My main goal : health.
Daily I will sacrifice a little money, and during the first year dinosaurs juice, to emit 10-20 times fewer pollutants, you know the one that are killing lives (I don't care about the planet as it will survive us) and make children asthmatics.
The following aren't directly comparable, but gives a great enough image:
Euro II diesel in grams
per km over NEDC cycle, from
European emission standards - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia- CO 1.0
- HC + NOx 0.7
- PM 0.08
2006 Prius in grams
per mile over EPA cycle, from
Details | Green Vehicle Guide | US EPA- CO 1.0
- NOx 0.02
- NMOG 0.01
- PM 0.01
I will be emitting fewer CO2 as soon as the lifetime mpgUS is over 60 (under 3.9L/100) which I hope to reach rather quickly
Currently in France gasoline is 1.495€/L while diesel is 1.343€/L.
With these prices I'll spend fewer money as soon as the lifetime mpgUS is over 75 (under 3.15L/100) which I may reach
Without taxes prices are respectively 0,639 and 0,686, ie taxes are respectively 0.856 and 0,657. Europe wants to have taxes proportional to energy content and diesel has 11% more than gasoline, so diesel taxes could increase by more than 44% and diesel prices by 22%, so diesel may be more expansive than gasoline very quickly...
I happily discovered that the insurance fee is lower for my 2006 prius than for my old 1997 diesel... Certainly because prius drivers aren't racers, the safety level is higher (while Megane I is one of the first to obtain 4 stars at EuroNCap crash tests, Prius II has 5
) and European spare parts are so expensive...
Finally when I test drive it, it seams to me so natural to drive it... I found it so great, as per ex the display of energy flows and the automatic kill/start switch
I'll be able to use my scangauge, so to monitor each commute individually
Also I'll be able to compete directly with world wide people having the same car as I have
Denis.