No more Prius Prime.

If I do have to go back to my previous daily commuting routine, then my Plan B would be to purchase a cheap BEV. For my daily commute, the cargo space is not very important. Strictly for commuting, 50 miles EV range in winter is all I need. I don't know how the tax incentives will work in 2023, but if Bolt's price stays low and gets a $7500 tax credit reinstated, then it will be very attractive. Far better choice than buying a Gen5 Prime for my use case.

Also, there may be a Plan C, if the subcompact SUV Escape PHEV turns out to be too small for our future activities. In that case, I can see getting a pick-up truck or minivan again. Although it can be very expensive, I may go for a full-size BEV pick-up if the price ever comes down. I do actually have a Silverado EV reservation. But I doubt they will start below $40K as they initially advertised. I can't see F150-Lightening going for sub $40K any time soon either.

 

Thank you. Medically she is stable so we are hoping not needing to make medical trips down to Boston too often. Developmentally, she is disabled for life such that she requires constant 24/7/365 support. Have you seen the movie "Rain Man"? Hoffman did a great job portraying an adult with autism and savant syndrome who must adhere to strict routines. Oh, but our daughter does not have the same savant skill Raymond had. No chance of making quick cash by counting cards in the casino.

 

Yeah, I know Toyota does hold the value more than Ford, in general. But I don't think the current crazy used-car market is going to continue for long. In a few years, the 2021 PP Ltd I just traded in is not going to sell for $32K. Even if the 2021 PP's depreciation is slower than the 2022 Escape, I am getting close to a $10K discount from the Escape MSRP. In 3 years, if it sells for $9K less than the original MSRP, I am still gaining ~$1K. Not as much gain as I just took on 2021 PP which was sold at $32K (~$3K depreciation from the MSRP of $35K a year ago, but I only paid a total of $26K for the car, so it was an instant $6K gain). And since it was a trade, I also saved ~$2K on the sales tax for the Escape purchase.

If Rav4Prime was available with a full tax credit, that would have been a perfect choice. But under current market conditions, I did not have much choice. And time was running out.

 

Didn't find any substance in the linked article to support your claim. A lot of speculations and ifs. Yeah, when you see a $20k price tag on a new Tesla on a lot, please chime in again.

I can use a cheap BEV for our second car. But for now, Bolt under $20k is the only real deal available tomorrow.

 

The dealer I bought mine did not get additional Escape PHEV last year, but they now have 3 additional 22 Escape PHEVs on their lot. Not sure if they will sell at a discount, but if I did not have to buy before the end of the year, I have leverage to negotiate for a lower price before 23 arrives.

Yeah, Black Escape would have been a beauty. I would love it. But, for now DW is driving our Red Escape more often. And she likes it.

It is serving our needs very well so far. It is more comfortable than PP. It has far more usable cargo space than PP. Ford co-pilot works surprisingly well, better than 21 PP IMHO. For most part we can do our drive in EV but it is difficult to keep the engine off (see #3 below).

A few gripes on the car are 1) deleted hand-free gate open option, 2) useless panorama moon roof (cost extra) making it incompatible with the roof rack (0 lb roof load rating), 3) forced engine start in temperature below 32F (found work around, but DW will not do chicken-dance to force the engine off). And 4) it is not Prius Prime, the efficiency is nowhere close to it. And it is so hard to tweak to increase the efficiency. I have to wait for the warmer season for real improvement, but during winter it can only get 60mpg overall. Yep, that is combined with EV. Over 40% loss compared to PP.

 

Yes, I was anticipating the mpg hit. But as you know very well, on PP, it was so easy to beat the EPA rating on HV. That was true even in our cold winter climate. That is not the case with Escape. I am struggling to get the EPA-rated mpg even with all the tricks I know to improve the HV efficiency. And the EV side is the same story. It was so easy to get above EPA-rated miles/kWh on a PP, but not the case with this car. I was getting a measly 2.5 miles/kWh on my last EV-only drive.

 

Yeah, the biggest problem is the engine firing whenever the ambient temp is below 32F. So, even if I don't put a foot on the accelerator pedal. just starting the car will fire up the engine and it will not stop until it completes the warm-up cycle similar to the Prius. And, the car default to EV-Auto which automatically starts the engine as the car needs more power or heat. The EV-Auto on the Escape is far more HV leaned compared to the EV-Auto I know of the PP. Then on the EV side, the biggest energy hog is the PTC heater. It works wonderfully to pre-condition or quickly heat the cabin... but if the engine is not on and the heating source is 100% relying on electricity, then it eats up the kWh so quickly that I can use a full traction battery just to defrost the thick ice on the windshield in the morning.

Of course, most of the inefficiency in the car comes from my wife driving ~80% of the time. She has to have heat, she never changes driving mode or does chicken dance to keep the engine off.

