PIP - Leaf - Or Volt ??? - Help Me Decide

I'm deciding if I want to lease too but it'll depend what Toyota does with the lease numbers. Are they going to give a respectable MF and residual to make the payments low?

I was in the same situation 2 years ago when I leased my Lexus HS250. I said to myself, surely in 3 years, their going to put in a Li-On battery and increase the mileage. The 2012 model came out and it's the same car, no change in battery. The car business is slower than the phone or computer business in terms of updates. I'm going to go under the presumption that PIP range will stay the same until the Gen 4 PIP comes out in 2016. It's been said many times that Toyota may be losing money on the PIPs or not making much. There's no incentive for them to increase the battery size so they can lose more money when the current PIP sells just fine. Also, the small batter size is what attracts me to the PIP, I live in a townhome that I rent, so no Level 2 charger for me. 3 hours of charge suits me just fine. If I owned a home, which is the plan in a couple of years. I'd be buying full electric.

 

@ moolman if that happens and nothing changes then it will be a 50/50 toss up for me whether I keep the Volt at the end of my lease or buy a Leaf. If will depend on which car is better in the end I suppose. Also depends on where electricity is versus gas in the long run. At least with the Volt at the moment I have the option to run whichever is cheaper.

 

Like you I started off saying I would not want the 240 charger, and just trickle charge it everynight. With the PiP I would say you do not need it at all, and the Volt is a 50/50 split whether you would or not. I certaintly think it is more than adequate. The Leaf however I would 100% want the 240 charger as I would be tempted to use it for more stuff, and I would not want it sitting out for nearly 20 hours on a 110 outlet... The one thing you will notice with the Volt at least is that the 110 plug gets hot from drawing max volatage/amps for many hours straight. It actually started melting the plastic on my Kill-A-Watt meter I was using.... Not to mention if you charge outside someone can grab your trickle charge cord (they cost anywhere from 600-800 dollars to replace).. So I will be mounting the 240 charger in a box on the side of the house.

I am looking in to the PV systems now. My father in law has a bunch of panels for his house to run the TV, computers, and other appliances. So far it has worked out well for him. My only draw back is my car gets charged at night. I guess it could be used to cancel out our daily usage in the house, and then just charge off the grid at night.

 

It sounded like your wife's Prius was also a company car.

Since you can't casually check the condition of the wires inside your wall, putting in a 20 amp outlet, or even a dedicated 15 amp circuit, for the charger will be cheap insurance for peace of mind. With luck, your garage outlets are on their own circuit, and you can upgrade them all to 20 amp. It might be easier, and cheaper if using an electrician, since you can use the old lines to pull the new ones through.

If I followed that logic, I'd have gotten a Focus over the Matrix, and waited for the gen3 or other hybrid or EV.

 

NYPrius1:

Stop worrying so much and enjoy the fact that you have so many excellent options. Regardless of the car that you pick, it will meet your needs most of the time. If you get a Volt or a Leaf, you may find a new favorite, or you may re-discover why you picked Prius twice before. Enjoy ...

 

I would convert one Prius into a plug-in! Hal

 

LOL... To be honest converting your Prius to a plug-in is not worth it in my opinion.. I researched that option before finally deciding to get rid of our truck for the Volt. The Engineer system seemed good for the money, but reliability seemed to be a mixed back.. The best one I saw, and I strongly considered was almost $12,000 intalled... Plus my Prius was not designed to be a plug-in, and after a lot of careful thought possibly voiding my warranty was not worth it. That is what ultimately kicked off my search for a PHEV/EV after having such an awesome experience with our Prius. Granted converting one of your Prii is the cheapest option you have I just worry about possible problems later (not that your other choices don't have associated teething problems).

Doing research and hanging out on a lot of the forums is half the fun. Granted I mostly come here and the Volt forums since those are the cars I have. Do go check out the Leaf owners one though to see how things are going with them. Is why everytime someone says the Volt is not the answer it really is not to far off from anything else that is out there.. It is the most expensive, but I do feel it is worth it.

 

Check with your electricity supplier first. If more than half your power comes from coal please don't buy an all-battery EV until you convert to a non-fossil source.

 

Since you drive more than 13 miles a day - I'd rule out PIP. You want your daily commute to be electric to feel a big difference.

In NY cold, you will get 60 miles on Leaf. It sounds like that will work for you. But being your other car isn't really yours, complicates matters. Leasing Volt seems like a good option.

Here my old Leaf vs Volt decision tree.

 

Cute kids! Thanks for posting the pics.

 

Want verses need...

My first commute with an early model PHV (August 2010 with a little more than half at 70 MPH) ended this way:



The production model should be even better.

Why rule 80 MPG from 33.4 miles out?
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Doctor Who ?

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