Thank you Prius Chat Plug in Forum

I drive 50 -60 miles per day. 16 miles to work, where I can recharge, and errant after work. My ideal PHEV would be a 50/50. 50 mile EV range, and 50 MPG on gas. Hopefully the next gen Volt or PiP would hit that.

 

i hope the next pip is selectable range like tesla, then, we can have our cake and eat it too!

 

I'm very very very tempted to trade-in my PiP for a RAV4 EV. I'm renting one this thursday while our minivan is being serviced. The 100 mile range is about perfect for my commute. I know the gas savings won't make up for the financial hit I'd take. God knows what sort of trade-in I'd get for a PiP with 22K miles.

 

RAV4 EV is lease only right? I heard there is a huge incentives on it in CA.

 

You can purchase as well as lease in CA. $6000 off of MSRP is a huge incentive. Plus $2500 rebate from the state, and $7500 federal tax credit. Makes the car effectively $34K. Leasing would make no sense since I do about 24K miles a year.

 

Why trade the pip? Keep it and sell off the minivan.

 

We still need the minivan. It's the only vehicle that can haul the pop-up camper we have. Plus it's used a lot when we're doing Dickens Faire or the two big Ren Faires in CA. We tend to stuff the car as full as possible with people and their stuff. It's also fully paid for.

 

Would you not be able to use the RAV4 for the same purposes?

 

we'll miss you dev!

 

Why? He isn't going anywhere. Unless I can convince him otherwise lol.

 

Nope. First of all, the RAV4 is not rated to pull a 3500 pound trailer. When we do southern faire, it's a 900 mile roundtrip every weekend for 12 weekends. 2 of those weekends is pulling the trailer (at the start and end). Northern faire is a bit closer at 180 miles per weekend for 10 weekends, and again, pulling the trailer for 2 of those weekends. Neither Southern or Northern can support charging of the RAV4 or even a PiP for that matter. There's way more cargo room in the minivan than in the RAV4, too.

Who said I'm going anywhere? This is all in the wild fantasy phase of things. I have to see if I like the car. Then I have to see if my wife likes the car. And then we have to figure out if the numbers will work. The incentives are really good, but I don't know if they're good enough to overcome things like the tax credit and CA rebate issues on the PiP, plus whatever sort of trade-in amount I'd get, and how I'd pay off what was remaining on the PiP. I may end having to shelve this little dream of a RAV4 EV for another 4 or 5 years.

 

okay, i hope you hate it!

 

Awww shucks, I didn't know I was so loved here...

 

we're like family! if you like your family.

 

Maybe you have this in mind, devprius, but if you sell or trade your PiP within a certain timeframe, don't you have to give back the rebate, or a portion of it anyway? Not sure about the tax credit, maybe something similar there as well.
I would love an EV like the RAV, but need more like a 250 mile reliable range to make it work. The Tesla S would fill the bill, but OMG, the $$$.

 

I like my family, biological or otherwise. I have many "families".

 

Yes, I'd have to give back some of the rebate. Not sure how the tax credit thing works, so I'd have to look into that as well. This is not going to be an impulse decision by any means.

 

The irony is that Toyota is a member of the Chademo QC group ... even back when it cost an arm & a leg to be part of their group. so they really could have (should have) added the QC port. I think it was just a cost saving strategy, as $50k (pre incentive price) is a bit much, even tho it's worth it.
.

 

Holy shit, I sure hope those fairs are worth it, cause that is a TON of driving (both miles and time). We're talking 10k miles/year! I think I'd kill myself lol.

 

The van is almost 9 years old and has 199K miles on it. Easily over 100K miles of that is just faire related. The rest is when my wife used it to commute to BART/work. She's since gotten a different vehicle for work-related stuff, so the minivan sits in the driveway most of the time.

Faire is a big part of my wife's life. She's been doing faire for 45 years, almost from the beginning. We met at faire when I joined her guild (acting troupe). I married into this life. And for the most part it's worth it. We're both paid to be there, her as an actor, me as a stage manager. Originally I was just a volunteer and got food for my efforts.

What helps is to have friends who ride with us. They share in the driving and give us gas money. It offsets some of the costs.