Saw a white Ampera the other day and the girlfriend who was with me thought it looked really cool (she drives an IQ so no accounting for taste ).
This past Tuesday morning, I just unplugged the PIP to go to work and a Volt went flying past the house.
Yesterday: Three Volt/Ampera's including a beautiful red one and one with side-impact damage (was supposed to be a weak point due to battery-placement, wasn't it?) One Leaf One PiP One Karma... I felt like a gasguzzler in my Prius
If I posted every time I saw a Leaf, Volt, PiP, I'd be on here every day...daily probably 6 Volts including 2 in the work garage, 4-5 Leaf's (or is it Leaves?) and 1 or 2 PiP's. Occasionally I even see a Rav4 EV driving on 8 West and a Coda that frequents the mall in El Cajon.
I don't recognize PiP's unless I see the plug-symbol (this one was parked near my Prius), and Leaf's are rare (or I don't recognize them and think it is another Note), but this Leaf passed me in a restricted speed zone on the highway, so I had time to look at it. Volts are in abundance (you can get insane incentives if used as company car, both for the company and the driver). The Karma was my first confirmed sighting though So all in all, it certainly doesn't happen to me every day
As are the silver door handles on all PiP irregardless of color, the silver strip across the front grill and the silver strip on all color PiP below the rear window.
Sorry, that's a line I wrote two months ago and never finished. The forum however saved it and seemed to have put it on top of a reply I posted. It's in Dutch, so not that much use (this is similar, but not said article). It is also not as black-and-white as my single line suggests. That's why it wasn't supposed to be posted The writers liked the Volt, but were not at all impressed by the fuel-consumption after the battery runs out in the Volt. But all the more about that of the Prius. So their end conclusion was that the Volt has its use, but only within its electrical range. The fact it misses a seat, 'guzzles' gas, is more expensive and a lot less roomy is the reason for favouring the Prius. PS: as it wasn't supposed to be there, I removed it.
Well, that article seems to be confused on some basic facts. They say the Prius Plugin is: Okay, that's around 12 miles of EV range and that's reasonable. About the Volt they say: That's only around 36 miles of EV range for the Volt at a constant speed about 52 mph. At 52 mph I would get about 48-52 miles of EV range in my 2011 Volt and this article was published in October of last year when the 2013 Volt was coming out with an additional 3-4 miles of range. The official European EV range for the 2011 Volt was 51-52 miles (not sure about the 2013 Volt). The official european EV range for the Prius plugin is 14 miles. So, they are substantially understating the Volt's EV range. Is the difference between the Prius and Volt EV range 24 miles or 38 miles? What about gas efficiency? The google translation says: Go on..... I have no idea what that is trying to say...
The last two statements are used to show the Volt looses out once the batteries are empty. They managed 62mpg (US) with the Prius, and 41mpg (US) with the Volt. Here the weight, Atkinson cycle, Toyota's experience and/or other designchoices come into play. The break even point is therefor at a 140km trip. Anything longer, without inbetween charges, and the Prius is cheaper. What the other article (read in the hospital, not sure what magazine) stressed is that the Prius is insanely frugal once the battery is depleted, and the staggering difference to the Volt in this respect has probably thrown the writers off, hence their lack of focus on the fact trips hardly ever go beyond this 140km triplength.
Using their 20km and 60km on a battery numbers: this means 120km on gasoline for the Prius to get to 140km, and 80 for the Volt. 120km at 26.3km per liter = 4.6l for the Prius that started with a full battery to reach 140km. 80km at 17.5km per liter = 4.6l for the Volt that started with a full battery to reach 140km. So their math checks out. If their assumptions (as I read it, it was simply their findings during an actual run) are correct may be another issue.
I drove along side my daughter driving an 07 Prius from Austin to Houston Texas, about 180 miles. When we arrived I had used less gasoline on the trip.
I had a black one go whizzing pass me this morning and cut in front of me at the light. I was like "REALLY?"
Yea, I hate getting caught behind a Prius after a light as well. 9 out of 10 times they try to stay in eco mode and take forever to get up to speed. I hear PiP drivers are worse, trying to stay in EV mode.
Uh oh, that sounds like how I drive efficiently in my Volt. I try not to accelerate too slowly when there are lots of cars behind or around me though.
