This calculator lets you enter your driving habits and compares Leaf, Volt, Prius, others to see whi

Re: This calculator lets you enter your driving habits and compares Leaf, Volt, Prius, others to see

That's really smart, and what the EPA should use! Ipads at every dealer to tap the info in...

It tells me that the break even point between a volt and a prius gen 2 (why is gen 3 missing?) is 8.8 years for me!

 

Re: This calculator lets you enter your driving habits and compares Leaf, Volt, Prius, others to see

I think that is the 2010 Prius model 2, not generation 2

For me, the Prius uses less money and emits less CO2 than the Volt, so there is no 'break even'.

Compared to the 1.8l Corolla, my financial break even is 5.5 years, which is what I calculated at purchase time with respect to the Matrix. (the 2.4l Corrolla has a break even in 1.5 years)

Sadly, the calculator fails to warn me the Leaf cannot complete my daily commute, which it should.

 

Re: This calculator lets you enter your driving habits and compares Leaf, Volt, Prius, others to see

Hmmm ... here is my calculation. More realistic than saying Leaf needs to be recharged for long trips.

 

Re: This calculator lets you enter your driving habits and compares Leaf, Volt, Prius, others to see

I thought I read that, for the 2010 Prius, "Toyota cut in half the cost of the hybrid premium." So I'm pretty sure that means $3k. I save $1k/yr on gas v my other midsize, so after 10yrs I will have gained $7,000. I think of the Prius as a premium car with a $7,000 discount. I can't justify $41,000 after the $22k I paid for my 2010 Prius.

 

Re: This calculator lets you enter your driving habits and compares Leaf, Volt, Prius, others to see

Don't forget that Volt requires premium gas.

Also, the PHV model Prius offers 14 miles of plug-in capacity. So even though EV range is less due to the warm-up prior to the transistion, you still get the extra benefit from the plug in the form of MPG boost.
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Re: This calculator lets you enter your driving habits and compares Leaf, Volt, Prius, others to see

As for the calculator, it's rather disturbing that ideal weather is all that's considered. No mention of the effects of A/C or Heater use will end up misleading.
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Re: This calculator lets you enter your driving habits and compares Leaf, Volt, Prius, others to see

GenIII Prius II, just like mine.

My Volt payback time? Off their scale, but my calculation from their chart showed 46.5 years, exceeding the life expectancies of the cars and even myself.

 

Re: This calculator lets you enter your driving habits and compares Leaf, Volt, Prius, others to see

That would add $50 to annual fuel cost ?

Toyota says 13 miles. MPG can't be boosted by plugging in. Once the 13 miles are travalled that plug energy is gone.

 

Re: This calculator lets you enter your driving habits and compares Leaf, Volt, Prius, others to see

It's fun to use the calculator to compare the Prius to many other cars and see where you come out.

Using my driving habits, $4 gas and 0.20 kwh electricity for all the calculations, only the Honda Insight was consistently lower in annual ownership cost - and not by much ($1,400 over 12 years time). The Ford Fusion Hybrid started out cheaper but the Prius pulled ahead in 3.3 years.

What was interesting is that, except for four 500 mile road trips per year, nearly all of my driving would be electric in the Volt. I thought that would make the Volt much cheaper to operate over time (especially with $4 gas). As it turned out, the Volt was always much more expensive and the break even point was listed as "over 15 years." Assuming you have to replace the battery pack at the end of 15 years, the Prius would be way less expensive to own and operate over that length of time.

 

Re: This calculator lets you enter your driving habits and compares Leaf, Volt, Prius, others to see

For EV travel, that's correct. For boosting MPG, you continue to draw from the EV sub-pack during that warm-up phase. The electricity you use is from that supplied by plugging in, so you still get the benefit.

I witnessed that several times firsthand. It's basically like the boost you get while traveling at 70 MPH using the EV sub-packs. You can see the same boost effect with a no-plug model too, simply by consuming the extra electricity stored up after descending down a mountain.
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Re: This calculator lets you enter your driving habits and compares Leaf, Volt, Prius, others to see

How much energy is stored in the EV sub-pack ? You should be able to figure out the EV miles equivalent of that - using 4 miles/kwh.

