I picked up the Consumer Reports New Cars issue, April 2018, from the magazine rack yet held off reading it for a couple of weeks. When I finally read it, Huh? The cars I'm familiar with Prius Prime and BMW i3-REx were factual. Even their notoriously poor MPG numbers were close enough to the EPA and my metrics to be usable: Toyota Prius Prime - 74 Road Test Score 69 MPG overall 56 City 81 Highway (only with EV) BMW i3-REx - 79 Road Test Score 139 MPGe 135 City 141 Highway (only EV tested) The only thing left out was gas testing of the BMW i3-REx but the other metrics and comments were through and accurate. So when I saw the regular April 2018 Consumer Reports, Auto Issue, it promised the 10 best and worst. Then I read the Toyota Prius Prime, pp 78: The Prime is a plug-in Prius that can usually drive about 23 miles on electricity only. But the gas engine tends to start up in cold weather and full-throttle acceleration. . . . At this point I realized they'd actually tested the same car on my driveway. Even the BMW i3-REx review was close enough even though they didn't do a gas operation test. Regardless, they have actually turned around. I filled out the subscription card ad ordered the $30 annual. Bob Wilson
Yes, but when listing the fuel efficient cars, NO MENTION of Prius Prime. According to CR, the best MPG of fuel efficient cars is 52 MPG, which seems to forget that they found the Prime to get 69 MPG. Why isn’t the Prius Prime (and other plug-in hybrids) listed as the most fuel efficient cars? To me it is a strong bias against plug-in hybrids. My Prius Prime has gone 9253 miles using 68.991 gallons of gas which calculates to 134.12 MPG. I plug into electricity only at my house. Frequent short trips, and not many long trips. And I’m sure many Prime owners get better MPG than me. And this car isn’t worthy of being called fuel efficient by CR?
I'm just glad they got the "69MPG" but I find it higher than I and the EPA numbers are in pure gas mode. I figure this is a blended EV and gas rating. Too high can be as bad as too low which CR was before. Still, I remember how badly they treated the earlier Prius. When I read their review of the Gen-4 Prius, it looks fairly accurate. Bob Wilson
Isn’t the blending of EV and gas what makes the Prime so fuel efficient? It seems to me that CR (and many others) tends to look at EV and gas as separate worlds, and fails to appreciate how working together has many advantages.
Blended mode pays great dividends as my recent trip to Nashville demonstrated. But sometimes, blended is not possible due to route and extreme range like my 1200 mile drive home from the dealer. Bob Wilson
The the blended result will change with each route. A problem for NEDC PHEV testing, and one that applied during the first year the EPA had window stickers for the Volt, was that they gave a blended number which only applied to the test route. the majority of drivers are going to go farther or shorter than that test route, with differing results.
I am not a fan of MPGe because kWh/100mi appears to be more useful when calculating the cost per mile. But aside from precision (i.e., rounding errors,) it is a useful substitute for MPG. Here is a graph that may explain the CR "66 MPG" number: If we take the Y-axis value of 66 MPG, a partial fraction combination of MPG and MPGe, the Prime distance reads between 70-80 miles. Bob Wilson
Bob, it would have been cool to see the C & the standard hatchback modeled onto the chart, just so folks could see how far out one has to carry their range with a gasser Prius, so that it becomes even more efficent than a plug in. .
