. . . . and I'll bet the undeserving stiffs that get to drive 'em around all day long (if treated like the S-10ev pickups our company had) don't even bother to recharge 'em much less keep 'em nice & shiny.

:Cry:

.

The Europeans will constantly complain that they would get better mileage with a regular diesel (even if it's not true).

Wish i knew who had these cars, and where they were in the uk.

Oh tell me about it. I get this comment about 10 times a week. I ask them to name an diesel car, let alone an automatic one, that carries 4 passengers and their luggage and gets 55-60 mpg.

That usually stumps them.

Oops, double post.

Clearly, a case of premature elucidation.

Well, until the car is available to the general public, the collective noun
should be a Discharge (of Prii)... as in Nocturnal.

In 2011, when the PHEV is available to the public, Blizzard Pearl should
be renamed Zygote White.

Well, actually, the 1.6 Golf estate Bluemotion does, and it's only £20,970

I can understand why people say it, the gen 2 was a bit of a joke really compared to the diesels, but the gen 3 can put up a serious fight.

I should have added "that can do 0-60 in less than 11 seconds". A few of my colleagues have gone for the blue motion diesels but with 105bhp on tap are finding that it is a bit of a snail on the road.

Some diesels do come close to the fuel economy of the Prius but are no where near the performance.

BMW 320 ed? 0-60 in 8.0s, top speed 140 mph, 68.9 mpg (UK) = 57 mpg (US).

In a recent Autoexpress test it managed 74 mpg (62 mpg US) in highway driving on a hot day with the air conditioning switched on the whole time, as measured at the pump.

PS link to Prius PHEV test in London.

I should be careful on the terms I quote. I'd love a BMW but it is way out of budget for the age restrictions placed on new taxi's by the local council. It is probably the nearest car to the Prius for size, luggage (touring version), economy but is a tad out of my budget at £26,000 and I'm sure it'll be in demand on the second hand market.

Still, very glad you mentioned it as it is probably the nearest all rounder to the Prius.

Interesting link about the PHEV in London. I love the 100+mpg figures and 59g/km rating. Hope the production version matches these figures as I would be more than interested in one.

I'd be a little skeptical about how practical it is for your profession.

• 12 miles EV range (even at 60mph) - How many miles do you travel/day?

• How long does a quick-charge take? - can you afford to be out-of-service that long multiple times/day?

For a commuter, this is a great idea. For a cabbie...maybe not.

Not automatic. The 6-speed manual 320d gets 60.1mpg combined and the 6-speed auto gets 53.3mpg, a drop of 11.4%, on the EU standard test. (Part of this may be that the standard test protocol dictates which gear to select at what point for the manual test, while the automatic can make its own selection.) BMW don't appear to do an automatic 320ed.

The diesel is likely to do worse in urban driving than the hybrid, so unless you're doing airport transfers almost exclusively, the hybrid may be a better taxi. The 320ed gets 56.5mpg on the urban part of the cycle, while the Prius gets 72.4mpg. That part of the test doesn't have any constant-speed driving which tends to improve figures for both cars, but particularly the Prius once it's doing its on/off duty cycle on the engine.

Best pricing near me is currently 115.9p/litre for petrol and 118.9p/litre for diesel, so 2.5% more expensive. At the height of prices in 2008 diesel was up to 12p per litre more expensive (11%).

I do about 100-150 heavy urban miles daily. Not a great deal but mostly start stop traffic with most jobs between 1 & 4 miles distance. I am aware the 12 mile range is neither here nor there for me, but I understood that it was 12 miles of exclusive EV. If you drive the car normally then the car will run similar to the Prius now but just stay on electric longer, but will switch to engine when more power is needed such as when the gauge goes into the red power band now.

I would really need to do the sums, but think it would help get more business (the Prius has helped here already), we pay 2x more for our fuel over here, but about the same for electric than you and I take an hours lunch every day at home (its a small town) so can charge up then too. Could even hassle the council to install a charge base in town for my use if I ever got a PHEV and that really would cut the costs - great for me and helps the councils 'green' credentials.

Might have to see about leasing the vehicle just incase it turns into an expensive mistake. I'd also have to have a super long test drive beforehand.

Still, I think it might be a winner.

Ah, you've just confirmed why I chose the Prius - Automatic, better economy, cheaper fuel (slightly) and no DPF to constantly clog up. Also it's a Toyota so should be reliable with cheaper dealers than BMW.

And finally - it's emissions are sooo much cleaner than even the cleanest clean diesel. :rockon:

I'm thinking the Enginer kit might be a good option. If you could get a plug-in charger somewhere near your usual haunts, it could be a win-win. You don't have to fully charge but use your parking time to charge up as much as time allows. The savings comes from the fuel savings using less expensive electricity. . . . Just a thought.

Bob Wilson

Bob, thought about such kits but worried by many factors. Loss of warranty, insurance issues (try convincing them it won't burst into flames whilst I'm carrying 4 Professional footballers), I'm not technically literate enough to install or maintain such a kit etc.

Some of these conversions do look really good and I think the engineer kit you refer to is not a bad price, maybe if I was technically savvy, but I do think I'll wait until the official version with warranty becomes available.

Even if you could only charge overnight and a one hour boost at lunch you'll still get a decent efficiency boost. ok, not 100mpg territory, but it would probably save around a fiver of fuel a day.

Once they manage to make a battery with the same volume as the current traction pack but with 30kwh of storage you'll have 100 or so miles EV range. maybe 2020?

And £5 a day doesn't sound a lot, but it works out about £1000 a year. Over a five year life span (assuming no fuel cost rises) that works out to £5000 or what I extimate the extra cost of the Plug In will be over the 'normal' version. If it is, then it's worth getting as even though it will break even it will still be worth it for that all important 'edge' over other drivers/companies.

And of course the vehicle will still have a small value at the end of those five years, so any price difference between regular and plugin would be money back in your pocket. the value may even be significantly higher, as people will know the indicated 200,000 miles may only be 150,000 miles on the engine. For the purchaser a new battery pack will probably get them another 100,000 miles out of the vehicle.