rcm4453 said:
25 miles AER just isn't enough. What's that 25 miles going to be in the dead of winter going 70mph on the freeway with the heater on?!
Better off with just the hybrid version as just a few real world miles of electric range is just a tease!
What you mean is that 25 miles AER isn't enough for
you. It's enough for plenty of people. If you're going 70 mph on the freeway (in the heart of the commute? not likely) in winter you really don't need the battery in any case; let the engine provide heat. Save the battery for when it gives you the biggest energy and pollution advantage - stop and go freeway driving and surface streets. And, for that small but growing % of the population who can take advantage of charging at both ends, 25 miles AER is plenty for everyone but the super/mega-commuters.
If your commute/routine driving is greater than the Prime's AER and being able to do all of it on the battery is important to you, then the Prime is the wrong choice for you. But the general public isn't so motivated, and according to polls their single biggest impediment to buying an EV is the price compared to an ICE (lack of charging infrastructure is #2). PEVs need to be able to compete on initial and/or monthly payments, especially once the subsidies disappear. For now, the Prime, along with the C-Max Energi, are the only PHEVs that can be nearly full substitutes for ICE equivalents at a price (including the fed. credit) that's close enough to ICEs that many people can afford to extend a bit. In California and other states that have their own credits or rebates, the Prime can be cheaper than the base Prius, so the decision on which one to get comes down to whether or not you need the extra seat and cargo space of the HEV, and whether or not you want all HVAC controls on the touch screen (or maybe I'm thinking of the Mirai). If those issues aren't important to you, then the Prime's the way to go, and that's the way you can get the maximum amount of butts in PEV seats, which will convince many of those people who are currently unwilling to completely change over to BEVs now to upgrade to more capable plugins for their next car, once the costs have come down further and the infrastructure has improved.
Almost no one buys cars based on TCO, even if they have the info to calculate that. What % of the car-buying population even compares insurance premiums for different cars and factors that into their decision? Most people who have to take price seriously into account (which doesn't include the typical new Model S/X buyer) decide whether they can afford a car on based on initial price (or more typically down payment plus monthly payments), as they can estimate with sufficient accuracy for their needs whether they can afford operating costs given EPA mpg. That's about as in-depth as most car buyers get (or want to) when it comes to TCO, so trying to sell cars to the general public based on TCO isn't likely to succeed - it sure hasn't so far, any more than selling them based on green credentials has.