Quote:
Originally Posted by asciutto
Wow! Thank you all for the responses and so quickly too.
I had initially ruled out PHEVs but the more I think about it the choice makes sense. My commute is about 16 miles one way so I could leverage the EV portion for almost the entire day. If I can find a way to charge at the office it would certainly last me for the commute and perhaps even an errand or two.
I do road trip quite often (or drive a few hundred miles a day for work when I'm not in the office) which is why the extended range is a strong preference of mine.
Yes, a truck would certainly give me more range. My hope is to strike that balance between economy and fuel capacity. I was interested in the Accord until I realized they shrunk the tank size from 15.8 gallons to 12.8 gallons. It being a sedan notwithstanding.
I am interested in purchasing new which is what drew me to the Ioniq with its strong warranty (at least that is my perception). Driving it will be the real test! I did not realize the PHEV tax incentives were so strong and that is swaying me very strongly to consider the plug-in model.
I do have another question for you all:
What is the best way to measure the kWh into the car when I am charging it? I, like you all, am very interested in logging my efficiency and have been using Fuelly for almost 7 years (how time flies!) to track it. I know Fuelly isn't setup for EV/PHEV/dual-fuel but for the sake of information on my end I would like to know.
I'm familiar with data logging from an industrial stand point, but for something like this I'm not sure. I imagine keeping a kill-a-watt plugged in at home would suffice, but what about on the go? Or if I lose power at home and my kill-a-watt resets and all that data is lost?
Thanks all, I appreciate each and every one of your responses!
Anthony
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You asked our opinion, which everyone is eager to give
The federal tax credit is based on battery capacity. The smallest capacity that qualifies for the max credit of $7,500 is 16 kWh. Any vehicle with a smaller battery will have a lower credit amount. This is why I think targeting the 16 kWh size is smart, because the gov't pays you back $468.75 for each kWh of capacity, yet the cost to the manufacturer is somewhere around $125 per kWh. That allows a plug-in version to become cheaper than the non-hybrid after tax credits are factored in.
I used a kill-o-watt to measure my Prius electricity consumption, but it's only good for 120v and I installed an L2 and stopped measuring. Most cars will give a summary of how much electricity the battery took on, but that doesn't factor in charging losses. You could get a smart L2 charger that would log those things. I think there are versions of the Juice Box that do that. If 120v is ok, there are plenty of smart wifi switches that will log that data and they can be had for $10-$20.
I'd wait to see how the RAV4 Prime does when it comes out in the summer since it will be the latest and greatest, and has impressive stats for both performance and economy. Any of the other recommendations would be fine choices if you need something now. Personally I'd be targeting an EV range that can accomplish your round trip commute. It's within striking range of the Prius Prime and Ionic, should be easily doable in the RAV4 Prime, and certainly doable in the Volt.