Finally, A Journalist with His Noggin on Straight

I am a Prius fan. None the less, I dislike this article.

1) Every car is perfect until consumers buy the first one. Comparisons of cars you can buy with cars you can't buy make me very suspicious. What would be the point of discouraging folks from using existing technology in favor of products that don't yet exist? There will ALWAYS be something new RealSoonNow. If you wait for it, you will never buy another car, ever.

2) Drivers need a certain range for daily travel. If 13 miles handles your commute, Gas mileage is a non issue. If the Volts 35 miles handles your commute, the fact that the Prius gets better mileage after 35 miles is a non issue. If (like me) you drive 110 miles a day, THEN yes, the Prius PHV will 'beat' the Volt, but few of us commute that far.

3) As a driver, you want a safe reliable car. Profitability or nationality of the car do not help you go down the road.

 

VOLT is dead when the plug in prius arrives. Gm spent 1billion in development and have only sold 2,184 since inception. Prius 7,000 sold in the month of may and supplies way down because of natural disaster. I have another question ??? How many Chevrolet dealerships have a good or experienced volt technician with only just over 2,000 sold?? I would hate to be the first one brought in with problems or glitches.

 

1) Yes
2) Yes
3) You do want safe, but car nationality does make a difference. While US domestics have been getting better, the benchmark for "better" have been and remain german and japanese.

 

This isn't an accurate statement. The Prius probably wouldn't be beneficial until after 50 miles considering it's been using gas since mile 13. I would prefer the Prius simply for the 5th seat and smart key.

 

Every mile passed 35 the Prius out MPGs the Volt. Yes, depending on the price of Regular (for the Prius) and the price of Premium (for the Volt) it may take as much as 55 miles for the total cost of gas to be equal. (Less than that for the total cost of energy, as you still have to pay for more electricity in the Volt)

 

You would not be happy with a Prius made in Mississippi at Toyota's plant?

 

After I scraped the rebel flag off the bumper.

 

Then again, the Volt isn't going to beat the Prius immediately at 13 miles either.

The BIG difference though, is the EV mode switch. This means that the Prius can use those 13 miles of electric driving when the driver thinks they would be most efficacious. For intelligent drivers that is huge.

 

Maybe premature as an article, but it echos what I've said, and others have said. Based on what we know about the Prius it's going to obliterate the arguments for a Volt once it comes out. Much cheaper, larger, much better on gas. The Volt's applicability already is highly esoteric and it's damned hard to make an argument for it. The Prius will likely leave it in the dust unless the Volt can quickly slash at least $8,000 from its price (will not happen).

 

Which is why I was happy to see this:
2012 Prius Plug-In to Allow User-Selectable EV Mode, Full Regen | PriusChat

 

Well, given the relatively small number of Prius sales I'd not get too excited.
- You have to be able and willing to pay $27k for a car.
- You have to be happy to drive a Prius.
- You need to be able to charge it and at a reasonable price.
- You need to be someone who drives lots of short trips.
- You need to be someone who doesn't drive lots of long distance trips.

The last two don't apply to me so I'm too esoteric to benefit.

Of course, you can scrap the list above if:
- You'd sell your children for an HOV lane sticker.

I guess it'll be popular in California.

 

But strangely most of the points you raise lend themselves to Prius superiority over the Volt, in a compare of the two. Whether the plug in is a good vehicle is another matter entirely but I do think it will smack the Volt upside the head, at least unless something markedly changes (like it costs $40k or GM suddenly figures out how to cut 1/4 of the price off the volt).

 

I think the guy should have to explain why they used 1960 train technology in the Volt.

As I understand it, modern trains have a diesel engine that turns a generator that supplies electricity to the drive wheels. I don't see much difference in how the Volt was designed to operate. See HowStuffWorks "How Diesel Locomotives Work"

Here's a snippit:

 

We'll have to wait until Prius PHV price is announced but $8k price gap is reasonable considering the size/class difference is worth $3k.

The bottom like is, you are paying $8k to drive on electricity (between 15-35 mile) rather than gas. That's one expensive feature.

Keep in mind that Volt is slower than Prius PHV (100 mph vs. 112 mph).

 

Diesel electric trains work very well. Their gals/ton-mile puts a Prius to serious shame. Don't judge a technology by when it was invented.

 

if PHV Prius comes with only small surcharge - between 3k-5k, which will be partially offset via credits, i see it selling quite well and easily beating Volt in sales numbers.

 

If the Volt doesn't get its sales up my home made car that I'm not even making will outsell the Volt