Generally it takes about 8 minutes to fill the tank in my Pri. This does not count the time that I would have to wait for a pump to become available at a busy station. I average about 45 MPG in my Pri, driving about 12,000 miles per year. I generally fill the tank when the fuel gauge shows only one bar and the bar is flashing. This means approximately 27 fill-ups per year. In a year I spend about 3 1/2 hours at the gas pumps. Take your average gas-hog mobile. It gets about 18 MPG and has a 15 gallon tank. I would probably fill the tank when I have driven about 230 miles. This means that I would fill up about 52 times per year and spend 7 hours a year at the gas pumps. By driving a Pri I save about 3 1/2 hours per year, time I don’t have to be at the pumps and time I could spend with my family, or reading or whatever. I don’t even want to calculate the amount of time I would be spending at the pumps if I were driving a Porsche Cayenne or a Hummer. Arizona Charlie
interesting way of looking at the time savings Charlie. at first glance i was thinking the savings were from regained wages due to lower fuel costs.
I have a little "time saved" calculation on my Prius mileage spreadsheet: http://enerjazz.com/prius/index_gas.htm I used 5 minutes and weighed against a 25 mpg car - but the time still adds up nicely. Since most people never seem to have enough time we should value it at $100/hr and include it in the payback calcs!
