The Prius needs to be compared with a car of similar size - like a Corolla. On that basis, savings might be hard to come by.
-----Original Message----- From: Jed Rothwell [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, September 30, 2005 1:23 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: AE Economics - Hybrids: Do buy the hype! Jones Beene wrote: >Check out these numbers (short Atlanta commute) which look more >favorable for Prius than some numbers supplied by others: > >http://www.ajc.com/business/content/business/0905/25bizgasmath.html The numbers in this article mix apples and oranges somewhat. They are a bit more optimistic than the ones I posted, but it all makes sense. The lady interviewed in the article gets 38 to 45 mpg in Atlanta traffic, which tells me she has not learned how to drive the thing yet. I get 45 to 49. Hybrid cars are more sensitive to the driver's skill and technique than ordinary cars, as we saw the other day when someone got 110 mpg. The text also says, "the Explorer gets about 11 mpg." The comparison at the bottom of the article says: Car vs. car Commuting: paying $2.50 a gallon for gas Average miles per gallon Ford Explorer: 16 Toyota Prius: 55 . . . These are the official city/highway combined mileage. That's a reasonable way to compare the cars. The Prius gets 3.4 times better mileage. The way this lady drives her Explorer and Prius, she gets 3.8 times better mileage, about the same ratio as the official numbers. If she learns to drive the way I do, she will get 4.3 times. And if she drives a car pool with two other people she will get 13 times more passenger-miles per gallon than the average Atlanta SUV driver. So there you have it: this is how we could reduce fuel consumption by an order of magnitude. Throw in plug-in hybrids and pretty soon you have reduced petroleum consumption by two orders of magnitude. The problem is easier to fix than people realize. Also, it should be noted that the Ford Explorer costs $33,000, so with a base model Prius you save $11,000 up front. So much for the $3,000 "premium." (Although I expect Explorers are selling at a big discount these days.) - Jed
