Why would one goes with a "regular" Prius and not a Prime?

"Your miles" charge up nothing.

If you don't plug it in, the gas engine provides 100% of the energy to move the car.

I don't know if it will be more or less efficient than a conventional hybrid with a smaller battery. Other design considerations might have a bigger impact than just the battery size.

A bigger battery is NOT automatically better.

 

i think it gets a mile or two more mpg's without plugging in

 

John Kelly, in his Prime battery deep dive, finds disassembly of one of the lithium ion packs to be very impractical. The base level Prius and AWD models still have nickel metal hydride pack, more suitable for hybrid battery "tinkerers".

 

I wonder if the lift back lion battery is as cumbersome

 

The trim options are also different. The base 2019 prime didn't have blind spot monitoring, and that was one of my must-haves.

And with the huge range of the nonprime, I only need to stop by a gas station once every few months, which I much prefer to fiddling with charging plugs every day. If I had a 20 mile commute I would have gone for the prime, but mine is only a few miles.

 

Correct ... mostly. EPA combined on the Prime is 55/53/54 mpg city/hwy/combined. On the hatchback, it's 54/50/52 mpg ... unless it's an L Eco. Then it's 58/53/56 mpg.

Most times on the highway, I get 60 or better and around town it's closer to 70 mpg in hybrid mode. On our long road trip last May, we averaged 56.6 with the car packed to the gills and facing some extreme wind all the way across Nebraska and Iowa.

 

So Id still have to fill it every day...

 

Wow, You drive 600 miles every day???

 

213,000 miles a year, must work remotely while he drives his car

 

Needs one of the 2,000 mile vehicles

 

... or is a courier, such that the driving IS his work.

 

I don't remember. But 600 miles drive is a full time work for sure. I do 600+ miles drives in summer time, but only in weekend trip, and happens only a few times a year.

 

I only went over 600 miles on a road trip once (604). But I was getting 59 mpg on that tank when I calculated it.

 

We're lucky to do 500 kms, per month.

 

Yes. The large battery makes it practically impossible to use it as a camper.

 

Well I typically drive closer to 300-400 miles a day, but i like to start with a full tank though, so I don't have to stop if I'm busy. ... But then from Saturday at about noon, until Sunday night between 6pm and 10pm, I often drive close to a thousand miles.
I've started with a full tank and had to fill up twice before Sunday night !

 

Show off.

Give the garage queen to one of the higher mileage drivers so she can be put through the paces.

 

We do get it warmed up, every so often. But yeah, could be driving a Hummer and wouldn't break the bank.