Prius vs Prius PiP GO!!

I assume you mean have I had to replace the hybrid battery pack and how my miles were on the odometer?

The car has only been driven for local errands and shopping since I bought the 2004 Prius. A relative borrows it occasionally. I had to replace the battery pack last year after only around 65,000 miles. I assume this was mostly due to age/time but maybe it also just wasn't driven around enough...

The 2004 Prius still gets driven by another family member regularly and is still on its original battery after 130,000+ miles with only the occasional water pump replacement, oil changes, and tires.

I will probably sell the 2001 in another year or two and then update my PriusChat profile.

 

The center console only shows about 35 mpg because it's only driven short distances on a cold engine. Back when I drove it for longer distances I was getting low to mid 40's, I think, although I recall a 200 mile drive that included going up and over a mountain pass that resulted in a total of 52 mpg.

 

This is a good case...I agree PiP is nice, but "MPG" is misleading here. You are avoiding weekly gas station stop at the expense of plugging in once, twice, three times a day. In your case, since $elec=$gaso in LI, NY, we could look at cost difference. In my view, eco-cost is also elec=gaso for a PiP Prius in terms of enviromental/CO2 impact, assuming grid charged. So when you say you are getting 88 MPGe you are successfully shifting to elec, but unfort (IMHO) EPA has choosen a metric (MPGe) which ignors (or greatly minimizes) elec generation as an eco-cost.

So what I would say, if your personal goal is shifting to electricity, PiP can be surprisingly effective despite the smaller Li battery size. In areas where elec is cheaper, this also means significant cost savings on re-fueling too.

I am not trying to be argumentative, I think this is a good thread to capture advans and disadvans.

 

While I agree that filling up less goes with plugging in more, plugging in shouldn't take long, and you don't have to stick around like you do for gas. I'd imagine if you make it a ritual, it becomes less of a hassle. It may not charge as fast as filling it up with gas does, but that doesn't matter for much of the time. Also, depending on the temperature and weather outside vs the plug location, plugging in may be more convenient.

The nice thing is since you have both, you can take advantage of both, as applicable.

True, but I'm not sure of a good way to include it, short of what is already offered (albeit a bit out of date) - region matters.
Not only that, but it changes as well. Also, everyone puts different weight on different aspects of it, so there's no metric that everyone'll be happy with a combined equivalence metric.

Also, in the case of plugin-hybrids, how it gets used is a big factor - for example, local driving may avoid a lot of cases where other cars would be at their worst, with engine warmup. If everyone drove the same, maybe the EPA would actually be able to come up with a metric that worked for everyone

 

Yes I agree, all things being equal (cost/etc), having flexibility to plug-in when you feel like it is a nice extra. PiP is the best Plug-In as far as being a Plug_in only if you feel like it. Who knows you might be out of gas, or have a power emergency via inverter, or can save money by using elec vs. gaso, just a good feature if all things equal.

Re: metric well I think of Prius PiP as 50 MPG gaso mode and 50 MPG fossil fuel equivalent in EV mode (which is convenient approximation). If I could set the MPGe to my own number in the software, that's what I'd set it at. To me its a little cop-out for EPA to say becuase everyone has different power mix, we have to set MPGe at a high value the implies near zero fuel consumption for EV mode. We do have a national average number, and OK let the user change the value for his or her specific situation.