Why would you choose a Prius over a Chevy Volt?

LOL! Wouldn't that be donuts?

We do a lot of community events so we have beer and wine sitting around. I was rescuing the porter from heathens would wouldn't appreciate it.

 

Three reasons why I chose the Plugin Prius over Volt:

1: Cost, Plugin Prius was significantly discounted in addition to zero percent financing. (My federal tax liability is far less than the $7500 federal credit and I wasn't interested in leasing)

2:Cargo Capacity: Its not as pretty but the Prius hatch sure holds a lot of cargo

3: Carb 10 year 150,000 mile HV battery warranty, the extra 50,000 miles gives me peace of mind.

 

The Prius Plugin and Volt have the same 10 year or 150,000 mile CARB battery warranty.

Actually, the PZEV CARB emissions warranty is 15 years or 150,000 miles except for the hybrid battery (and A/C compressor used for battery thermal cooling on the Volt) which are covered for 10 instead of 15 years.

This "California" emissions warranty has also been adopted by about 10 other states. New York apparently adopted the CA emissions standards but not the general CARB non-PZEV warranty requirement. New York did adopt the CA warranty for PZEV cars like the Prius Plugin and the Volt. This confused me at first and is maybe the reason why you though the Volt didn't have the full 10 year or 150,000 mile hybrid battery warranty. New Jersey adopted the CA warranties in both cases along with most (but not all) of the CARB emission standard states.

As far as I can tell, neither Toyota or GM warrant the hybrid battery for 10 years or 150,000 miles unless you are in a state following the CA PZEV emissions warranty rules. Instead, it falls back to 8 years or 100,000 miles.

The details for the Volt are documented in this GM warranty document beginning around page 24.

http://www.chevrolet.com/content/dam/Chevrolet/northamerica/usa/nscwebsite/en/Home/Ownership/Warranty/02-pdfs/2k14chev_lim_wm2ndprint.pdf

Toyota's CARB warranty coverage is described starting around page 23:

http://www.toyota.com/t3Portal/document/omms/T-MMS-12PriusPHV/pdf/2012_Prius_PHV_WMG_lr.pdf

 

Now they do. But was that true during the Volt's first two model years?

 

They narrowly missed the carbon monoxide emissions requirement during the 2011 model year and the first half of the 2012 model year.

They began delivering the 2012 cars with a CARB-compliant updated catalytic converter within days of the first Prius Plugin deliveries in the late winter or early spring of 2012.

So, CARB PZEV warranted Volts have been available as long as CARB PZEV warranted Prius Plugins.

 

Thank You Jeff for the correct Volt HV battery warranty information.
I got the wrong info from a Buffalo NY auto show rep and never researched it again.

 

Did we forget to mention the EV speed limitation (62mph) on the PIP? Not that it is efficient to drive over that speed in full EV mode but if you have a commute under 30-35miles that includes high speed highway driving it's nice to be able to stay in EV mode.

 

My Volt is officially 4 years old as of today, although it wasn't delivered to me at the dealership until Dec. 21.

GM allowed a 3rd-party website called chevroletconnects.com to query their factory database and allow Chevy customers to see the status of their vehicle from initial order all the way to shipping and delivery. My car, Volt #42, reached the "vehicle produced and ready for shipping" status code of 3800 on November 10, 2010.

As a 2011 model year it doesn't qualify for the PZEV warranty and I'm now almost 3,000 miles past the "8 year or 100,000 mile" national hybrid battery warranty. I'm also past pretty much any other warranty coverage and did not bother with getting extended warranty coverage.

 

I hope you don't mind having your post used as an example, but vague comments like that were the source of much trouble in the past, since they often led to the assumption that there was no benefit at faster speeds.

A number of us really struggled to point out that plug-supplied electricity was always used at any speed while in EV mode. That blending operation really stirred the pot for awhile... some from it not being understood... some from wanting to keep that knowledge from being shared. Thankfully, we don't have that anymore. It is still important though to make sure people are aware that when traveling faster than 62 mph you will not be in HV mode, unless the driver explicitly switches to it.

EV-BOOST is the term we've been using to identify that automatic mode which draws much more electricity from the battery-pack than in HV, but isn't counted as EV since the engine is also running.

