Questions on prius plug-in

If you step down on the accelerator in the Plug-In Prius (PiP) the ICE will come on. You can go up to 11-15 miles on electric only - if you don't have the heater on or step down hard on the accelerator. The PiP is a regular Prius with a bigger battery that will go up to 15 mi. and up to 62 mph in EV Mode.

The battery won't "go dead". The Battery Management System (BMS) won't let it. But, yes, when the battery is depleted for electric drive, the Prius becomes a hybrid. You can use regenerative braking put charge back into the battery that you can use for EV driving.

The PiP is the first, and only Prius so far to have Lithium Ion batteries. All the other Prii still have NiMH batteries. The PiP has one battery pack - 4 modules in series. No separate battery for charging from a charging station.

If you don't charge the PiP, it operates like a regular Prius. The more you charge it, the further you go on electricity and not gas. Electricity is much cheaper than gas. Here I pay 9.5 cents/kWh so it will cost me around 30 cents to go about 15 miles on electricity, or about 2 cents/mile for electric driving. Say gas is $4 / gal and I go 50 miles on a gallon. That's 8 cents per mile on gas as opposed to 2 cents per mile on electricity.

Right now there are a lot of free public level-2 (240 v.) charging stations near me. That could change. But right now I can drive on free electricity.

 

One of the main reason for CA buyer is to get the green HOV sticker. I saw an article online stating that a vehicle with valid HOV sticker has 3-5K higher resale value.
I believe it has 2 modes of driving, EV and blended. At blended it should return over 100mpg and 30+ miles range. EV should be about 13-15 miles range. The PiP won't have the electric oomph as the Volt or the Tesla but it will have enough EV power to handle normal traffic. Anymore oomph would fire up the ICE. There's a video on youtube showing the preproduction phev doing 0-60 in 20 seconds in EV.

 

You'll get the smoooooth & quiet in suburb driving.

There's mixing. The system will seek out efficiency opportunities, not always using EV when blending offers a greater return. It's brief too. Engine running can be just momentary.

It's basically just bigger and with a plug. But with total weight of the car only 123 pounds more and none of the cargo floor space changed, you won't notice much.

Not sure what "optimal" actually represents. You'll still get a MPG boost regardless of distance.

Bit of trivia. That's not actually the case. The 7-seater Prius v in Japan uses a lithium pack. Most interesting is the placement... between the two front seats rather than in back.
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I hope thats the V they decide to add the plug to, sounds like there would be plenty of room in the back for an extra pack

 

The 11 miles in the EPA testing of the Prius PHV is already the blended range and gets only 95MPGe.

I think the best answer as to whether the Prius PHV proivdes the OPs desired "EV love" is for the OP to wait and then go test drive. It will be quiet EV driving for local calm trips, but may lack a the more agressive torque feeling. Both the serenity and the power could be viewed as the EV experience. In the Volt/Leaf/Tesla you get both.. in the PiP you'll get the serenity. I'll also admit that the Volt has tamed me a bit: I've learned to drive in the right lane, albeit at the posted limit of 75, and I now enjoy the quite ride on side streets. ( Full disclosure I've not driven a PiP yet, but test drove an conversion Plug-in Prius, I'm basing my view on that. I drove a friends conversion, rented a new Prius and test drove the Volt. A week later I drove 1600+ miles to get a Volt because they were not available in my state yet)

A car is a personal choice.. how it fits, how it drives.. no one can really answer if that works for you, except you. Go test drive both and decide. I recommend you get your finances in order.. as the test drive may get you to want to buy on the spot.

 

That's the only reason I'm getting one (vs. keeping my '06). But the increased street value is only relevant if you're going to sell the car while the stickers are still useful. And if that doesn't extend beyond 1/1/2015, then this extra value will decrease rapidly as we approach that expiration date.

 

Also, the extra value only exists if the quota of stickers is exhausted - which will not happen for while.

 

I think it's a mistake to think of the PiP as an EV with an ICE. It's a hybrid with a little more electric range than a regular Prius. Like the older Prius, its electric mode operation is limited by both speed and power, and the ICE will come on if you excede the threshold of either. You can put a little bit of grid electricity into it, improving your overall FE for shorter trips.

If you think of it basically as an EV with an ICE, it seems like a poor choice. But if you think of it as a hybrid that gets a little bit of a boost from grid power, it makes more sense, provided that a hybrid is what you like. You get improved FE for short trips, and you have a standard Prius on long trips.

If you're only going to use it for long trips (as I would) then it makes no sense at all to trade in a regular Prius. And if you want the silent, powerful torque of an EV, it will probably be a disappointment. But if you want a gas-burning hybrid with the best possible FE, then it may be a good choice. And since it's a Toyota, it will probably be more reliable than a Volt.

As for the $5,000 premium, no new car is really worth the price, unless you have non-monetary reasons for wanting what it offers: You'll probably never save enough on gas to justify that $5,000 over a regular Prius. But you'll have a cooler car.

My advice: Buy a Tesla if you can afford it, or a Leaf otherwise. But that's just me.

 

I think it's odd that you can get the HOV sticker even if you never plug in the car, and even if you do, it's just a regular Prius after the first few miles. But then, I don't think people rich enough to afford an expensive car should be given privileges over the working poor who cannot. Just my opinion.

 

Ironically it would probably have lower emissions in slower traffic if the HOV lanes are able to exceed 62 mph (and there is grid charge remaining).