2017 Chevrolet Volt Battles The Toyota Prius Prime: Video
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Although plug-in hybrid vehicles make up a very small portion of consumers’ choices for new cars, they’re important segments nonetheless. Green Car Reports recently took two prominent leaders in the segment and pitted them in a frugality shootout to see which makes more sense for you.
And it truly does come down to which makes more sense for you. The 2017 Chevrolet Volt eclipses the Toyota Prius Prime in overall electric driving range (53 miles versus 25 miles), but the Prius Prime returns better overall fuel economy, 54 mpg for the Prius and 42 mpg for the Volt.
Is your goal to use as little gasoline as possible? Or, is it to return the best miles per gallon rating among your peers. Therein lies the major difference between these two PHEVs.
Of course, there are other pillars for the decision personally. The Prius Prime certainly sits as a perplexing design and may not be for everyone. Chevrolet played it slightly more conservative this time around with a sleek shape and more conventional interior.
Have a look at the review video above to grab a closer look at both vehicles.
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The Chevy Volt will beat the Toyota Prius Prime in all details except cost and long distance driving MPG. You have to be driving over 200 miles a day to make the Toyota pay itself better than the Chevy. But whoever does that is an idiot anyway. It is much cheaper to move closer and save on gas every day, or use other forms of public transportation where you are a passenger and another drives for you.
Cost is far from trivial, most definitely something GM cannot just brush off as you did. Prius Prime is well configured to be able to compete with the true competition (traditional vehicles) when tax-credits expire… which is key to reaching high-volume profitable sales.
Ordinary consumers want something well-balanced and affordable. Paying for more EV they may not necessarily even use isn’t a priority. And if they do use it routinely, they’ll need to invest in a level-2 charger and a 240-volt line for their garage, since 13 hours recharge time for Volt on level-1 isn’t realistic.
For plug-in choices to be adopted by the masses, it is necessary to step away from the niche perspective. Remember, most people have no issue whatsoever with using gas. So, pushing the perspective of EV purity falls on deaf ears. They simply aren’t interested in gas elimination. They do express a desire to greatly reduce gas consumption though.
I don’t know if this ‘review’ could be slanted toward the Prius Prime any more than it was. But it missed so basic consumer choice facts.
1. If the consumer is looking to buy a plug-in hybrid, the RANGE is #1. Volt offers 53 miles of range with the Prius offering less than half at 25. Big win for the Volt. The goal is to use ZERO gasoline, so more range is much more important than ‘slightly’ more fuel efficient gasoline burning. With Volt most can easily drive round trip daily with ZERO gasoline, while the Prius will work for some.
2. Volt offers seating for 5 passengers. This is important if you need to transport three kids and an adult, just as anyone would expect from a 4-door hatchback. Prius prime will catch many unexpectedly unaware of the limitation.
3. Volt offers more power, which includes easier freeway acceleration, better acceleration with more passengers. Prius will still suffer even with climbing hills with 3 passengers.
4. Volt wins again with exterior styling. The Prius is a mess of angles, bulges etc. It looks like a bunch of oversized design elements that did not fit, but the just stuck them on anyway.
5. You can now get inductive charging for the Volt through Plugless Power.