 

Electric / gas trip spreadsheet:

Volt cost per mile - Google Sheets

Would need to put in whatever the actual kWh / 100 mile and mpg is for a particular trip.

 

No worries, John it is something valid to point out. I was referring to leaving a pure EV mode situation. Blended mode is something in between but because the ICE is obviously on and making noise it can be considered bothersome. I did not mean to infer that you lose all the benefit of the PIP above 62mph when you you still have charge left. Thanks for pointing that out.

 

Very cool spreadsheet. Another thing to consider along with this in terms of your cost of electricity is whether you have a Tiered Rate structure (which the Volt will put you into higher tiers) or Time Of Use Rate structure (whether you can get by with the approximately 40 miles of electricity during the day when rates are higher).

For the Volt owners reading this, did you switch to TOU rates when you get your Volt, were you already on TOU, or did you stay on tiered rates?

 

I originally had to switch to a TOU rate because my electricity bill doubled. After the switch the cost was negligible as long as I charged after 10 or 11 pm.

Now I live in an apartment and there are no TOU rates. I would pay $0.11/KwH but I have an arrangement that allows me to charge on 110v for free. At work it is $0.50/hr or $2 to get a full charge. I usually only need 1-1.5hrs though.

 

European PiP owners report that EV-BOOST apparently does not happen in the European version of the PiP. Above the cutoff speed (which is less than 62mph for them), there is no battery usage.

 

I switched to TOU the first day I had the VIN to submit to PG&E. It took them a full month to activate it.

The cost was as such...
pre-vehicle: $80
post-vehicle, tiered: $155
TOU: $115

The only thing that is a pain about TOU is I can't run the electric clothes dryer on a weekday evening through several cycles. The first month of TOU, my bill was $125 because I had a few extra $2–$3 evenings from running the dryer.

While my price for charging the car is technically $0.097 per kWh, I count this as $0.12 since that is what it averages to be on top of regular electricity use with the additional cost from some peak use.

I looked up average rates 200 miles north in Oregon which is $0.06... so it varies by where you are. California is probably one of the worst.

On my current electric rate, a full night charge costs about $1.35 if inefficiency is included.

 

There are other options depending upon where you live as well.
Our utility in Minnesota offers a EV TOU program where your EV(s) are put on a seperate meter.
This gives you TOU rates for your EV and a regular schedule for the rest or your house.
In our case we pay ¢5.7/kWh.

Anyone interested in a plugin vehicle should check with their utility to see what programs are available.

 

The reasons I did the spreadsheet calcs were to figure out how my mileage over several road trips per year would compare to daily driving. The dollar figures came out as a complete wash for a Prius vs. PIP vs. Volt. If I lowered gas price, the totals became closer together over road trips since the difference between the average mpgs represented a smaller cost. Thus, I stopped comparing these vehicles in terms of efficiency and just test drove them on the uphill situations I would encounter frequently which the Volt was clearly superior in.

One thing I did figure out was my other, 20-something mpg vehicles were ridiculously expensive to run... not that I didn't know that, I just didn't quite realize it was thousands of dollars.

Actually calculating this stuff shot down the fake math for me I was seeing in Internet groups like "my car costs nothing to charge" and "50 mpg is going to be immensely cheaper for roadtrips." All that stuff is false for a normal driving pattern. It doesn't matter if I save $1.25 on a weekend when I spent $.25 per weekday and vice-versa. All of these cars are efficient. Physics simply won't allow for a car to be that much more efficient than another efficient car.

 

I disagree strongly with your statement in general terms, although it may be true for your specific driving patterns and fuel costs.

Physics certainly will allow people with driving patterns other than yours to save money with a Prius, PiP, Volt, or other cars.
You could go to the extreme and look at someone with a Leaf whose driving pattern never takes them more than 60 miles who gets electricity at zero cost during off peak hours (I believe there is a utility in Texas that currently offers this).

 

Yes but you pay a higher rate during the day (heavy a/c use in the summer) to help make up for it. I looked into this and it would work best for a BEV owner with a fast rate charger who mainly needed to charge overnight after mid-night.

 

Like I said, the referencing of extreme cases as the basis for cost information is why I made a spreadsheet to calculate realistic numbers for myself. I don't care that there is a special progam somewhere else, what I would save if I had to commute 300 miles to work, or how much it would cost if I never left town. None of that matters in at least 9/10 use cases.