What is the Best EV or PHEV Electric Hybrid Car?

What is the best EV or PHEV Electric Hybrid Car?  The Tesla? Volt? Energi? Leaf? I decided to find out for myself.  You may recall last year I drove most of them and the Coda, iMEV and the eSmart around the block at the electric car expo.  One block is not the ownership experience you need to make a decision.

After spending a year waiting and two months researching all of my options I made a decision based on my driving habits and my wife’s concerns.  I’ll tell you what WE did and what I would have done in a bit.

First I wanted to tell you why it took so long.  Quite Frankly the Tesla S has always been my first choice. The car’s styling is first class all the way.  For work, the interior can’t be beat and for play, the car has more storage than most condos.  Never mind the giant touch screen displays to keep clients busy.  The range, ability to “supercharge” for free at the new stations and styling make the Tesla a major competitor.  At $84,000 though you have to ask “Competitor to what?”.

The answer is simply BMW 5 and 7 drivers and Mercedes E and S drivers.  I am not there yet and the economics of the Tesla purchase pushed the car out of my budget.  Admittedly I am slightly house poor, and I prefer that to car poor, and that is my choice.  The irony is the Tesla wouldn’t leave me enough money to buy the solar panels I need to reduce the electric costs.

Time For A Prius Like Everyone Else?

In California, the Prius line is selling quite well so we looked at a PHEV or “plug in” Prius.  After reading the specs, it didn’t have anything the Fusion Energi didn’t have and the Fusion was way cooler looking.  Prius eliminated, short electric only range, good but not great hybrid mode mpg.  So for the purposes of comparison, if the Fusion Energi meets your needs, and you like the look of the Prius, by all means consider a Prius.

Next was the Ford Fusion Energi.  Designed by a team from Aston Martin, the front of the car is absolutely stunning.  This car became my car of choice after I saw the body in person at the auto show.   I waited several months for the Fusion Energi to hit the market.  It has an electric only range of just under 20 miles and then gets an amazing 47mpg according to Ford.  Even if you accept that the 47mpg is overstated, the reported 38-43 that most people are “complaining” about is still pretty good to me.

If you drive a lot of short distances with occasional long distance trips mixed in, this is a great car.  It doesn’t get all the big rebates though because it has smaller batteries which result in the limited electric only range.  For my wife this car would be perfect.  She drives between five and eight miles each way most of the time and occasionally 41 miles each way to downtown LA in stop and go traffic where hybrids shine.

Nissan Changes The Game

Just as I was about to pull the trigger on the Fusion three weeks ago, Nissan announces a $10,000 reduction in the price of a Leaf.  This made the lease of a 2013 Leaf just $199 a month plus tax.  Here in Orange County CA, that is about $225 a month in real dollars.  About half what I was spending in gasoline for my truck.  Economically for me the Leaf was a free car.  I would save money if I leased a Leaf and parked my truck.

After driving the Leaf and deciding on a color, we came home to run the numbers.  I learned a long time ago, no matter what the dealer says, you can walk away for a couple of hours and still get “the deal”.  I always do and it has saved me from buying a couple of cars I should have never been looking at.

Nissan reports the 2013 Leaf can go up to 120 miles per charge.  Even if you use the 80% number most people are “complaining” about, that is still 96 miles on a full charge which is quite impressive.  This means my commute to LAX or downtown LA could easily be made round trip and so could my wife’s occasional trips to LA.

Of course that night she received a call to go to Studio City, 48 miles each way.  The parking garage did not have an EV charging station so she said she wouldn’t feel comfortable looking for a charging station late at night to make sure she could make it home.  There went my “free” Leaf.  I should say there is a possibility we’ll get one as a second car if the deal is still going in the next month or two.

With the Leaf and the Tesla out of the running for different reasons, we circled back to the Fusion Energi and noticed a new one around the corner.  We stopped by and asked our neighbor what he thought.  He was more than happy to share everything, including his lease details. He was getting about 43mpg on gas and hadn’t bothered to plug in, but noted that he left the dealer with a full charge and went about 16 miles before the dash alerted him the gas motor was in use.

