mwalsh said:
We went the PHEV route and bought a Volt last Labor Day weekend. 40+ miles EV highway and 40+mpg highway thereafter. It's used electricity for all but 10% of the miles we've put on it during the last 10 months.
Yeah that's pretty much the experience we have w/ our Volt. All electric in town (on very cheap municipally-owned hydro). My 2-3 road trips/mo are mostly 80 - 150 miles RT, so the 40 miles on electric , leaving the driveway, is a significant fraction of the trip.
When I put 1-2 gal of gas in 2x-3x/mo and calculate (miles since last fill) / (gallons put in) it comes out 90, 110, and every once in a while in the low 200's miles/gal. On longer freeway trips (ca 62-63 mph) once reaching "gas only", mode, the regen-reuse feature (switches to battery-only when charge indicator reaches 1 bar/10) results in about 50 mpg (miles between fill-ups/gallons put in).
By alternating use of the one PHEV whenever possible, and sending it always on the longer trip when we're travelling separately, we've saved a documented $80-95/mo in gasoline. Which we're throwing back into the car purchase and repair savings fund.