Chicago Tribune LOVES Volt's Range, but Not Prius PHEV

Oh sweet Peter, Paul, and Mary, that was a poorly written "review".

 

its the Chicago Tribune....'nuff said!

 

Big whitewash job focusing only on range not kWh/mi or Gal/mi efficiency.

 

the farther the electric range the better! what's not to like? oh yeah, price and unknown long term reliability. and, uh, the mileage when the juice is gone. oh yeah, and the size too. nevermind.

 

Looked like they were quoting the optimistic 25-50 for the up to 50 miles range. The writer was quite discouraged at the 13 mile use, and said it was closer to 10. Didn't seem to be that misleading at all. The writer wanted a phev with better range if he was going to plug it in. I will bet toyota's marketing is telling it the same thing, and we will see higher range in the gen IV.

Its hard to quote mileage until toyota actually gives out a production vehicle to test and gets an epa sticker. I think it will get a blended aer of around 10.

 

Does the PHV have a smaller gas tank?

 

Gee, you could have knocked me down with a feather, Surprise, LOL

Someone should tell the Chicago Tribune reviewer that cold weather temperature negatively affects lead acid batteries, rechargeable batteries and also affects gas mileage of perfectly good cars. A recent Chevy Volt test on a cold day reported only 24 miles on a charge at 36 degrees.

A Winter in the Chevy Volt - KickingTires

 

Really until we see a price nobody can effectively judge this car. My judgements have all come based on a hypothetical price. 13 mpg sucks. If the car is $35k. If it's $15 more expensive than the normal one (it won't be) it's the best thing ever.

 

13 mile 'electric range'.

 

Right OK I can tell you regardless of price that 13 mpg in a Prius is NOT good!

 

agreed.

 

Not likely that the volt exceeds the epa in 30 degree temps unless the heat is off. I do doubt that you can get the volt ev range down to 16 miles, especially if you drive it the same way that you got the prius phv to 18. As I read it the author was taking the 13 miles as optimistic in the prius, then comparing the optimistic 50 on the volt. In fact I would question the prius phv's odometer if you got 18 miles in it totally electric in normal driving before the engine turned on. From those reporting the volt has been down to 24 and the prius phv down to 6. Until toyota actually finalizes the design we will not know, and until toyota releases a price we will not know the value proposition. One thing that is sure is toyota has decided not to sell in chicago for a couple of years. The negative bias in this article seems much less than CR on the volt. Either way I want PHEVs to take off.

 

Volt battery developer says temperature a problem for all batteries - Chicago Tribune

The Chicago Tribune writer probably does not know that the Chevy Volt has an official EPA of 35 miles EV with a full charge and low temperature is a problem for all types of batteries. He also did not test the Volt or even read what was published from Consumer Reports testing in his own newspaper on March 3, 2011.

 

Tribune car section is a joke since Jim Mateja retired.

It's a joke now.. I miss Jim Mateja, didn't always afree with him but he was an honest writer and gave a fair assesment.

 

I find it amusing that these were essentially the same objections raised by the Prius' detractors when it was new.

 

Wait a minute! we are talking about the original article written by Jim Mateja, see his name under the picture!

Test drive of the Toyota Prius plug-in to debut in 2012 - chicagotribune.com

It is not a matter of being fair, it's a matter of being as accurate as possible. He did not even read recently published articles from his own newspaper prior to writing this, probably because he thought nobody would notice.