Can you go 40-80kms straight (per charge) without using any gas in a Prius? I could go 2 days to/from the office on one Volt charge (less than $1 worth) which would eliminate ~8L (about $9) of current gas usage.
Your math seems wrong (or incomplete). The range of the Volt you're quoting (on a charge) is 80kms, and that's how far your 2 day commute is without re-charging (give or take), that would only require about 3.75L of gas in a Prius. Or about $3.85 at current gas prices.
~8L in a Prius will get you about 170kms (or so).
Were you meaning to say that you'd save about $9 a week??
Anyways, since you're in "look at me, I'm saving money/gas!" mode, I thought I'd throw a few numbers your way.
A 2010 Prius cost $27,800+tax for a total of:
$31,414 (that's full retail..you can get them cheaper and Toyota is offering $3,000 cash back right now. But I'll do full retail to help the Volt out.
)
A 2011 Volt cost $45,000+tax for a total of: $50,850. I think I'm being generous on the Canadian MSRP. I think it will be higher still. Anyways, assuming it's eligible for the tax credit here, that's $7,500 (after tax BTW). So a total of
$43,350 in your driveway. (For simplicity sake, I didn't include delivery on either since it's unknown what the Volt delivery will be).
Assuming you drive
20,000kms per year (you may drive more or less), and you
NEVER buy gas for the Volt (best case scenario) and using your ~80km range (near best case scenario) that means you'd need
250 charges @ about $1 a charge. Total: $250. I'm not including the cost of the quick charger which could add a few thousand amortized over the life of the car.
In the Prius we drive the same 20,000kms per year at the combined 50 US MPG (4.7L/100km..yes, I know the Prius is rated at 3.85L/100km combined in Canada. But I'm helping the Volt out.
) So that means we'd burn
~940 liters of fuel @ $1.05 per liter. Total: $987So based on the yearly fuel costs, the Volt has a net advantage of
$737 per year. Not too shabby IMO.
BUT once we factor in the price differential in vehicles ($43,350 - $31,414) you are left with
$11,396. in the hole.
Divide that number by your yearly fuel savings ($11,396/$737) and it will take you
16.2 years to break even with the Volt vs the Prius. I'm assuming you want to give the Prius owner the middle finger because you're more frugal than they are using your better technology, so let's add close to another year so you come out ahead in terms of dollars.
17 years. Oh yea..anytime you drive using the gas engine (range extender) that yearly number goes up because the Prius easily trumps the Volt in fuel mileage.
So yea..the Volt's technology is pretty neat-o. It just sucks you'll need to wait 17 years to realize the savings/benefits of that. And while I'm generally not one to poke at people for choosing a more expensive engine option (in this case the Volts), once you start boasting about fuel savings cost be prepared for some a$$hole (in this case me) to lay the numbers out for you.
Now it is close to 5 am and I'm concentrating on an Oliva G cigar more than these numbers, so please point out if I've made any errors. It's entirely (and likely) I've made some. And yes...even comparing the Prius to a Corolla would put the Prius in a similar upside down position. But in this case I'm comparing hybrid to hybrid, so I don't think the comparison is unwarranted. Afterall, GM themselves has used the Prius several times as a comparison when talking about the Volt.