There is no free lunch - thermodynamic laws are rather harsh.

 

Re: This calculator lets you enter your driving habits and compares Leaf, Volt, Prius, others to see

Did you try Leaf ? The break even is 1 year. After that Prius keeps going up.

Don't forget to increase the Prius base price to account for differences in the trim levels. You need to atleast add the Nav - which takes Prius to same price as Leaf (after tax credits) or more.

ps : BTW, they have incorrectly listed Volt as an electric car. It should go into the hybrid category (or they should add a PHEV category).

 

Re: This calculator lets you enter your driving habits and compares Leaf, Volt, Prius, others to see

Yes, $87 USD per year for me. The calculator says I would save $170 per year by driving my Prius vs a Volt, but the calculator assumes the gas price is the same. When you make the Volt gas $0.13 higher, you save another $87. A 50% gain in savings.

 

Re: This calculator lets you enter your driving habits and compares Leaf, Volt, Prius, others to see

I'm trying to get the right model with options for comparison to Leaf. From Edmunds I can't see any option prices for 2011. For 2010 looks like I've to select III with SW package to get
- Bluetooth
- Nav
- PV
- Rearview camera
- XM
- Telematics (CARWINGS / ONSTAR ...)
That brings Prius MSRP to 28,390 and the Leaf SL trim I'm comparing to is 23,720 (this is what the tool is using by default). Is this right ? Is comparable Prius really $4,500 higher than Leaf - or are there some other packages I can add to get a lower price ?

 

Re: This calculator lets you enter your driving habits and compares Leaf, Volt, Prius, others to see

The calculator is just stupid. That is all. It does not take things like options, reliability, performance into account. A prius outfitted like a leaf is much more expensive, since you need a III plus nav, plus a big afftermarket batter ;-) If it had a honda fit in it, it would almost always beat the prius and any ev, phev, hv etc, but that is not real life.

If you want an ev the prius won't cut it. If you want long range or to buy from toyota the leaf won't cut it. Seriously the US government and Nissan are subsidizing the leaf to a great extent and apples to apples numbers will crunch the leafs way if you don't want, need, or understand the limitations. If the leaf is what you want you are getting a $40K car for $25K. Of course you may want to lease as a much better ev may be coming down the pike.

 

Re: This calculator lets you enter your driving habits and compares Leaf, Volt, Prius, others to see

You have PHV Prius as $28k and Leaf as $25k? Did you subtract $2,917 tax credit for the PHV Prius?

Why is a standard Prius priced the same as the Leaf? Prius starts at $23k.

Why is 20 MPG (V6?) sedan cheaper than 30 MPG (I4?) sedan?

 

Re: This calculator lets you enter your driving habits and compares Leaf, Volt, Prius, others to see

Hi PriusChat folks,

Thank you for your response and feedback. We have updated the Electric Car Calculator with the following new features…in addition to calculating breakeven, we now calculate Cost Equivalent MPG for electric cars, tailpipe and upstream CO2 emissions, and also allow for diesel cars.

The updated Electric Car Calculator is at the same link as posted in the beginning of the thread.

Jon from Befrugal.com

 

Re: This calculator lets you enter your driving habits and compares Leaf, Volt, Prius, others to see

A great improvement Jon!

For my driving, Volt will never break even vs Prius II. Volt came out 47 Cost Equivalent MPG vs. Prius 50 MPG.

Surprising, Volt would emit less CO2 than the Prius. Per the report 3,560 kWh of electricity translate to 1.2 tons of CO2.

I looked at the source you cited but I could not figure out how you are deriving it.

 

Re: This calculator lets you enter your driving habits and compares Leaf, Volt, Prius, others to see

Since we have the official numbers from EPA, can you update it?

Volt
City/Highway MPG is 35/40 -- now showing 37/37.
Battery Range is 35 miles -- now showing 40 miles.
Battery Capacity should be 12.9 kWh to charge it fully -- now showing 10 kWh.

Leaf
City/Highway is 106/92 MPGe -- now showing 0/0.
Battery Range is 73 miles -- now showing 100 miles.
Battery Capacity should be 24.8 kWh.