"Tests of Priuses fitted with $10,000 lithium-ion packs from battery maker A123 Systems Inc. found fuel economy rose only to mid-to-low 50 miles per gallon from the standard Prius's 46 mpg rating, Toyota said. The results of the tests by Google Inc.'s Google.Org, Consumer Reports and Portland General Electric include energy used to recharge the extra batteries."
Full cycle cost is wholly dependent on plug-in recharging cost per kwH compared with pump fuel, with locally high electricity costs effectively redlining sales of PHEVs.
Right. The cost equivalence would be sixty cents a gallon where I live. After reading the article I felt the Volt's advantage would be it's ability to achieve highway speeds during all-electric operation. With either, a 30 mile daily round trip commute at speeds below 40 mph (nightly charge) should yield an exceptional mpg equivalence. That advantage will likely be lost in short order considering 90% of my electricity comes from coal.
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