Prius vs Volt: 55 miles & 3,000' Elevation 4 days a week:

FYI, the 2014 Leaf is rated at 130 miles per charge.

 

You mean kilometers.

 

This is what Wikipedia shows:

Nissan LEAF EV Range

2011/12 models
117 km (73 mi) EPA
175 km (109 mi) NEDC

2013 model
121 km (75 mi) EPA
200 km (120 mi) NEDC
135 km (84 mi) Long-Distance Mode (Nissan)
106 km (66 mi) Long-Life Mode (Nissan)

 

The 120mi is on the new european drive cycle, which is a much easier test -- the PiP does the whole test in EV, and gets 14.3 miles of EV. On NEDC, the 2012 Volt gets 83km/52 Miles. (don't recall what 2013 added).

 

Ah, they got me.

 

My experience is that treck is a waste for an EV vechicle. I live in Mission Viejo and used to go out to Lake Elsinore via the Ortega a few times a month because of some venders out there. I've done the run in both my PiP and my wifes regular Prius (and my 3500 Diesel truck!). That road is so graded it chews up the EV miles in a heart beat.

Heading to work, both vechicles will leave him near topped off coming down the Ortega, I'm sure he will then jump on the 5 so it's going to be blend mode the rest of the way to work for the PiP; it will probably dry up in blend mode for the last few miles. I'm not sure if the volt is more or less efficient at freeway speeds in pure EV or whatever they call blend, but my guess is you would get to work with EV Left if it couldn't run pure EV.

On the way home even the 5 from Anaheim to Mission Viejo/San Juan Capistrano is graded enough you feel it. So the PiP will be again taxed of EV quicker on the way home on the freeway then on the way in. The volt would probably make it to the actual Ortega. On the way up the Ortega I think the prius wins hands down in MPG on the motor and this is where the deciding factor would be.

My gut says the best bet is stick with a regular 50 MPG Prius. I drive El Toro every day from work to home and even that small streach from the freeway to cooks corner will kill EV miles 3x faster then a leval trip. EV is just not the answer for a extreme altitude change daily commute. But if he is dead set on it and that few extra MPG makes all the difference my gut says the PiP ability to fall back on 50 MPG ICE wins out because frankly both cars are going to spend a lot of time there.

I wouldn't touch a pure EV for that trip home, to risky. that 55 mile trip I could easily see sucking up 120+ miles. Plus based on your pic it looks like 110 is the only option for work charging. Way to risky.

For those that don't know the Ortega it's a popular run for bikers, so there are hundreds of youtube video's. Here is one that only shows about 1/2 of the Ortega run....

 

you don't have to guess ....

www.jurassictest.ch/GR/

 

I don't buy it one bit, it says the volt would only use 12.51 kWh going 60 mph on strictly the Ortega from the freeway to the top where the houses are (23 miles). So essentially they claim the 2,700 foot elevation climb barely taxes the EV range... Good luck with that...

 

12.51 kWh exceeds the the Volt's useable capacity of 10.x kWh. The 2013 Volt's battery is 16+kWh, raw.

 

Per EPA, 2011 Volt need 12.9 kWh to go 35 miles. It was rated 36 kWh/100mi.

2013 model is rated 35kWh/100mi. 38 miles would need about 13.3 kWh.

 

John's post (and the earlier discussion of the power demands on El Toro, were about the power need IN THE CAR, not from the wall. John is correct that 12.51 kWh exceeds the cars stored power.. the 12.9 for 2011/2112 yields about 10.4kWh of usable power. The 13.3 for 2013's yields about 10.9kWh of usable power.

 

Let me unbaffle you, it seems your misreading the the numbers. The volts EPA rating of 36kw/100miles yields 2.7miles per kWh. Luckily I do much better, 35 miles per charge is a very very bad day for me, I'm usually in the mid to upper 40's which means I do get the 3.4-3.6 you associated with the volt. (So if the 3.6 is someone telling you their numbers its possible).

 

Yup, 100 miles / 36 kWh is about 2.78 miles per kWh.