PiP/Volt January 7-11 Switcheroo

You are comparing a Lexus and a Toyota. Volt is a Chevy, not Buick or Cadillac. CT200h still has 5 seats.

See a regular Prius and Prius V.

 

Given that the population is nothing like equal numbers in each zipcode or state, that would be a very unlikely distribution of sales.

The thread on that plug-in states and ghg | PriusChat
has the volt and the PiP producing similar GHG, and that was using 2007 data.

If you don't consider the seating, then the Volt is midsize by some people's definition, e.g.
Best Upscale Midsize Cars Rankings | U.S. News Best Cars
and its less the 2cu.ft. from midsize by EPA.

(Prius is in the affordable-midsize catagory).

The Volt is considered upscale (same as Lexus).. and in fact it was much higher rated than the Lexus IS.. Its the quality, not the name tag, that determines upscale.


I think it was interesting that Jeff had the same EV efficiency for his Volt and PiP.. real world driving by the same driver over multiple days.

 

you seem to still have a problem with math.

total miles 10298 - ev miles 8912 =
gas miles 1386 / total gas 43.18 : 32mpg

not too bad considering I average less than 1 gas mile per trip.
a 50mpg engine might have saved me a total of 15.5 gallons over 10,000 miles. not significant IMO.

You pay too much for electricity. That is your problem and I think you know how to pay less. Most folks pay less than 11 cents per kWh and it's not too difficult to generate your own for less than 11 cents per kWh.

not afraid of the emission discussion, I get all my recharging from 100% renewables, wind mainly, but you seem to always get hung up on that fact.

 

John H, can you update fulley so it reflects your current mileage?

 

OK, Switcheroo is Over.
Stop arguing.
USB and I love our PIPs, while John, Jeff and Dr love their Volts.

Next Tread please.

 

Both sound like great vehicles but I'm not seeing that many even in green obsessed CA. However there are more and more plain old hybrid Prii on the roads. Was at dealer and saw a boatload of PIPs, RAV EVs on the lot. Will be curious to see how 2013 shakes out for plug ins and BEVs.

 

Correction: Average US electricity mix is weighted by the amount of electricity generated. The state that generates more electricity would weight more into the average.

 

This argument doesn't make any sense. Your original argument appears to be that PiP > Volt because of GHG emissions based on average U.S. data and average EV% driving ratio as guesstimated by EPA, therefore anyone anywhere should choose PiP over Volt regardless of actual driving pattern and actual grid emissions. But these cars aren't evenly distributed throughout the country. How do you know that if you weight it according to sales that the Pip comes out cleaner, did you carefully calculate this or are you just making a wild-nice person guess? Something like a third of all Volts are sold in California, which has a much cleaner grid than U.S. overall. If you care about GHG, and live in an area with a bad grid, then it's possible that neither the Volt nor the PiP make sense, just stick with a regular Prius or other efficient gas car.

Yes, the PiP spends fewer hours charging, but it also would burn a lot more gas for a lot of driving patterns.

You seem overly obsessed with amount of *time* charging, constantly harping about how long it takes a Volt to charge on 120v. It's *not a big deal*. Cars are idle for 22-23 hours a day typically. People have the time to charge while they sleep. Time is not something in short supply. It's kw-hr consumed, and gas consumed, that matter. Time is abundant and free for most people.

You don't get it. Some of us don't particularly care about either the fifth seat *or* midsize vs. compact. If 99% of the time I am using the front one or two seats only, carrying adults in the rear 1% or less, why would I put any value on the PiP being midsize? A feature that's being used a few times a year will be weighted a lot lower than something that might be used 250+ times a year (i.e. the Volt's larger EV range). My family members aren't particularly tall, none have complained the few times I've had adults in the rear, so why should I care? I don't get any benefit from extra headroom for rear-seat passengers when there isn't anyone back there.

- Even for average owner the extra cost of premium vs. regular amounts to ~$23/year, assuming 12k miles a year at 39% gas.
- The whole point of my post *is* cherry picking. The Volt is substantially more efficient *for me*. It is more efficient for specific people who can utilize the Volt's extra EV range on a near daily basis and who don't often greatly exceed it.

Then what is your position? I don't see you ever do anything but try to tout the PiP's superiority anytime a Volt is mentioned. Would you care to admit that you can see how certain people in certain parts of the country with a certain driving pattern obtain superior efficiency in a Volt? I never see you make conditional statements, only blanket statements that PiP is superior for whatever reasons you come up with, based on some hypothetical averages, ignoring that specific people have specific circumstances and preferences.

 

Can you put a 55 inch flat screen TV in the back seat of a VOLT? or in the trunk?

 

Yes, I carried a 60" back from Sam's club last month in my Volt

 

where? back seat, or trunk?

 

I folded the rear seats and carried it, along with a few other things from the pre-black friday sale, in the hatchback, along with my mountain bike on the bike rack.

Sam's club has a charging station that is part of the austin energy plugin everywhere network so I got a full charge at the same time as well.

 

oh....so you lay-ed it flat. I heard it's not a good idea to lay a flat screen flat, but rather upright so as to not subject the screen to any stress.

 

you might be thinking about plasma screens.

 

I got LED and it says right on the box, DO NOT LAY FLAT!

 

It's more of a big deal during the day than at night. Being able to charge during the day while at work tends to alter your mindset.

With the PiP, if I can charge up at work in the morning, I'm then free to run around at lunch on EV. I can then charge up again in the afternoon, and go home on a blend of EV and HV driving. I know I'm gonna have to burn gas to get home. There's just no way to avoid it. But I'm in a high-MPG Prius, so the hit won't be so bad. Those extra EV miles I got to use at lunch have boosted my MPG stats. I'm getting more done and burning less gas.

But if I'm driving the Volt, I'll also have to burn gas going home, but this time it's that evil super expensive premium gas. So I try to maximize my charging at work to get as many EV miles in as possible. I avoid going out at lunch unless totally necessary. If I'm lucky, I get a full charge for the ride home. But I still have to burn gas for the last 10 or 15 miles. If I went out at lunch, I'm looking at burning gas for the last 20 or 30 miles. I'm only burning 1/3 to 3/4 of a gallon, but it's that more expensive stuff.

It's totally illogical. But that's what's going on inside my head sometimes when I look at this debate.

 

Mine didn't say that and in fact the Sams guy loaded it in for me. I think I read somewhere that they are not supposed to stack them flat because the boxes will crush.

 

The box said do not lay flat, not do not stack flat