 

Well, it has been ~8 mo since I traded in the 2021 PP Ltd for a 2022 Escape PHEV SEL. My initial motive was to trade in both PP and PathFinder Hybrid and reduce the cost of owning two cars and at the same time reduce the amount of gas used. At the end of 2022, while the tax credit was still available on Escape PHEV and getting a very good offer for a then 16 mo old 21 PP, the trade-in was basically no money even swap, even though the Escape PHEV had a substantially higher MSRP than the 21 PP Ltd.

With the distance we are driving on daily bases, we can live with a single car. The PP was far more efficient than Escape PHEV on fuel (both gas and electricity), but it was just too small of a car to have as the only car in our household. We needed a bigger cargo space. For our cargo usage, our Pathfinder Hybrid was getting old and started costing more for maintenance. Besides, it was a gas guzzler such that we only used it for special occasions when we had to have a larger cargo space. We drove it only ~2K miles a year for this reason. The rest were on the PP.

Since I was and still am working from home, I did not need a daily driver for commuting. It was a good opportunity for us to reduce the number of cars and lower the overall costs, especially for gasoline purchases. Initially, I thought we would be doing more daily trips of distance 25-50 miles in which the PP would run out of the EV range and use gas, but Escape would be able to handle most if not all of it on EV. Turned out, Escape PHEV does not handle the cold climate very well. Any time the ambient temperature is below 32F, the engine comes on upon turning on. This made the car essentially on HV mode for most of the short daily trips during winter. During winter, the EV range was severely reduced to an average of ~28 miles which is considerably shorter than the EPA-rated 37 miles (though this was also true for the PP), making it not very fuel efficient. But when the weather got better, the EV range increased. In warmer months, it can easily get EPA-rated 37 miles, and I often can push it to go over 50 miles on a single charge.

So, after 8 months, here is the analysis I just run. By comparison to the PP, it is clearly not as efficient. Since most of the shorter trips are within PP's EV range distance, and longer trips were with more people and cargo thus reducing the overall mpg, by head-to-head comparison, PP clearly wins the efficiency over Escape PHEV. It would have been interesting if I could compare the number against Rav4Prime, which was also a car I considered, but the lack of tax credit and availability made it impossible to trade in back then.

The numbers are calculated based on the actual miles driven and the other car costs which include maintenance, service, insurance, tax, fees, and registration on all three cars but normalized to the same 8-month period. It does not include the cost of the car itself. So, this is simply a comparison of operational costs. I used the current gas price of $3.60/gal and electricity of $0.32/kWh. Since our driving habits have not changed drastically last few years, the total miles driven by two cars (PP and PathHy) for an adjusted 8mo period or 7,411 miles was not dramatically different from the distance we drove Escape in the last 8 mo period or 6,914 miles.

A few of the highlights for the Escape PHEV replacing PP and PathHy:

• reduced 497 miles total travel distance in 8 mo.
  
• average overall MPG of Escape is 33% better than the combined average overall MPG of PP and PathHy
• saved 5.7gal/mo of gas or 68 gal/yr gasoline at the current rate which is ~$20/mo or $240/yr saving on gas
• Escape is substantially less efficient than PP both on HV (Escape 38mpg vs. PP 58mpg) and EV (Escape 3.8miles/kWh vs PP 5.0miles/kWh) and used more electricity to charge (~11kWh for full charge compared to ~6.5kWh for PP)
  
• Escape's average EV range is ~28 miles in winter and ~43 miles in summer compared to PP's 21miles in winter and 34miles in summer
• Overall Escape PHEV replacing PP and PathHy saved $33.81/mo on total operational cost. This saving would be expected to go up since more of the amortized cost of tax and service (cost of 4 wheels and tires for winter) will be lower over a longer period.

For the last 8 mo, I have not had any major trouble or service on this car other than winter wheels/tires. Although the car now has the engine fire recall Ford currently has no remedy for it, the chance of that happening is low. Other than the fact that a stupid panoramic roof makes it impossible to install the roof rack, I don't have a complaint. It runs well, handles OK, and cargo is large enough, though not as large as PathHy. The seat is very comfortable and supportive better than PP in my opinion. And Ford 360 system works better than TSS2.0 in the 21 PP. I never thought I would need to use it, but on rare occasions, it helped me navigate long dark highway night driving almost flawlessly. That being said, do I recommend switching to Escape PHEV if you have a PP? Not really. Unless you really have to have a larger cargo and spare tire under the deck, it makes not much sense to trade in your PP for a less efficient, less reliable SUV.

I plan to keep it for 3 years, then will likely trade it for a better car.

 

Included in the other cost. Two cars vs one car made it a couple hundred dollars saving per year, even though Escape is higher rate due to being a new and more expensive car.

Per month cost is $95 for Escape. For PP and PathHy, monthly cost was $120 for both.