Why Did I Buy a Prime, Over a Leaf or Bolt?

Most BEV do have a secondary 12v that is used to run the accessories. Also when you run out of juice in the HV battery there is still a little juice in there that can maintain the 12v just a little while longer.

 

A heater running on 12v, how long will that last?

 

Depends. Do you want survivability or toasty.


iPad ?

 

You mean survival or prolong suffering but still frozen after all.

 

I bought Leaf 3 years ago purely for commute to/from work. I had no expectation of charging it outside of home. I knew reasonable estimate of how far I can go with how much reserve each day. Thus, there was absolutely no range anxiety. Leaf is an excellent purpose built vehicle IMHO. I recently traded it in for a new Prime because my wife and I have enjoyed driving our first Prime since Nov 2016. Moreover, Prime's range is sufficient for my commute, Prime's expected resale value is much higher than Leaf's, and various cash benefits such as Toyota's rebates, CA rebates and Federal tax credit.

I think we may have considered buying another Leaf had Nissan permited swapping of old battery pack with current/improved battery pack on their EVs.

Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.

 

You be stranded without battery unless you are terribly stupid. The car gives no less than 2 loud audible warnings. Meaning the radio mutes and a creepy robot lady says "Low Battery Charge". The onboard navigation switches to show the nearest public charging options. If you keep going and ignore it, you get another "Very Low Battery Charge" and again shows you the nearest station. You can keep going, then the dash board gives up and says you can go "---" miles until I die. And you can keep going. Then the dash board lights up again and you're in turtle mode. You can still keep going. If you're driving in the middle of nowhere (blizzard or not) and you get all these warnings and fail to heed them, Darwin should select you for recycling. When you begin your journey and input the destination, the car will even tell you, "eh, I don't think you'll make it there with the charge you got buddy. Lets re-route you to this charger en-route and then you'll make it". I used that for exactly one day, one my several hundred mile trip for dinner, just because I wanted to see how it worked. And it worked brilliantly.

Around here you always see people stranded in the winter time, and rarely (i.e. almost never) is it because they ran out of fuel (battery or dino juice). Almost always it is because their tires are crap, or their just bad drivers.

 

I think our "whimsical trips" are doing just fine, even with the Leaf which is arguably one of the worst BEVs on the market today.

The past 1yr:



You don't have to pre-plan at all, but if you make a "whimsical" decision and try to go out of range, the car does everything in its power to let you know, you need to stop and refuel. Just like in some of the gas vehicles I've been in, if you set the GPS it will tell you your distance to empty is less than the trip distance, you should refuel.

 

Agreed that the prime is a great choice. I bought my smart electric strictly as a commute to/from work car. I get (on a good day with lots of slow moving traffic) an 80 mile range.

But honestly, how often do you clock out from work and decide to take a 50+ mile trip somewhere on a whim.

BEVs aren’t for everyone and everyday, just like the prime wouldn’t work as the only vehicle for a moving company.

 

In my household we own the Prius Prime and the Chevy Bolt. Considering that gas in California is going up close to $3.70 in some parts, running EV mode is much more economical. But I also own a Toyota Tundra and a Harley motorcycle. My GF also has a Hyundai Elantra that is used basically to commute from my office to hers since we carpool back and forth from home to my office. I prefer to run in EV mode as much as possible, having a range of 230+ miles on the Bolt is great, but I won't push it personally. If we go on longer trips its the Prime.

When I need hauling ability and I do about once a week, the 16yr old Tundra fits the bill, though at 16 miles per gallon, it hurts when I have to fill it up every couple of months. (28 gallon tank).

When I want to get away and just ride then the HD Ultra fits the bill. It averages about 36mpg with it's 5gallon tank. And when I've been traveling up to Sturgis, I have seen and do pay attention to those signs that say no gas for next 100miles!

I guess I'm lucky and enjoy having a choice, and any chance I get to drive the bolt within it's 200 mile range, it's probably my first choice. It's got gettup and go compared to the Prime, and off the line, it's a little rocket. But like I said, if I'm expecting the unexpected, the Prime is our main choice. Just in case we do decide to go 300 miles round trip up the coast for lunch.