That's a bigger difference than I would have expected for freeway-speed
running. Are you constantly seeing electric assist when the auxiliary
battery is full, even at freeway speeds? The software must be using the
electric motor to take care of accelerations while the gas engine just runs
at the optimal RPM.

Your results make it seem even more worth it, to me. I don't mean "worth
it" for purely financial reasons, of course, but that is good
environmental/sustainability news.

-Adam

> -----Original Message-----
> From: edrivephev@yahoogroups.com
> [mailto:edrivephev@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Greg Hanssen
> Sent: Friday, May 15, 2009 11:48 AM
> To: edrivephev@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: Re: [edrivephev] Would I be good candidate for PHEV?
> 110-mile daily r/t commute, all highway
>
>
>
> 110 miles is a hefty commute.. The batteries in most PHEVs wouldn't
> last for half of that (assuming you charged at work), so the
> incremental
> help of the battery would only be for the first X miles..
> after that you'd
> be getting normal Prius mpg (depending a lot on your speed!)
> For what it's worth, driving "the" EDrive car I can get over 100mpg
> around town if I don't drive more than 35-40 miles a day and I drive
> like grandma. Recently I've been commuting some days to San Diego
> 80 miles away. Now if I drive 55-65 mph, I can get over 100mph for
> the first 35-40 miles.. but lately I haven't had the patience
> for that so
> I'm driving over 75mph which only gets me about 70mpg.. When you
> throw in half of that drive without the battery at 75mph (ie 45mpg or
> so in a normal Prius) my average for the one way trip is about 60mpg.
> A converted Prius can drive all electric under 35mph (even under
> 55mph if you're mellow enough and the engine has warmed up). More
> than likely the engine will be running at speeds over 40mph though
> and it all depends on how hard you're pressing the gas pedal.
> At 55mph
> with a feather foot you can almost drive all electric. At
> 65mph you're
> using about half electric and half gas power (ie 100mpg) and at 75mph
> you're mostly using gas..
> Other PHEVs like the Chevy Volt (if it ever gets made) which are
> series hybrids can be 100% electric for as long as the
> battery permits..
> but that's a big battery.. Not sure if they're still
> shooting for 16kWh, that
> sounds extremely cost prohibitive.. the EDrive system is 7kWh and the
> old EnergyCS system was closer to 10kWh.
> But all of this is a rather moot point.. What you really want to ask
> yourself is if spending $10-$12k for a bigger battery for a
> 50mpg Prius
> will ever pay for itself and the answer is a resounding NO.
>
> -Greg Hanssen, EDrive
>
>
> On Wed, May 13, 2009 at 2:37 PM, Jon <kellejm2@yahoo.com
> <mailto:kellejm2@yahoo.com> > wrote:
>
>
>
>
> I'm curious to know if a PHEV would be a good fit for me.
>
> The reason I ask is because the information I've found
> on PHEVs all says basically "the engine won't kick on for 40
> miles, provided you stay under 35mph".
>
> My daily commute is 55 miles each way / 110 miles round
> trip (yes, I know, I suck, but it's a long story), and it's
> just about all highway, so I would not be going under 35mph.
>
> So...what happens when you have a PHEV, but you go
> 60mph right off the bat? Do you run on 100% battery power,
> but just for a much shorter amount of time? Or does the
> engine still run, but at a higher mpg than it would if you
> hadn't installed the plug-in mod? What kind of mpg are we
> talking here?
>
> I currently drive a diesel Jetta that, with my driving
> style, gets 46mpg. Would buying a Prius and doing a plug-in
> conversion on it be worthwhile?
>
> Thank you,
> Jon
>
>
>
>
>
>