1500 ± 15 miles : There and Back Again
For a few weeks prior to driving to Medford Oregon in the middle of April my wife throughly researched hybrid, and electric vehicles. She likes to know what's what before making such purchases.
During the three day drive she reminded me at least three different times that we should make a point of stopping at the Lithia Toyota Dealership on Riverside Drive in Medford. Each time I responded, "Sure, if that's what you want." and she said, "Yes." every time.
She was expecting to test drive a few cars, gather more information, then after a few weeks of discussion, make a rational decision. But that's not how you do horse trading. I prefer to make-it-up-as-I-go-along and work the negotiation to my advantage. So that's what I did. She was suspicious as I told the salesman I was not interested in the Prius C and that we would test drive the Prius ii 2016. She tells me she realized things were out of control when I started talking techie-talk with the salesman. And that it only got worse as I selected the very curvy stretch of road over the less curvy stretch of road for the test drive. By the time we returned to the dealership I was explaining to the kid how the energy exchange processes gave the hybrid its advantage in handling, and energy efficiency.
The first thing to clarify is that this is a gasoline powered automobile. It gets all of its energy from burning fossil fuel. It is not in anyway an alternate energy vehicle. There is absolutely no physical reason to treat this, for legislative, or regulatory purposes as anything more than a fuel efficient gasoline powered automobile. That being said: Driving this Toy is to driving a 1997 RAV4 as flying a Learjet is to flying a Piper Cub. The key to its enhanced performance is the computer controlled energy flow management modules.
Comments
Very nice to read this.
My 2010 Prius IV has less than 46,000 miles on it, and I'm still getting 46-50 mpg in mainly city driving in hilly terrain. I'll have it for a good long while yet, but my next car will be electric.
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Toyota Rav4s live forever
We drove our 1997 Rav4 for over 165,000 miles. Our daughters 1998 Rav4 with over 200,000 miles developed a major engine problem (unlike ours hers was previously owned) and as we take extended trips to the Pacific Northwest we thought it might be a good idea to trade up. Like you we usually only put about 8,000 miles on a year.
I will use my 2-door 1997 Rav4 as a mountain goat, as the Prius does not like going down the long steep grades in Southwestern Oregon. Also, pulling a trailer with the Prius is out of the question, even if it is only carrying my Sunfish. My plan is to write performance articles (and post YouTube videos) as we tour the Pacific Northwest in our Prius and as I drive the 2-door RAV4 all over the back roads.
Also like you, we plan to trade into an all electric vehicle at some point. The only real obstacle is that the range is of the order of 80 miles. I suppose my second career could be battery/solar panel systems design. I will have to give that some thought.
What I'd like to do
is take the basis of my beat-up old Suzuki Swift (1993 prototype of the Geo Metro - GM bought up the plans and rebadged them) and convert it to either hybrid, or full electric. It has the best handling and turning radius of any car I've ever owned, and I think I may have to look long and hard to find anything that matches or betters it. Conventional, hybrid, *or* electric.
It might even cost less than a new or late-model used car, but I will need to research that....
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Tech-Talk
Do be aware that the hybrid option is still 100% gasoline powered. The higher efficiency (≈ 2 or 3 times) of hybrids is due to the super fast switching of energy flow to:
To operate properly this system requires a very well programmed onboard computer (thank you very much, NASA).
The all electric option can derive its energy from clean renewable sources, in Medford I am signed up for the "Blue Sky" option. But onboard storage constraints limit range to ≈ 80 miles.