Vegas Trip in the Prime

Upgraded to the Prime Premium almost 3 weeks ago in mid-November from a 2006 base model Prius. What an upgrade! There sure have been some nice advances in tech over the past 10 years. My daily commute (home to work to gym to home) is about 22 miles, so on weekdays I'm typically not using any gas, and I just plug-in overnight. I usually get home with about .5 miles left on the charge.

This past weekend, I went to Vegas with 3 friends and drove the Prime. In the attached log picture, Dec 2 and Dec 3 (left LA around 9, got into Vegas around 1am) was the drive to Vegas. Decent mileage, keeping in mind that the drive there we were experiencing very strong Santa Ana winds (40+mph sustained with gusts exceeding 60), and this was a headwind. For those of you familiar, I was ramming the gas pedal on the 15 freeway from the 10 freeway to the bottom of the Cajon Pass due to the strong headwind. Car performed well going up the Cajon Pass, was pushing 75mph and didn't feel like the car was struggling. Same with the Baker grade (3,000' elevation gain in 19 miles). Coming down the mountain into Primm I was able to regenerate some electricity to the battery (if I remember correctly, about 1.5-2 miles). Overall, I was maintaining about 80mph the entire trip and got to Vegas with a quarter tank left.

I did charge the car once at the Palazzo while in Vegas. It's free, you just need a ChargePoint account. It took just over 2 hours to fully charge.

On the way back, Dec 4, mileage was better. No strong headwinds. Again, car performed well going back up the mountain after Primm (it's amazing how quiet the gas engine is when it's working hard, compared to the 2006 Prius) and I regenerated 1.5-2 miles coming down both the Baker grade and the Cajon Pass. Came back with more than a quarter tank left, and have yet to use the gas engine this week.

Overall, impressed with the performance and comfort of this car. I don't use any gas during the weekdays due to my less than 25 mile daily commute, and there's tons of charging stations around. Looking forward to keeping this car for at least the next 10 years!

 

I did actually, did pretty well with the college football and NFL games this past weekend

 

It costs $0.13 kWh at home for me (super off-peak with Southern California Edison's Time-of-Use rate plan) and I use a standard household outlet. When I charged in Vegas from empty, the station recorded 6.30 kWh added to bring it from "empty" to "full"

The mileage from Dec 3rd does include driving in EV mode after charging at the Palazzo and a few miles off the strip to grab dinner that night. I want to say we were just beyond Baker at midnight, which is approximately 90 miles from Vegas. I'd say about 10 miles was on EV mode in Vegas.

They liked it. I've always been the designated driver to Vegas with my 2006 Prius, and we've driven A LOT to Vegas over the years, so they were used to the Prius. But they were impressed with the improved cabin itself and the good mileage, they also asked questions about the charging and was amazed I don't use any gas during the work week. Overall, 4 of us average sized guys were comfortable and our bags fit fine in the trunk (e.g. it didn't block my view out the rear window). I do like the double wave of the rear window, it makes the visibility so much better.