So, I come home early this evening ... whadya know, a PHV next door. Said he did a market survey and was asked to check out the car for 6 weeks. Said 'it get's over 50 MPG's too' . I just grinned. Didn't want to rub in that the Silver '10 is reading about 54 today. If it was juiced up I'd bug him for a ride. anyhoo, 3 Pri's. The darky blue's in the garage.
50 mpg thats it on a PHV? that idiot must not know how to drive...he doesn't deserve that car!!! With the Li-ion vs the Ni-mh HV battery, he should get at least 60 mpg. someone oughta educate him on the drivings of a prius.
I did ask him, 'how's the plugging-in going'? Maybe I ought to have said '50 something? I got ya beat with that silver one. I'm sure the 'big dogs' here on PC are doing a great job sampling their PHV's.
seriously? 50mpg? He must charge it once a day only rather than charging whenever he's at "home base" (wherever that is.. home or at work) between deliveries. You know what would be cool though? If delivery companies had Prius PHVs... The charger would be mounted on the wall and all the delivery driver has to do when he returns to home base is to pick up the charger and plug it in.
50mpg. Man, I haven't done that poorly in my 2004 stocker, since winter 2005. Jeremy Clarkson's mom is obviously your neighbor. I feel his shame . . . still . . . tell him to cheer up. We all have a bad run now & then If I had a PHEV - I could REALLY get some decent numbers. (End of smugness). .
Not all prius drivers hypermile, not even mildmile. Those who hypermile probably represent less than 10% of the Prius owners. There are alot of Priuses in my city. It seems like all of them drive it like a damn race car, always first one off the line. Maybe they know something I don't know. OP stated that his neighbor gets over 50mpg. That could be anything over 50mpg. 51mpg is over 50. 200mpg is over 50 too. To get an accurate real world mpg, PHEV testers should not hypermile and instead drive it like a normal car and not solely rely on the electric motor for the whole trip. I'm not saying be the 1st one off the line but maybe 2nd off the line or 3rd. We already know that a fully charged PHEV can be driven 14 miles give or take. Let's see some real world 30 mile trips, 50 mile trips 100 mile trips with only a single charge.
There is no doubt that all the results would be skewed if only hypermilers test drove the PHV. Toyota is wise to give the vehicle to all extremes of the spectrum, the hypermilers to show what it's capable of, and the average person to show what's average. We have to keep in mind that when the PHV, the Volt and the Leaf are introduced, there will be a lot of buyers who have never driven a hybrid or EV before in their life (especially Volt buyers who would never be caught dead in a Toyota or Honda). These are the people who need to be studied to find out the driving habits and plugging habits of the perspective buyer. All the same, Cycledrum, keep in touch with this guy, check in regularly, and keep up posted on how it's going for him.
Will do. The PHV driver is the son of our neighbor. He doesn't live there but stops by occasionally. He doesn't own a car, only a touring motorcycle (his wife owns a car though). Said he's trying to drive the PHV much as possible. I asked him how the plugging in is going. He said something like 'sometimes it's a pain to plug in for only 15 miles ... I have to get the car positioned to be able to plug in'. I had a look in the hatch area. was trying to lift up the carpet gently ... seeing if there is any cargo tray. No. Carpet was secured flat. Looked like the load floor is slightly higher than the hybrid. Lot of batteries under there.
It's pretty cool to see these PHV's around. For some people, these could work really well. All electric for part or all of a commute, likely all electric in city areas. And you get a car to take on vacation. Some people will have the money to buy and make good use of these. I joked with the the guy next door - 'in a car like this, you might end up burning so little gas, you'll need to add fuel stabilizer to keep the gas from spoiling'. Could happen.
I really "shocked" a neighbor with one today. There was my 2010 sitting in the driveway and here comes me pulling up in a PHV next to it. The look on his face was priceless. Makes me wonder who saw the dropoff earlier. At that particular moment, there we 3 Prius in the driveway. What a sight! :rockon: .
At least it seems your neighbor knew what it was. My neighbors and neighborhood were pretty clueless and I'm not sure most of them would even care that much if I told them.
IT's about an inch or two higher. There's no underfloor storage, however, Toyota has kindly kept a storage bin for the tonneau cover. It's roughly sits in the same position but has it's own cargo lid now that the storage box is gone.
There's gotta be some serious electronics under the trunk floor besides the battery for the trunk floor to raise an inch or two above the stock Prius.
Don't forget the need for extra cooling (there are extra vents in the rear seat.. maybe the extra height is to accommodate the cooling ducts too)
