July 1 picked up a 2013 Prius Plug in. This was after a 2 year wait and evaluation of most of the options on the market.
Why PPI:
I tested the Leaf, Volt, iMEV, CMAX Energi, Focus Electric and Fusion Energi. All great cars and would work for me with some issues.
I really wanted to make a BEV work for me but because of my work and social obligations the range anxiety was too much to overcome. On a daily basis the 60-80 miles of range would work just fine, but there are days I have to exceed this amount and the recharge times just made me feel that this might limit my options. And as a good friend said do you really want to introduce more stress in your life from your car? The pricing of these options was the best.
My first choice was the Chevy Volt, but the cost and configuration did not work. The car drives awesome, but visibility was a major concern. I could live with the 4 seats but the high residual cost of the lease and the high purchase price was out of my range.
The Fords really appealed to me from a range and configuration view point and they were at the top of the list. But the CMAX and the Fusion pricing premium over the normal Hybrid and the real world MPG pushed me away.
The PPI is not available locally so I had to go to NJ to get the car and the few times I looked at the cars they were never charged. Most dealers do not understand that the EV mode is not the same as Hybrid mode and very few keep them charges. This was very sad as three times I tried to test drive the car and none had them charged. Even when I made an appointment and asked them to make sure it was fully charged. PS this exact same think happened to me at two ford dealers with the CMAX. I really understand why Tesla wants to have its own sales force.
The PPI is not selling every well compared to the standard models so I guess the inventory has been building up and Toyota realized they needed to move the inventory. I had heard there was some good lease deals on the 2012 models. Now mind you, the whole EV/Plug in Segment is a drop in the bucket compared to the general market. the cost value proposition is still in favor of gas cars and the tax credit situation confuses most consumers. You may get this money back next year of all the cards and your CPA do it right. Americans want the deal today not a promise a year from now.
But I have always tried to have the most efficient car you can get for the best price, My list includes 99 Jetta TDI 47 MPG avg, 2005 Passat TDI 35 MPG avg, 2007 Camry Hybrid 26 MPG Avg. (Wife drives Pruis since 2006 48 MPG avg)
The lure of and EV with 95+ MPGe ( 2013 Leaf 115 MPGe) was a goal but when you drive an EV you get “the aha experience” and realize this is very nice power plant for a car. Smooth and fast and quite. I know some people equate noise with power but not me.
So when I saw that the PPI had a program with a 6500 cap reduction I felt it was time to move forward.
But even this move I have hedged my bet I only got a 2 year lease. There are reports of order of magnitude pricing of battery packs by 2015. But time will tell. Another fact was the quality, consumer reports and my experience with the Prius Brand is outstanding.
So at this point I am tracking 790 miles on this tank.
How is this possible? Charging Charging Charging.
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