Hi all! Thinking about purchasing a prius for the mother. She basically drives local for a total of 3-4 miles a day, 5 days a week, and makes the occasional grocery trips. I would assume driving like this would mean she would constantly be using the electric motor. Top speed of 45mph, which will engage the engine? Will she benefit from driving a Prius for such short trips? Your inputs are appreciated! Thanks!
She'll probably see ~45mpg. Your assumptions about the electric motor are not accurate...but don't worry about that. The engine starts any time you drive the car and it works in unison with the electric motor. her problem will be the very short trips making it hard to get particularly good MPG.
With 3-4 mile round trip or 1.5-2mile one way, just long enough to warm up the engine to operating temperature, lucky to get upper 30mpg. But this is still much better than a Corolla, which may give you mid 20 mpg under the same driving condition. quote=sil180sr;719054]Hi all! Thinking about purchasing a prius for the mother. She basically drives local for a total of 3-4 miles a day, 5 days a week, and makes the occasional grocery trips. I would assume driving like this would mean she would constantly be using the electric motor. Top speed of 45mph, which will engage the engine? Will she benefit from driving a Prius for such short trips? Your inputs are appreciated! Thanks![/quote]
For such very short daily trips, buying a hybrid, especially a new one, does not make much sense. Maybe when gas prices go toward 20 bucks per gallon.
But that is exactly the sort of driving that would be perfect for a plug in Prius (even a 6 mile one). I certainly hope Toyota offers one in the US market in the next year or two...
