Dang—car is really dying! Time to replace

geraniol
Sat, 24 Nov 2018 22:20:53 +0000

I weighed the pros and cons of getting a Prius vs Prius Prime - I really wanted to want the Prius Prime, but in the end the very short EV range just didn’t make sense for me.

I drive ~70mi in my work commute and there’s no EV plug-in there, so with the Prius Prime, I would only be able to go EV for 1/3 of my daily commute. It gets very cold where I am and even though electric cars are pretty good now, I’m not confident I can make it 35mi in -30 weather. And the only electricity in my city comes from natural gas.

Because my commute is 98% highway, I don’t get the best fuel economy on my Prius, but it’s still better than my Corolla, and that’s good enough for me. It’s enough of a difference that I can fill up my tank every 5-6 days instead of every 3-4 days as I would need to on a very fuel efficient gas-only sedan. And on weekends when I’m only doing city driving, I can get well below the listed mpg.

If you’re doing city driving only in a warm climate I think the plug-in hybrid can make sense especially if you also want the option of taking a longer trip spontaneously. But if you’re doing it for the environment, then make sure your electricity comes from a green source.