Is the Plug in Prius worth it for me?

Watch this video review. It might answer all your questions, on Prius verses Plug in Prius, verses the Volt. It's all in how you drive and where you drive.

Review: 2012 Toyota Prius Plug-In Hybrid | The Truth About Cars

 

OP has no outlet to plug-in, if I am 'membering the right thread.
Lease was a good idea.

 

the OP has a charging opportunity twice a week at work, but I think they would need to get more than the 15-20 mile max charge of a PiP to take advantage of two charges a week. The Volt could get two 38 mile charges, almost enough for the OP's 84 miles per week of driving. An opportunistic weekend charge would get them through the week without any gasoline expense.

Someone posted there are $99 Leaf leases available, that might be an even better solution for the OP. Niisan Leaf lease deals - As low as $99/month After reading the thread, they are more like $199/month.

correction, the OP has a charging opportunity at school twice a week, not work. She might not be at school long enough to get a substantial charge. The Volt can only get about 10 miles of ev range per hour of charging. I think the Leaf can get 20 miles of ev range per hour of charging. To make the Volt scenario work I think she would need to be at school for 4 hours twice a week and another 2 hours charging on the weekend. The leaf might get by on 2 hours at school twice a week and a short weekend charge.

 

which is why, imho, any sort of "EV-primary" vehicle is not a good solution to this situation. It's very likely that the OP will get stranded or end up using more gas than electricity.

 

...so OP maybe gets a good lease deal on a Prius c or Liftback and in 3-yrs gets PiP if situation has changed re: availability of electrons.

 

It will depend on climate, speed and driving style, but I don't think OP posted her location. Here in AZ I routinely get >50mpg on a 10 mile (one way) mixed surface/highway commute with moderate speeds (55-60 highway, 40-48 surface) but no deliberate hypermiling. First couple of miles are in the mid to high 40s, up over 50 by 5-6 miles and usually end up at ~52mpg. This is in a Gen 2 (2005). From what I understand Gen 3 will both get better mpgs and warm up faster. In colder climate, warmup and heat requirements will take their toll in winter I'm sure.

Rob

 

As I said before, I love EV/PHEVs but they are not very practical if you have limited access to charging. A standard Prius would make a lot more sense. There are certainly other factors than money that come into play, but for only being able to charge twice a week the additional gas offset will be very small compared to going from a low mpg vehicle to a Prius.

Assuming 12 miles a day, 6 days a week annual fuel consumption would be:
Existing 15mpg vehicle: 250 gallons/year = $1,000 / year at $4/gal
Prius at 50mpg: 75 gallons per year = $300/yr at $4/gal
Volt: ~0 gallons per year = $148 / year at 36kWh/mi and 11c/kWh
Leaf: 0 gallons per year = $140 / yr at 34kWh/100mi and 11c/kWh

So going from existing to Prius saves 175 gallons per year, going all the way to a Leaf only saves an additional 75 gallons per year but introduces risk of running out of charge particularly for someone that can't charge at home. Volt would likely have similar additional gas reduction to Leaf (and slightly higher electric costs), but would burn up some of that savings on any long trips or weeks where charging couldn't be found due to lower mpgs.

Rob

 

Why do you use 11c/kWh for the Volt and 9c/kWh for the Leaf ?

 

Didn't you know your electricity gets cheaper when you own a Leaf Sorry, its a typo. Both were originally calculated at our AZ average 9c/kwh, but then I recalculated at 11c as I think its closer to the national average. Both $ values are correct, just forgot to update the Leaf to say 11c. Leaf is slightly cheaper only due to less EPA Wh/mi. Thanks for pointing out, will fix.

 

you should probably add in two $50 oil changes for the current vehicle and one $50 oil change for the Prius.

 

you'll get 50 mpg's easy in the prius. 45 in winter.