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674 messages,  Last post on Oct 02, 2012 at 9:01 PM

You are in the Toyota Prius Forum.

What is this discussion about? Toyota Prius, Hybrid Cars, Hatchback, Sedan

Messages Page 67 of 68

#655 of 674 Re: New Prius Plug In [dmathews3] by jayrider

Aug 23, 2012 (2:11 pm)

Replying to: dmathews3 (Aug 23, 2012 11:39 am)
You might want to add some fuel stabilizer at that rate !!!!

#656 of 674 Re: New Prius Plug In [jayrider] by dmathews3

Aug 24, 2012 (7:13 am)

Replying to: jayrider (Aug 23, 2012 2:11 pm)
A Volt gas tank is pressurized and recomends Premimun gas as it has a longer shelf life to keep the fuel from getting old. The computer is programed to run a tank of gas per year through the car in order to make sure the gas doesn't get stale. This car isn't for all but if most of your driving is 40 miles or less it can save you a ton of money. I was spending $200+ a month and now zero on gas. My electric rate is 8.6 cents and 11KW is a full charge. So 99 cents to fully charge it. I think Hybrids are the wave now and in the future, no matter who you get it from.

#657 of 674 Re: New Prius Plug In [dmathews3] by Mr_Shiftright HOST

Aug 24, 2012 (8:20 am)

Replying to: dmathews3 (Aug 24, 2012 7:13 am)
wow...very low electric rate you have. Lucky you. I think some of us, under peak conditions, would be paying 3 to 4 times that amount per Kw.

#658 of 674 Re: New Prius Plug In [Mr_Shiftright] by bobw3

Aug 24, 2012 (9:22 am)

Replying to: Mr_Shiftright (Aug 24, 2012 8:20 am)
I'm still wondering on the true cost/mile for an electric car. I know that with a Prius, if I'm getting 50mpg for 10,000 miles at $3.5 per gal that equals $0.07 per mile.
 
From what I've read, if you can go 40 miles on a charge, then a full charge will cost about $1.50 depending on the price of electricity. So if a person fully charges a Volt 5 days a week for a year they'd pay $390 for 10,400 miles driven, or $0.0375 per mile.
 
So if I drove purely electric in the Volt, I'd pay $0.0325 less per mile as compared to a regular Prius. That would equal $325 for a 10,000 mile commute per year where I could drive the Volt purely in electric mode. A regular Prius will cost at least $5,000 less than a Volt, so it would take about 15 years for the Volt's increased price to be matched by the reduced price per mile driven. Another downside to the Volt is that it only has 10CuFt of cargo space as compared to 21CuFt in the Prius, and the Prius can carry 5 people as compared to 4 in the Volt.
 
Another factor to consider is the after the battery runs out, the Volt gets about 35MPG, so if you drive a few thousand miles a year on the gas engine for road trips, vacations, etc., you'll probably save $100 per year with the Prius, so this reduces the $325 saved in the above example down to $225 for the Volt, which also means the payback to the Volt over the Prius is about 22 years (and that's with the smaller trunk and less passenger capability).
 
Nothing against the Volt, but when it comes to comparing a regular to plug-in hybrid, if the plug-in is going to cost more than a few thousand as compared to a regular Prius, then it's probably not worth getting the plug-in unless gas gets above $5.00 per gallon, or you have really cheap electricity where you live and you don't drive too much between charges.

#659 of 674 Re: New Prius Plug In [dmathews3] by bobw3

Aug 24, 2012 (9:37 am)

Replying to: dmathews3 (Aug 24, 2012 7:13 am)
To Dmathews3...what was your previous vehicle before the Volt that was costing you $200 per month in gas? If you're now putting zero in gas that makes me think you're only driving 40 miles per day, so in a month that would be about 1200 miles. If you were paying $200 per month in gas previously, than means your previous vehicle was only getting about 22mpg (at $3.8/gal).
 
Now you're paying $30 per month in electricity as compared to $200, which is great; however, if you bought a regular Prius, at 50mpg $3.8/gal it would cost you $91 per month in gas, so you're saving $732 per year with the Volt over the Prius. I wonder how much you paid for the Volt as compared to a regular Prius...maybe $5,000? And what vehicle do you use for long road trips?
 
