Just took my PIP for a Road Trip to Prius Hippy Heaven!

lol. well done.

 

Always interesting how people on here (and maybe even more so in the general public) consider a Prius to be a sign that someone is far left politically. That assumption does nothing good for the Prius, or environmentalists, or the far left.

 

Any pics of the loaded up car?

 

It's comforting to hear it worked out for you. We're planning a family trip to Disney which is a little bit further (about 900 miles each way IIRC). While our van would be more spacious, the Prius should use half the fuel or better. I just need to get the family to be more judicious in their packing!

 

A person just has spend a little on here to see how accurate the stereotype is. With that said, it shouldn't have any bearing whether one buys a prius or not.

 

I'm not saying that stereotypes aren't generally true to a degree (at least if you take the average or median user), but I think people assume a far too high of percentage than what is reality.

 

I've done three trips from SF Bay Area to San Diego. That's 1000 miles roundtrip with 2 kids in car seats and 3 adults. I told my wife she could pack whatever she wanted. I would "Tetris" it in. And besides the double stroller, I fit everything in there. An umbrella stroller will have to do.


iPhone ?

 

Ironically, me and the fiance just did an OC-Bay Area trip last week through the weekend. Maybe we passed you on I-5.

I only found one place to charge in SF (at Golden Gate Park in a museum's parking structure - but don't ask how much parking costs ) so really only had 12 EV miles from external power.

We hit Portola Redwoods State Park that involved long and steep hills (actually had about 8 EV miles regenerated as we got to Redwood City), and a Sunday trek down I-5 where my Zen driving habits became more like Autobahn habits (and without admitting wrongdoing, I can state that the PiP is very serene at 160km/hr), yet still managed 47mpg.

My '11 Five with the big wheels would have been at best around 42mpg. I love my PiP's better fuel efficiency, ride and reduced road noise. And I didn't even miss LKA.

But I do notice substantially shorter cruising range with the 20% smaller gas tank.

 

Talking about short cruising range, try a Prius C, they only have like 9.5 gals (and try using up all that) so on road trips, I'd have to fill up at the 300-320 mark to feel comfortable.

I suspect I should get around at least 450-500 on the PiP??? Yes? Please say that's the case!

 

i agree.

i agree.

 

Depends on temp and speed. Those are the two biggest variables when highway driving.

 

A gallon of gas has 33.7kWh of energy. Getting ~50MPG saves a lot of energy. It is a often overlooked feature for plugin hybrid buyers, especially those focused solely on EV range.

 

So from well to wheel it is quite a bit more efficient to use the ICE at around 60 mph+ compared to EV, correct? What would the estimated numbers be?

 

That doesn't describe me at all. I just hate wasting gasoline. With my commute, I save $100 a month by plugging it in. Combined with a hefty discount of $10,000 from the dealer, Toyota's legendary reliability and high resale value, it was a no-brainer for me.

 

About 5 yrs ago, IIRC, I saw a study that said something like ~40% of Prius owners were self-described as liberal and ~30% as conservative. Others were independent, NA, etc. The numbers were much closer to the mix in the general population, which surprises most people.

Mike

 

I had a pair of friends visiting Los Angeles from Miami, and they wouldn't stop counting the number of Prius's they saw around the city. I thought it was really strange, but I guess it never really struck me how large a portion of hybrid sales are out in California.

 

This would seem to have to be dependent on vehicle specifics, no? For our PiP, I believe it because you are maxing out the electric motor to hold 60mph, but for say, a Model S, it can't be as the 85kWh battery only has the energy equivalent of ~2.5 gallons of gasoline, yet does a reliable 220-250 miles.

Interested to hear more thoughts about this though...

 

To get a gallon of gasoline, it takes about 40kWh of (crude oil from well) energy to refine and transport it to the pump.

To get a gallon equivalent of electricity, it takes about 100kWh of energy (coal, natural gas, solar, wind, nuclear, etc) to generate, distribute and transmit to the outlet.

Therefore, for vehicle operation (EPA figure), EV mile efficiency needs to be 2.5 times better to break even with gasoline.

If we assume PiP gets 60 MPG at 60 mph, EV operation should get 150 MPGe (225 Wh/mi or about 12 EV miles per charge).

From my experience, I don't get 12 EV miles if I do 60 mph in EV mode.