I have a 2006 Prius and I love it. I particularly like the idea that it’s “self sufficientâ€. By that I mean it generates its own electricity. So that makes me wonder why Toyota would be interested in developing a plug-in model. First, it uses house power to recharge the battery and that will, more than likely, raise the electric bill. And secondly, it’s kind of inconvenient having to plug in the car every time you come home. I just don’t understand the need to go to plug-ins, would someone please explain? Also, when the plug-ins arrive will Toyota stop making the Prius, as we know it today?
well, its all about resources. your Pri generates electricity but uses a non-renewable, imported, polluting fuel to do so. electricity is generated in a much more efficient, less polluting way. this allows you to travel in short, low speed ways much more efficiently which has a double benefit in that this is where your Pri normally gets its worst mileage. if i could get 10 miles all EV, i would literally only burn gas a few times week, my mileage would go up more than double what it currently is right now and i would pollute much less than i do now. i live in an area where peak power is 54% hydroelectric, off peak is 100% hydroelectric. i would be recharging my Pri half peak, half off peak. and it would cost me much less to drive it. look at my signature. i chart my cost to drive both Pri's and my Zenn which is a 100% battery electric vehicle. the difference in the cost per mile is significant. granted i get free juice at work, but before i started doing that, my cost was around 2½ cents per mile. still waaay cheaper than any gas car obtw...you are forgiven
The current Prius has enough batteries to go perhaps 1 mile on batteries alone, yet spends the first 15 minutes on the highway at lower MPG recharging them, if you had batteries capable of driving 10 miles as an Electric Vehicle, you might need 150 miles to recharge them. For most of us this is not feasible. If you are allowed the option to recharge them from the power grid, you can use EV mode more frequently, without the reduction in MPG and power needed to charge them. From a pollution point of view, cleaning up one large fixed source HAS to be easier than keeping thousands of mobile sources in tune.
My Prius gets around 45 mpg. At $3 per gallon, it costs me about 6.7 cents per mile to drive it. My Xebra (pure electric) gets 3 miles per kWh and since I pay 6 cents per kWh it costs me 2 cents per mile to drive it. In addition, we get most of our petroleum from countries that hate us, and al Qaeda gets 100% of its financing from oil-exporting countries. Most of our electricity comes from coal-fired plants, which send no money to other countries. Every gallon of gas you buy helps to support terrorism. And contrary to popular misconceptions, coal-fired power plants pollute less than automobiles, due to the greater efficiency of large-scale generation. Finally, if Congress ever gets its head out of you-know-where we could massively build renewable electric generation capability. Don't think of the Prius as a car that produces its own electricity. Think of the Prius as a car that incorporates advanced technology to get more miles per gallon of GASOLINE, because all the energy to move a Prius comes from gasoline. A plug-in Prius would get some of its energy from the much-more efficient, and nearly 100%-domestic electric grid. And thanks for asking a very important question! Good on you for looking for answers!
all the more reason why the technology has to be pushed to the forefront. condos had the same issues with cable and satellite TV, but both technologies emerged as the consumer's choice. when plugging in does the same, you will also have a plug
The time will soon be here when gas will be so expensive that you will plug in or you won't drive. curbside plug-ins would be a good solution.
The advantages of plug-in capability include: 1. You can do all of your local errands without using a drop of gasoline. 2. While running those errands, you are not contributing to the pollution of our atmosphere. 3. Charging up the extra battery needed in a plug-in vehicle results in a very, very small contribution to emission pollution (due to the demands put on the power companies) than would be caused by NOT having the advantage of a plug-in vehicle. 4. Plugging in the plug-in battery takes just a couple of seconds, hardly an inconvenience, and (as an owner of a pure electric vehicle) I can assure you that the extra cost on your electric bill is minimal. My electric bill went up about $7 per month for my electric vehicle, and the average monthly mileage is about 360 miles. Pretty inexpensive, I would say. Keep this in mind: there are no pollution consequencess with a plug-in vehicle - at least when it is in all-electric mode. Don't believe it? Then I suggest you do a little research. A couple of good starting points are CalCar, a plug-in group in California, and this link: Electro Automotive: FAQ on Electric Car Efficiency & Pollution As far as whether Toyota will ever produce a plug-in Prius, who knows? I hope they do because we Prius enthusiasts would benefit due to the probable lower cost of getting that capability. For the present, the only option is to buy and install an after-market plug-in conversion kit. Those kits are expensive (as much as $15,000).
oh ya, another thing about cost... driving an EV will never be cost effective, but besides being much cheaper to operate, it has practically zero maintenance costs. i am about ready to go in and do a $70 oil change... now granted, after this one, i will be doing it in 10,000 mile intervals, but that is another 3/4 of a cent added to the cost of operation
Hi Joe1987 No need to plug a plug-in ! You can still put gasoline in the tank ! Here in Canada we're producing electricity with water pouring throughout big dams (hydro-electricity (state owned compagny -Hydro-Québec)). It's cheap (7¢ per KW/h) and it's clean. So when it will be possible, in a near futur, to plug my Prius at night, you bet i will do so (Of course i'll have to buy and install the Toyota plug-in pack before). Even your 2006 will be upgradable !
