Discontinued

Oh snap. That can be very convincing.

 

is this figure just for sales or lease as well?

 

Can't find out if there is down payment with the $199. lease! Chart figures are year-to-date lease & finance vehicles.

 

Didn't they lower the price after moving production to the USA? I wonder how much lower the PiP and Prius would be if they produced them in the USA as well.

 

I just test drove a LEAF for the first time. Holy moly, what a car. Fast as hell compared to the Prius, and I ended up with 1 mile more on my 'EV estimate' after doing an aggressive 10 mile test drive (only half of it was @ highway speeds tho). The PiP is an awesome car if you need the range of a gasoline engine, but as an EV, it has been a failure. I'm kicking myself for not doing my research before buying the PiP.

Unfortunately, I can't trade my PiP in, Toyota is trying to dump so many incentives into the PiP in my area (~$4600 cash from what I was told today), a used PiP simply cant compete with the new cars, so my only option is to find someone willing to take over the lease.

 

Creating a high concentration of a product is a wise move for establishing a baseline, something to confirm & compare. With the on-going posts of new owners questioning real-world experiences, it will be helpful overall. But in that particular area, it does affect resale value.

 

It isn't working tho, they aren't selling.

 

My stats after 10 months:

EV: 4425 miles, 69%, 836 kwh...that is <190 wh/m and 178 MPGe (not including charging losses of ~10%)
HV: 2013 miles, 31%, 34 gal, 59 mpg

Overall: 6438 miles; 189 mpg (without considering kwh); or 109 MPGe (includes gas and electric equivalent)

My gallons saved is displayed at 70, but this would give me 63 mpg which I think is way optimistic. I'm getting 59 mpg on gas because I rarely take a short trip that isn't EV only. I've probably saved more like 80 - 85 gallons of gas. At about $3.75 (about average in CA over the past year), that is a savings of ~$310. The electricity would have cost me about $110, including 10% losses on the 836 kwh, but I charge at work for free 75-80% of the time.

Maybe I've saved $280 in 10 months...or $336 in a year. (It would have been $240 if I had to pay for electricity, but then I would have gone on an EV time-of-use rate plan at PG&E and probably saved another $25-$40). But I'm also saving on the gas I do buy because my mpg in HV is higher than if I was gas only (no short trips on gas) -- with 12+ yrs of Prius driving experience I know this to be true...maybe another $10-$15 for this.

I'm not really calling this a failure. I'm saving money*, I'm causing less smog, I'm using less gas, I'm emitting less CO2, I have a quieter ride, and I can use the HOV lanes.

* A small amount: $2500 fed rebate, $1500 state rebate, plus ~$3000 over 10 years in lower fuel costs, assuming current prices.

Mike

 

Actually, the Leaf isn't all that fast compared to the Prius per Fuel Economy vs. Performance | MPG vs. MPH - Consumer Reports .

In CR's tests in the 1/4 mile they were:
Leaf: 17.8 sec @ 77.6 mph
Prius: 18.0 sec @ 79.3 mph

The above is real close. If they were 1+ second apart in the 1/4, that'd be pretty significant. PiP performance should be real similar to the regular Prius, possibly a tad bit slower.

I think the key is that there's just so little NVH when you punch it on an EV that it feels faster.

shows what I'm talking about.

BTW, the weird movement of the steering wheel and around top of the dash look like it's the result of the poster allowing YouTube to "stabilize" the video. I've tried it before on some of my videos and it looked weird, so I opted out of it.

 

Man Nice Job Mike!

 

Comparing 1/4 mile times is rather silly, unless you like street racing. Let's look at 0-60mph, which is more realistic, and the gap is a lot bigger.

As for your EV numbers, great, but you aren't the norm, you are the exception from what I have seen on the forums. The PiP is a really great Hybrid, no doubt (I hit 60MPG, highway speeds, when EV has been depleted), it's an amazing machine (95MPG on my 42 mile commute yesterday, only charged once), with really cool but limited EV features.

If you live within 10 miles of your office, and don't have to deal with lake effect snow, then chances are you can make it work as an EV. I know there are locals who have hit 5000 miles, and still on their first tank of gas, but again, not the norm.

 

The Leaf is an EV. The Prius plugin is a hybrid, that you can charge from a plug. They are different cars with different strengths and weaknesses. The PIP is much more versatile (short trips EV, long trips gas)...the Leaf can drive much further without gas, without question. I'm not sure why this is being discussed...these facts can be gotten from a 1-page spec sheet from 3 years ago.

Mike

 

I know they are 2 different cars, that was the whole point of my post. You responded with stats, so I felt compelled to follow up.

 

April 2013 Plug-In Electric Vehicle Sales Report Card