Walking back we passed a neighbors house with a Volt hidden in the garage.  So we stopped here too.  Fortunately we have a friendly neighborhood.  He also shared all the details including his 6 months of driving experience with the car.  He told us the 38mpg on gas was very close to realistic, and that his electric bill went up $55 dollars a month.  He also shared that he had been spending $800 per month on gas and was now spending just $300 for the same driving between him and his wife.

His net savings was $345 a month and his lease was, you guessed it, $345 a month.  The best lease rate we could find on a similarly equipped Fusion Energi was over $100 a month higher.  Since the Fusion Energi doesn’t have the electric only range that the Volt has, the Volt jumped out as a contender.

A “Free” Volt?

He also pointed out that his home EV charger was installed for free due to a rebate that was available through the state of California.  FInally he noted that for a three year lease, he was saving 36,000 miles of wear on his other car, so the Volt was actually saving him money.

That night we sat at home, ran the numbers and my neighbor was right.  Style wise the order was clearly Tesla S, Ford Fusion Energi, Chevy Volt, Nissan Leaf.

Economically, we looked at our specific driving habits, which are 3-12 miles daily in our area three days a week, 15 miles one way one day a week, 22 miles a day one day a week and 43 miles one way two days each week.

For the economic only factors we used, 80% of the manufacturers electric only range, and the average of MPG numbers posted by Volt and Energi owners.  There wasn’t enough data on the Fusion so we gave it credit and used the posts by C-Max owners.

With these numbers, our local driving would be 100% electric only in all of the cars.  The  Tesla gets dropped only because of price, and the Leaf got dropped because it can’t make the studio city location round trip on 80% of the estimated electric only range.  For me I was ok with this limitation of the Leaf.  My wife’s vote there killed it,  If she isn’t comfortable charging after 10pm then I am going to go with the flow on that vote.  The Volt was all we had left on the list.

At the end of the day, it appears the Volt wouldn’t cost me a penny in monthly cash flow and might save me money if we leased it.  Check back in two months I’ll let you know.

The lease deal my neighbor got on his 2012 is $40 per month less than we got on our 2013.  For the extra $40 per month, we got better range, and better fuel economy.  Not much but a little.  We also got the fully loaded Volt with cameras, OnStar and navigation. He didn’t get Nav.

With a predicted range of 38 miles electric only, we expected that 90% of our driving could be electric only, at least one way.  Our farthest commute is 48 miles, and most of them are 21 to 43 miles.  The first day I had the car I drove 44 miles on a single charge, obviously on brand new fresh batteries, and drove home on .9 gallons of gas since the location didn’t even have a 110v outlet to plug into.

My only complaints about the Volt?  Road noise is a little harsh, and I am not a Bose fan.  There is something about the sound of a Bose stereo that doesn’t do it for me, but I am a THX trained sound guy so maybe I am just way to picky. That is it, the seats are great, Nav is great, the drive is very smooth.  Overall a great car even if it isn’t an EV or PHEV.

The Final Tally

At the end of the day, for electric only, the Tesla is the clear winner if you have the budget for it.  The Leaf is a great but quirky looking contender and with the $199 lease deal, it is a smoking hot value for an EV.  If you are looking for a second car to be a commuter car, the Leaf really should make the short list.  As far as PHEV’s go the Prius didn’t make the list for a bunch of reasons.  Mostly because the C-Max Energi and Fusion are both so similar in capability, that you could pick any of the three and do well if the numbers work for you.  The Fusion is the best looking and the most expensive in this group.

For us, the Volt hit all the high points.  After a week, we have no buyers remorse and are still enjoying the car and really liking that we haven’t seen a gas pump all week.

Given that my truck would have used 4.1 gallons for the same trip I made the first day I had the Volt, I am already pretty happy with the decision to try the Volt, and very happy with the Volt itself.

If you want to know more about electric cars, check out Randy Jackson’s post on Sun Powered Electric Vehicles.  He is running not one, but two Teslas off of the solar panels on his roof.

Chevy Volt
Picking It Up At the Dealer

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