My very best friend in the world has a 2006 Prius, bought 4 months before my 2006 TDI Jetta.
He has kept meticulous record of his Hybrid Prius fuel economy as have I in my Jetta TDI.
His car has 107,902 miles as of today, and has a lifetime average fuel economy combined of 38.56 MPG.
My Jetta has 91,412 miles and a lifetime average of 40.07 MPG.
Yeah but did he take into account how much the electricity costs when he plugs in??
I work with a company called Green Cab that boasts all hybrid and electric taxi's. They tried the Prius's and found that they had issues with longer than spec'ed charging times, battery life short fall, tire and brake issues.
In fact they have had much better luck with their two Chevy Volts and their 6 ford windstar ev-conversions.
The Prius was a crappy hybrid, never mind a crappy car.
I would assume the average price of each fuel would be pertinent information. I believe diesel is around 20 cents higher on the gallon nationwide right now. So ...
100000 miles / 38.56 miles per gallon = 2593.36 gallons * $2.584 = $6701.24
100000 miles / 40.07 miles per gallon = 2495.63 gallons * $2.783 = $6945.35
I pulled those prices off
AAA's Daily Fuel Gauge Report, which has the current national averages. I'm pretty sure over the past three years the average price of diesel is much higher than 20 cents. In other words, spent less per miles than you did.
Again what about the cost of the electricity to charge the batteries that the power company charges you.
And for the green aspect, how green is the electricity if the local plant is burning gas or coal.
I think I've read where the Volt will get around 50 mpg running off the generator. What are the advantages of an electric motor in a car? Are they more reliable and simpler to maintain? Don't they have incredible torque? Locomotives use a similar system with a diesel generator driving separate motors at the wheels. The ONLY way I'd ever consider an electric vehicle was if it came with some kind of on board, fuel fired generator. But this makes it more like a conventional car so I wonder what, if any, the advantage(s) would be.
The Volt is on of the few Hybrids, that you truly can drive without having to plug in to charge.
The engines in electrical cars charge the battery, that's it. The electrical motor is what propels the car.
What electric cars are you talking about. Electric cars use batteries and 99.99% need plugging into charge.
Hybrids use plug in charged batteries and the gas motor to drive the car down the road and AFAIK only the Volt uses the engine to charge the battery pack by reversing the electric motor and making it run as a generator.
the only vehicle I've seen that uses and gas genset to charge a battery pack and then an electric motor to drive the car was Neil Young's Lincvolt and it had battery fire.
The only issues I have with electric vehicles are range and battery cycle life. That's why the firm I work for is looking into on-board gensets and combination battery/capacitor packs to resolve these issues.
But until we get that perfected, I rather drive a TDI Jetta.
Although the new TDI Passat has been looking better and better.