Driving the Toyota Prius Plug-in Hybrid

[Right Lane Cruiser]

In a commuting situation, driven resourcefully, it can be a gas-free solution to tailpipe pollution.

Jerry Garrett - BLOGS - August 26, 2010

Will Toyota price this low enough to be practical for most commuters? --Ed.

The Prius coasted to a stop, out of gas. I was miles from a gas station. Now what?

But I was in a different sort of Prius — a modified plug-in version, which Toyota is testing prior to an expected version for mass production in 2012.

Luckily for me, then, a light plug was close by. I unrolled the long charging cable that comes with the car and tethered the car to 110-volt household current. And so began a three-hour charging procedure, but in due time, I was on my way again, running solely on electricity. I had a cushion of 14 miles of all-electric range, at speeds up to 62 miles per hour, with which to find a gas station.

In a week’s worth of driving the experimental plug-in Prius, this was but one of several answers I found to the question: What good is a plug-in hybrid with a range of... [Read More]

[lightfoot]

Nice article!!

One minor detail in the article's section about the Volt got my attention though:
"Then a small gas engine starts up to provide enough charge to power the motor."
My memory may be faulty, but isn't the Volt's generator a 1.4l 4 cylinder, a version of the Cruze ICE?? And the Prius-III has a 1.8l ICE. So the Volt's generator really isn't all that "small"???

Until I read about the Volt's generator size here, I thought of it as a one of those portable generators like the ones Honda makes, probably in the 500cc range.

[Right Lane Cruiser]

You are correct, John — that's part of the reason why we don't expect impressive mileage from the Volt in charge sustaining mode.

[ALS]

I'm liking what I'm seeing in the direction Toyota is going with their plug in hybrids.

If they can price these in around $2,500 - $3,000 over a normal Prius it will make economical sense to purchase a Plug in over a standard model. Anything much higher and the initial cost costs will never be recovered over the life of the car.

In the article they talked about it costing a $1.00 a day to charge the plug in.
1.00 / 14 miles = 7.1 cents a mile. My Prius driving in the same situations strictly urban and short trips gets around 48 mpg. $2.70 per gallon / 48 miles = 5.6 cents per mile.

Now if it gets five miles per gallon more as a plug in as stated in the article then it drops the cost down to 7.0 cents per mile.

One gallon of fuel at $2.70 plus 1.00 to fully charge the battery equals $3.70 / 53 miles equals 7.0 cents per mile. You may be using less gas but your not saving the money you think you are plugging it in.

You maybe saving gas but your not saving money.

[Parasite]

Originally Posted by ALS

In the article they talked about it costing a $1.00 a day to charge the plug in.
1.00 / 14 miles = 7.1 cents a mile.

My read was it costs $1.00 for three chargings of the battery. Closer to 2.4 cents a mile. You would need to know the KW of the battery to find out for sure.

[ItsNotAboutTheMoney]

Originally Posted by ALS

I'm liking what I'm seeing in the direction Toyota is going with their plug in hybrids.

If they can price these in around $2,500 - $3,000 over a normal Prius it will make economical sense to purchase a Plug in over a standard model. Anything much higher and the initial cost costs will never be recovered over the life of the car.

In the article they talked about it costing a $1.00 a day to charge the plug in.
1.00 / 14 miles = 7.1 cents a mile. My Prius driving in the same situations strictly urban and short trips gets around 48 mpg. $2.70 per gallon / 48 miles = 5.6 cents per mile.

Now if it gets five miles per gallon more as a plug in as stated in the article then it drops the cost down to 7.0 cents per mile.

One gallon of fuel at $2.70 plus 1.00 to fully charge the battery equals $3.70 / 53 miles equals 7.0 cents per mile. You may be using less gas but your not saving the money you think you are plugging it in.

You maybe saving gas but your not saving money.

FYP.

Actually:
D = proportion of distance EV
m = Prius Hgpm
E = PHEVrius Hgpm efficiency relative to Prius
e = charging efficiency
K = $/kWh
k = kWh/mile
g = $/gal

Then you have cost per mile
Prius: gm
PHEVrius: gm(1-D)/E + DkK/e

So saving per mile = gm - gm(1-D)/E - DkK/e

Plus numbers in, multiply by total distance, say how much you'll save.

My savings are very small. D too low, K too high.