How big a deal is this to you ?

Umm no - you mean "Dinner Party?".

 

Donner Party, an infamous episode in American history, when a group of pioneers migrating west by wagon trail were caught and trapped by early winter snow for months on what has since been named Donner Pass. Nearly half the group died of cold, illness, and starvation. Those who survived, did so by, um, uh, read the story.

 

Oops. No, not the history taught to us - I see there's a big WIKI page on it. And a movie reference on GOOGLE.

And this question:

I'll read WIKI.

 

this is exactly why I bought it... for hot summer camping when running the HVAC means I'll be fresh and comfortable all night on an air mattress.

it's also why I, when I realized there was a plug in model, that I really want to deal batteries for more capacity and linger periods between idles

 

The thing about the Prime is that that works great if you stop with a full charge. But, if you use enough power running the HVAC to trigger the ICE, it's then going to start and stop in a very similar pattern to the regular Prius. It'll be a little better since it's more efficient, but not a lot. I haven't tried it myself, but I think I've heard of people going all night w/o the ICE coming on, but I'm not sure of that.

 

Many truck drivers in my part of rural Or-gone think nothing of sitting in their diesel trucks idling for hours and hours …cough! Cough!