I think when regular hybrids and plug-ins become equal in price, then I'll buy one.

#660 of 674 Re: New Prius Plug In [bobw3] by dmathews3

Aug 24, 2012 (1:30 pm)

Replying to: bobw3 (Aug 24, 2012 9:37 am)
The big plus to me is I'm almost no longer giving my money to foreign oil. We also have a Fusion Hybrid. I leased this time do to the new technology and the rebate was figured into my lease payment as to buy I don't have the tax lability to get the $7500 credit. I had a Equinox I sold. Like I said its not for all and just doing math and buying isn't my cup of tea. Also the plug in Pruis in my understanding costs as much as the Volt and if so in my book the Volt wins. Also the Prius plug in wasn't out to even look at then. And lastly I like a high end car.

#661 of 674 Re: New Prius Plug In [dmathews3] by michaelcozens

Aug 24, 2012 (9:26 pm)

Replying to: dmathews3 (Aug 24, 2012 1:30 pm)
We looked at the Volt also and it is a very nice car! The wife had an 07 Prius that was rear- ended and she wanted another one. The base Plug in is about 30K after figuring the $2500 rebate for this. It has a fair amount of equipment and was ok for us- there is another trim level- Advanced with Leather etc and would likely compare to the Volt in the nice factor and cost once the Gov't rebates are figured in. We leased also due to the whole thing being new. I think both these vehicles are great and I'll post again when we get some more miles under our belt!

#662 of 674 Re: New Prius Plug In [dmathews3] by bobw3

Aug 27, 2012 (6:57 am)

Replying to: dmathews3 (Aug 24, 2012 1:30 pm)
Good points. It does really make a difference what you're looking for in a car...space, value, reliability, luxury features, resale, etc...Any hybrid buyer out there is a winner in my book! The less gas we use in this country the better. It's more then just saving money at the pumps.

#663 of 674 Prius Plug In MPG by michaelcozens

Sep 05, 2012 (8:49 pm)

It has not been more than a few weeks and we can see the Average MPG for this based on how we
drive it will be 70 plus. The wife drove to work and back 9 miles all on electric. And SHE plugged it
back in when she got home!! The MPG on the tank we are working on shows 73. I'll post again
later but thought I'd add some real world experience on this "new" hybrid!

#664 of 674 Re: Prius Plug In MPG [michaelcozens] by bobw3

Sep 06, 2012 (7:30 am)

Replying to: michaelcozens (Sep 05, 2012 8:49 pm)
It's going to be a little tricky trying to compare mpg with plug-ins, since you have to add in the cost of electricity. So your MPG of 73 on 50 miles driven for example include 9 miles that were powered by plugging it into your house. 73MPG for 50 miles driven really means that the computer has calculated 0.685 gallons of gas were used to drive the 50 miles; however, in reality 0.685 gallons of gas were used to drive only 41 miles, since 9 miles were from the charge from your house), so 0.685 gallons for 41 miles = 56MPG, not 73MPG.
 
Of course it's hard to say how much of a charge you got from home. Was your battery totally drained, or only a little bit? It sounds like you drove 9 miles on electricity only, then plugged it in at home, so if your car was totally charged before the 9 miles driven, then you can estimate that the 9 miles was from the house charge.
 
Another way to calculate would be a cost per mile estimate, which will probably soon replace MPG as the standard as more electric and plug-in vehicles are on the roads. In this example, if you used 0.685 gallons of gas at $4/gal that would be $2.74/gal, plus let's say $0.50 in electricity, so that would be $3.24 for the 50 miles driven. If a person with a regular Prius getting 50mpg drove the 50 miles at $4/gallon they'd pay $4.00 for the 50 miles driven, thus you just saved $0.76 on the 50 miles driven or $0.0152 savings per mile.
 
Of course if you only paid $.025 for the electricity, tha would be $2.99 for the 50 miles or $1.01 savings for the 50 miles or $0.202 savings per mile.
 
The main thing for people to understand is that you can't just compare the computer MPG readout from a plug-in to a non-plug-in. And because with plug-ins when you actually "plug it in" the amount of house-electricity as compared with gas powered generated electricty from the car will vary depending on the amout of remaining charge in the battery when you plug it in your house, so that will add to the complexity of trying to calculate a cost per mile.

Messages Page 67 of 68

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