If toyota makes one, would you get a pluging prius?

I want one of these

http://www.teslamotors.com/index.php?js_enabled=1

 

Because virtually all of my clients are a mile or three away in town, I was doing a little checking about a Neighborhood Electric Vehicle (NEV). (Thanks, Darell, for the web site!) Most NEVs are glorified golf carts, street-legal, limited to 25mph.

My electric usage, however, is such that Pacific Gas & Electric has me up on the highest cost range. Of the 730ish kwh I used in December 2006, the last 90 are at a whopping 32c per kwh.

At that price for electricity, I'm not sure that it would be cheaper to operate a NEV than the Prius.

 

Only if i could park in those special EV parking spaces.

 

The link talks about what would be needed to accomplish this. It does not mention it as a "goal," and certainly not for 2009. We've seen a 9-mile range thrown out as a speculation, without reference to whether this would be at the sort of low speed and light acceleration we get in EV mode now.

I don't yet know whether a 9-mile range at a 34 mph top speed would be enough to get me to trade up. I really want an EV. Or a PHEV that functions as a freeway-capable EV for 20 or 30 miles before the ICE has to kick in.

 

EnergyCS in California and Hymotion in Canada are makign the PHEV plug-in at about 12K extra. I got to actually see on 2 times in Phoenix and would buy the conversion option in a minute ,maybe later this year.

In fact I bought a salvage title 05 Prius ,fixed better than new , for about 1/2 price so I can make it into a plug-in. The EnergyCS car had Valence Lithium safion batteries for a 60 mile range at 100+ mpg. calcars.org tells all about them. Mine already gets 50-80 mpg. I added the EV mode switch from costal tech for about 30 bucks.

 

I would buy one - but I keep my cars for a long time and since I've got an '06, I'd be looking at buying my next car between '12 and '14...hopefully by then there will be some good full electrics (or maybe something even better).

 

A DEFINITE YES. WE are hoping maybe it will be on the 2008 model. WHENEVER is is available, we are trading out 2006 on the new model!!

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(dulcimer @ Jan 22 2007, 11:45 AM) [snapback]379091[/snapback]</div>

Rumor says 2009 model year, available towards the end of 2008.

 

30 miles electric range for $2000??? what kind of question is that especially since most already said they would pay $5-10,000 already.

if i had one like that, i could literally go two months without filling up. my total round trip to work AND back is 11-12 miles. add in some side stops done 1-3 times a week and we are looking at 17-18 miles. having tracked every trip as far as distance, mileage, mpg's average speed and time, i can say that i could easily go two weeks on my first gallon of gas.

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Rick Auricchio @ Jan 18 2007, 09:33 AM) [snapback]377251[/snapback]</div>

gee i know my in-laws almost hit the top tier for elctricity usage too...8¼c kwh. me??? i am still at just under 5c kwh.... thank you bonneville power administration... guess that is why we put up with all that flooding in the lowlands every year

 

When it does come out.... I wonder if there would be a limit on how often you could charge the battery. Like after I run the granddaughters to school ..... 14 miles round trip...... could I come home and charge it back up, for when I run to the grocery etc. ...... then re charge it for taking her to cheerleading and back..... get the idea.... keeping it recharged so I could live on battery alone. Just wondering....

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(burritos @ Jan 7 2007, 05:20 PM) [snapback]372155[/snapback]</div>

Heck yea! Sign me up. We could do all of our weekend errands without any gas. Wife could drive to work for 2-3 without any gas. What's not to like?

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(dulcimer @ Jan 22 2007, 07:46 PM) [snapback]379314[/snapback]</div>

There would be no limit on how often you can recharge. Just like your cell phone. But charging will take some finite amount of time. You might not get a full charge between taking the kids to school and going back out to the grocery store. But on the bright side, these kinds of things generally charge up to 80% or so much faster than they charge the last 20% or so. You might find that you leave on the second trip with less than a full charge, but still plenty for your errand.

And then the whole point of PHEV is that if you don't have enough of a charge, you burn a little gas, but not until you've depleted your charge.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Rick Auricchio @ Jan 18 2007, 09:33 AM) [snapback]377251[/snapback]</div>

Rick -

Several things you can do right now to fix the problem, and several reasons why charging an EV won't be as painful as you assume.

And it all comes down to this: Time of Use. When you get an EV in PG&E territory, you are forced into time of use. This makes charging the EV cheap (off peak) and the peak energy more expensive. What this means is that you can just time-shift your big energy users and come out AHEAD. Before I got PV, I had two full EVs here, and my energy bill was lower than my neighbors. And then you add PV, and presto - using gasoline just seems silly.

And the other part that I like to mention is that this shouldn't be just about what's cheapest. We need to put a bit more effort into what is best. It is CHEAPER to dump raw sewage into rivers instead of treating it. It is CHEAPER to buy goods made in sweat shops. But how much cheap stuff can we really afford?