand is low. Your civic-minded utility might only be running its cleanest plants. More likely it's running the cheapest ones, which could be coal. I wonder if you can find out.

If nighttime power is cleaner power, then your greenest solution would be a PIP that you only charge at home. If and when Colorado utilities deliver a greener power mix, you could start plugging in at work.

 

Colorado also has many good renewable options, you don't have to wait for the utilities to provide it, you can buy the greener mix and help drive the utilities to deliver a greener mix. The OP can purchase wind-energy which is particularly plentiful at night. You might even be able to get wind-energy at work as the incremental costs may not be that much.

 

They said it was a "well to wheels" analysis.

 

Hmm might need to look into that. The 2007 Colorado law (House Bill 1281)
that doubled the state’s renewable energy portfolio standard (RPS) also required municipal utilities to offer an optional pricing program that allows retail customers to support emerging renewable energy technologies through voluntary purchase programs.
Maybe blackhills got an exception until their new wind plant comes on line in 2012 (i.e. this year).

In a year or two they should be at 30% renewable even if you are not buying it directly.

And yes they will get to claim the solar you are "buying" to meet their RPS goals.

 

I've just been reading the UCS draft report. The report goes into detail ad nauseum about how they calculated the CO2 emissions from electricity generation but gives no details about their values for gasoline except to give a number of grams per gallon burned. Looking at the number it does look like they allocated a pretty good amont, almost 50% of the amount derived from direct burning, for downstream emissions.

The way the report is formated can easily lead to someone getting the wrong idea. There is a heading that reads "

About 18 percent of Americans live in GOOD regions—where an electric vehicle has the equivalent global warming emissions of a 31 to 40 mpg gasoline vehicle, making some ​

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gasoline hybrid vehicles a better choice with respect to global warming emissions." The problem is that the last part of the heading, "gasoline hybrid vehicles a better choice with respect to global warming emissions." appears on the top of page 19 making it look like that is the whole heading for that section unless you read things carefully.

Here is what the report says.

1. 45% of Americans live in a region where an EV produced less CO2 emissions than the best hybrid vehicles.

2. 37% of Americans live in a region where an EV produces about the same CO2 emissions as the best hybrids.

3. 18% of Americans live in a regions where an EV is equivalent to a gasoline car with 31-40mpg fuel economy so the best hybrids are a cleaner choice in these regions.

4. There are no areas of the country where electric vehicles have higher global warming emissions than the average new gasoline vehicle​

Noel​

 

They use the Aragone National Labs GREET model to figure out how much CO2 is produced by burning a gallon of gas and that supposedly takes into account all the CO2 produced by drilling, pumping, shipping and refining oil. The trouble is that they use one figure but just as electricity generation various by region so does the preparation of gasoline. For example Colorado uses a lot of Canadian tar shales as the starting point for crude extranction and this is dirtier than most oil sources.

 

And not just CO2 but CO2e - the total greenhouse gases expressed as an equivalent amount of CO2.

 

I'd vote leaf, but decide which car you would rather be in, that's a lot of car time. You might want to test drive the volt at the same time, all your work miles would be electric but some denver miles would be on gas. You drive the right amount of miles for a plug in no matter what you choose.

 

The problem with GREET is they use old numbers. You can ponder your navel or get the real numbers from your utility. The key to me would be even if there is slightly more CO2 contributed by you with a plug-in than a prius, you are still doing better for the environment by using less oil the scarcest energy resource, and better for the country by using north American energy that is not prone to OPEC blackmail.