Volt owners averaged 1000 miles between fill-ups in March

I berate hypocrisy and rationalization, and the Volt owner world is overflowing. No lack of it in Prius-town either, but thankfully much less.

There is also the small matter of the GM umpteen billions dollar bailout and behind the back pocket stuffing, and $7500/car subsidy that contrasts the two cases.

The Prius pseudo-green is spending their own money; the Volt pseudo-oil-hawk is spending mine.

 

I had gotten $6000 in government money combined from the purchase of my Gen I prius and my Mercury Mariner hybrid. I don't see a huge philosophical difference in the present tax incentive.

Just out of curiousity, how many Volt owners do you know? If it is just a few your generalization seems pretty hypocritical, and if it is a lot that may speak volumes to the success of the Volt.

 

I'm curious what analysis led you to that assessment.


Personal best EV mode miles yesterday. 48.6. 13.08kWh to charge. 26.9kWh/100 or 3.7mi/kWh.

Behold the awesome white center stack (perils of getting one off the lot). It grows on you. Really.

 

You're in for quite a surprise. That "more or less" varies quite a bit. The demands of real-world driving cannot to generalized into a pattern representative enough to provide an efficiency expectation. In fact, that's the problem the EPA has been struggling with for over a decade and still hasn't come up with a good way of dealing with it.

What about drives to the store... grocery... entertainment... recreation... church... friends... family... food... gas... ?
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Yes, quoting 25 mile ranges and saying that most owners would not charge frequently.

 

But the "42 mpg on the highway" Cruze Eco is rated only 33 mpg combined and that's w/a manual transmission. The automatic version is 30 mpg combined vs. 50 mpg combined for the 3rd gen Prius.

 

I beg to differ. The demands of real world driving mostly do fit a 40 mile per day or less daily (weekdays) driving.

So you are trying to tell me that a 40 mile or day or less commute is a RARE thing?

 

I'm pointing out how variance is too great to portray a realistic average.

40 miles has nothing to do with it. Not that it would matter anyway. Heater, A/C, and Speed all have an influence not accounted for. Driving time isn't represented either.
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Excellent point. At 3.75 regular gas, the cash Prius buyer (neglecting opportunity cost of that $5k, as well as sales tax) will break even at 100,000 miles compared to an automatic Eco.

If your right arm and left foot still work, the break even is still only 130,000.

And if you're mostly a highway driver, the break even is merely 350,000 miles.

If you are the type to take out a loan and pay your sales tax (7% in NJ), a 5 year, 3.9% loan changes those numbers to 117,000, 150,000, and 410,000 miles, respectively.

 

...and that's if you are ok with less standard equipments, lack of hybrid exclusive premium features, higher emission, lack of HOV lane access and smaller interior of Cruze Eco.

Maintenance on Cruze should be higher and resale value lower. A used 50 mpg car will worth more than a used 33 mpg car, especially when the gas price is $5-7 per gallon in the future.

How does the Volt compare to Cruze Eco?

 

Dumb question. With the volt you're getting 100+ MPG so you barely paying for gas but then whatvabout your electric bill?

 

So it's NOT all about savings, then? That was my point to SageBrush in post 38 and the start of the Cruze Eco comparison.

I paid $1050 for an '86 BMW 528e in 2001 that I drove for four years/60k miles. It got 24mpg overall and cost $350/yr to insure. What's the break even compared to *that*? Prior to that, I had a Subaru Justy that was free. That was even cheaper.

Far, far worse. LOL Don't you see my sig? I am not a poster child for financially rational purchases. But neither are you.

 

thats a very good question, and probably the most relevant.

The EPA rates the electric consumption of the Volt at 36 kwh/100 miles, some owners with the ability to measure their electric consumption report better real world results, and I don't know if that is energy used by the car or fed into it for charging (charging isn't 100% efficient so more power goes in than you get out).

But for the sake of argument lets say the EPA is right. National average electric rate is somewhere around 11 cents per kwh (as is my actual rate in Delaware), so 36 kwh will cost me about $3.96. So you can go 100 miles on about $4 of electric, or put another way 1000 miles on $40 of electric.

My last 1001 mile tank was about 700 miles EV and 300 gas, so the electric cost was less than $28 (using the EPA ratio) and my fuel cost was less than $29 (7.6 gallons at $3.79), so my cost per mile for that fill up was 5.7 cents. My overall lifetime cost per mile is running about 6.5 cents per mile.

By comparison a 50 mpg hybrid would have used 20 gallons of regular (lets say @ $3.50) for cost of $70 or 7 cents per mile.

 

EV range isn't the highest priority though... price, size, emissions, engine-efficiency, electric-efficiency, high-volume production, etc. all rank higher among oridinary mainstream consumers (those who would otherwise buy a Corolla, Camry, or cordless Prius).
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You have Highlander Hybrid right? So, why wouldn't Leaf work for you?

 

It's just my opinion but I'm just throwing this out there for discussion. The concept of "plug in" doesn't really appeal to me for my driving purposes. (it may be more practical for others) but it's still using another resource for power. That's like ok I won't be throwing $ into Exxon pocket but I'll just pay out to my local electric company. If it were solar powered or generated part of it's energy from solar it would seem more beneficial especially considering the price of the volt. I don't know very much about the volt and I'm just learning a bit about the Prius but just throwing my .02 out there.

 

Thats kind of the point. If you just want to spend less money no brand new cutting edge car is the best choice for you, because you'd spend less money getting an efficient used car and buying the gas.

Many people want to use less gas for a whole slew of reasons that don't all mean spending less money. For instance, sending coal dollars to West Virginia instead of oil dollars to Libya. Some may live in areas with clean grids and want to reduce pollution, etc...

Its more about weaning off oil than it is saving dollars (for some of us). [electric cars are also just way cooler]

 

Going from Prius to Volt won't save you much gasoline since Prius is already very efficient. Other means will save more, such as buying everything locally made. That will cut the transportation fuel, etc...

 

Is it "saving" if you spend less and get less? To me, saving does not compromise what I get, only costs less.

In the case of Cruze, spending less also get you less. So there is no saving.