Prius Plug-in and Volt Pros and Cons

Great. So under unrealistic conditions, using tire pressures admittedly "excessive" (by tire sidewall max or GM's spec?) driving at a constant unrealistic speed he hypermiled under EV. Whoopee!

I imagine he uses regular gasoline, too, in contravention to the very clear "premium fuel REQUIRED" statement of GM. But it seems volt owners want to push their luck.

I seem to recall that nearly 10 years ago, John and the early Prius adopters had gotten 80 mpg out of the Gen II, using hypermiling techniques.

 

[QUOTE="rxlawdude, post: 2016265, member: 75065
I seem to recall that nearly 10 years ago, John and the early Prius adopters had gotten 80 mpg out of the Gen II, using hypermiling techniques.[/QUOTE]
I did not get 80mpg with my 2005. But still not to bad for a gen II. in Wisconsin.

 

Just before I go and hit the ignore button and Bill, to my great delight, disappears from my screens, can I just point out the obvious? If the Volt was made by Toyota, and the Prius by good ole 'murrican boys at GM, Bill would be driving a Prius and messing all over the floor in the Volt forum.

Now, say g'night Bill.

 

Back to expressing worthless, mean spirited 'opinions'...

 

Some people take failing to meet goals harder than others. Watching the movement of goal-posts for Volt over the past few years has been quite intriguing. The shortcomings we pointed out back then have since been confirmed. Ending the reign of traditional vehicles took much more than they wanted to recognize.

We all know Toyota stayed true to that need to deliver a clean high-efficiency vehicle for the masses. That has always meant it must be reliable, practical, and affordable. GM did a fairly decent job of addressing that first requirement but neglected the two in the process. So, we've had to deal with the fallout and delay until the next generation.

In the meantime, Toyota continues to refine Prius, which continues to sell at mainstream volume. We know the next generation will get an engine with improved thermal efficiency, retaining its advantage over their non-hybrid offerings. We also know a great deal of effort is being expended to deliver better batteries. The hybrid system itself will get upgrades as well.

So what if they are also pursuing fuel-cell technology at the same time or not investing heavily in EV-only vehicles. The point is to keep delivering choices people will actually purchase in large quantity today, since that's what really changes the market... not something that will eventually become competitive. Think about the millions upon millions of cells being produced for battery-packs from those hybrids. That's what really makes a difference.

The plug-in model won't need to wait until a next generation either. When demand for plugging increases, they already a well-established vehicle to leverage advantage from. It's basically just a package upgrade with easy to understand benefits. Those of us already driving them are providing reliability data too.

I'm thankful most of the rhetoric, but will be glad when all of it is just a memory. Some people take longer. At least there's plenty of evidence showing what needs are not being met.

Watch the reaction to sales results of the month concluding today. The harsh reality of goals not being met will be quite clear.

 

Are you willing to back this up by changing your avatar? Your avatar, along with some statements you've made in the past, seem to contradict with the one made above.

I would suggest a cool picture of a Volt. (they are good looking cars, show it off)

 

The Volt may be the best car for you based on your commuting range and what you want out of a car. But that doesn't make it the most high tech vehicle on the road, as the national laboratory study data here confirms.

 

380 posts, i wonder if seanzky has made a decision yet?

 

Traitor! I send none (as a result of gasoline purchases).

 

Don't limit a technology or product based on your lack of imagination.
I'm currently returning from a vacation from MN to CA and back.

 

We produce a third of gas. Another third is from Canada and Mexico. We only import the remaining third from OPEC.

Having said that, those long interstate drives consumes a lot of gas with the inefficient gas engine. The heat wasted is not recovered by the Volt, unlike PiP using it for cabin heat.

 

The Volt has a valve in its climate control loop that allows it to use waste heat from the gas engine when it is running for heating the cabin just like the Prius and conventional gasoline cars.

And, of course, the Volt gets better gasoline mileage running the engine than the vast majority of new cars.

I just ran a quick search on fueleconomy.gov for all 2014 model year vehicles. Out of 1161 vehicles, only 21 had better highway gasoline efficiency than the Volt and several of those 21 listings included duplicates for slight variants of the same model of car.

Only 8 out of 1161 vehicles had gas engine efficiency with more than a 10% improvement over the Volt.

UPDATE: Now that Ford has revised down the mpg of it's hybrids and Fiesta the search result shows 19 instead if 21 cars with better highway mileage than the Volt.

 

It may seem complex but many cars these days likely have variable speed radiator fans and computer controlled valves in their cooling systems. The only thing really different is that the Volt has one or two extra loops.

 

I couldn't have said it better myself. Without the suite of technologies that have been developed in the Prius, which boost mileage to well over 50 MPG, it would likely be getting mileage in the 39 MPG range as a mild hybrid, if that.

After driving my Prius for 2 months now, mostly in city traffic, my average is 55 USMPG without plugging in or doing anything special. That includes putting pedal-to metal occasionally to merge into traffic. I tend to keep it in ECO mode most of the time.

On a trip to the country last weekend, I was averaging 65 USMPG while I was cruising at 80 kph (50 mph). That went down to to 50 USMPG when I stepped it up to 115 kph.