Prius Plug-in costs

[Mick F]

Just perusing the Toyota websites, and it seems that a plug-in Prius is circa £9,000 more than a "normal" Prius.

 It seems a rather high premium to pay for the plug-in variant as I reckon it would take YEARS before the fuel consumption costs to work out in favour.

How long would it take to make the plug-in pay for itself?

Mick.

[lovec1990]

19 minutes ago, Mick F said:

Just perusing the Toyota websites, and it seems that a plug-in Prius is circa £9,000 more than a "normal" Prius.

 It seems a rather high premium to pay for the plug-in variant as I reckon it would take YEARS before the fuel consumption costs to work out in favour.

How long would it take to make the plug-in pay for itself?

Mick.

based on our prices here plus our country financal help it would take 37 years for me

[PeteB]

Trouble is, it will be different for everybody.

If I had one, I'd use no petrol at all for all but 2 or 3 days a month, and I do about 12,000 miles a year these days, so it would still take a very long time, if ever.  Someone who only did local journeys might use virtually none, but with overall low mileage would take even longer.

Some who does 200 miles a day with little chance of topping up would probably never see break even.

[Mick F]

.................. so what's the point?

How can anyone justify the price hike?

Mick.

[lovec1990]

maybe their city is starting to ban Gasoline engines and they do not want too use public transports?

[PeteB]

A couple of people I 'talk' to on groups like this bought a few years ago through Drive the Deal or similar and paid only £2-3K above the DTD price for a top of the range ordinary Prius.

The price of having no spare wheel was the bit that was too high for me, but plenty of people don't have the same concern as me.  A couple of previous owners including Jon from here went on to get full EVs.

[altocumulus]

I don't. It's a compromise, for us, between an EV and a pure petrol. 90-95% of my journeys are in EV mode but we always wanted something that would go further than 200 miles without having to worry about re-fueling in the wilds of Scotland - even though many powerpoints, in Scotland, are free to use.

[Mick F]

The difference is (say) nine grand.  How much petrol can you buy for nine grand?

£1.30 perhaps per litre = 6,900ltrs = 1,500galls imperial.

Even with a petrol car at circa 40mpg and 10,000miles per year is only 250galls which means that this petrol car would consume the 1,500galls in six years.

Lets say the "normal" Prius at 100mpg and the Plug-in Prius at 200mpg ................................ is this fair?

100mpg @ 10,000miles = 100galls.   200mpg @10,000miles = 50galls.  Difference per year is 100galls = 150ltrs @ £1.30 = £195

£9,000 divided by £195 = 46years.

My brain hurts.  Have I got this right?  I've had a couple of Sunday beers! 😀

Mick.

[lovec1990]

only reason i would buy plugin is if its used and its priced better than normal Prius

[Mick F]

59 minutes ago, Mick F said:

100mpg @ 10,000miles = 100galls.   200mpg @10,000miles = 50galls.  Difference per year is 100galls = 150ltrs @ £1.30 = £195

£9,000 divided by £195 = 46years.

My brain hurts.  Have I got this right?  I've had a couple of Sunday beers! 😀

Mick.

Sorry, beer has taken the arithmetic away.

Difference is 50galls of course.

Does this make any difference to my argument?  Somehow I doubt it.

Mick.

[altocumulus]

Like a lot of things, it pays more to go green! and the phv is greenish(!)

LED bulbs, for instance, need less electricity than halogen or the old filaments; but cost more up front.

As their use increases, does it bring the home electricity bill down? Certainly hasn't for us, at the 30 year point of living in the same house, our bill has continued to rise....

[FROSTYBALLS]

The Prius Plug-in comes in either Business Edition Plus or Excel. If one compares these to the same trim levels of the Prius, the difference is just over £5,000 for the Business Edition Plus, and just over £6,000 for the Excel.

Also prior to November 2018, PHEV's like the Prius Plug-in were eligible for a Goverment grant (£2,500) against the new purchase price, which isn't the case now. 

Then again, buyers don't always look at the break even point when purchasing cars. They may just like the idea of a PHEV. 

[Mick F]

https://www.toyota.co.uk/new-cars/prius/  ........... price from £22,245

https://www.toyota.co.uk/new-cars/prius-plugin/ ........... price from £32,125

Difference is £9,880 .......... that's what it says.

Mick.

[FROSTYBALLS]

The Prius Plug-in Business Edition Plus is from £32,125 and the Excel from £34,095.

The Prius Active FWD is from £24,245, the Business Edition FWD from £25,185, the Business Edition Plus FWD from £26,915 (15 inch wheels), the Business Edition Plus FWD from £27,320 the Excel FWD (15 inch wheels) from £27,950, and the Excel FWD from £28,355.

So if one compares the same trim levels the difference is around the levels I stated :

£5,210 for the Prius Business Edition Plus (15 inch wheels) - £4,805 (17 inch wheels)

£6,145 for the Excel (15 inch wheels) - £5,740 (17 inch wheels).

That's what it says!!

 

[Ten Ninety]

4 hours ago, lovec1990 said:

only reason i would buy plugin is if its used and its priced better than normal Prius

Which, oddly enough, was how I came to purchase mine last year. At the time, steep initial depreciation on the PHV plus low demand meant that at 12-18 months old there were quite a few PHVs available for less money than an equivalent Gen 4 ordinaire. In the time I was searching, it wasn't unusual for the cheapest Prius Excel with <10k miles on Auto Trader to be a PHV. Not sure if that is still the case, as I haven't checked prices recently. 

That said, nobody sane buys a new PHV because they want to save money. Nobody sane buys a new BEV for that reason, either. As Geoff said above, going 'green' is not an economic decision. However, very few new car purchases are economic decisions or else we'd all be smugly tootling about in Dacia Sanderos or trying our luck in the classifieds with a bit of bangernomics.

I bought my PHV because I found it aesthetically pleasing (or at least less ugly than the standard Gen4), I wanted the adaptive headlights (which turned out to be hopeless), I wanted the joy of driving in EV mode for extended periods and I had a serious thing for that carbon fibre tailgate!

Even though I paid less than what an equivalent standard Gen4 would have cost me, I fully expect the PHV will cost me more in the long term because its depreciation will almost certainly continue to be steeper. However, I do not care, because it brings me joy every day. 

[Mick F]

The Toyota website says that the cheapest plug-in Prius you can buy in UK is £32,000odd and the cheapest standard Prius is £22,000odd.

The trim levels is besides the point as they are the cheapest available.

Mick.

[Catlover]

19 minutes ago, Mick F said:

The Toyota website says that the cheapest plug-in Prius you can buy in UK is £32,000odd and the cheapest standard Prius is £22,000odd.

The trim levels is besides the point as they are the cheapest available.

Mick.

Price list I just checked shows OTR price of cheapest Prius at £24245 and cheapest PHEV Prius OTR £32125.  Still almost £8k but that’s 20% less then £10k.

[Mick F]

1 hour ago, Catlover said:

Price list I just checked shows OTR price of cheapest Prius at £24245 and cheapest PHEV Prius OTR £32125.  Still almost £8k but that’s 20% less then £10k.

I said a couple of posts back but had a typo!   Sorry.

They are indeed £24,245.  Still too much difference in the costs between plug-in and standard.  Like has been said though, the trim levels are different of course.  Why you can't buy a base level in both, only Toyota know.

Mick.

 

13 hours ago, Mick F said:

https://www.toyota.co.uk/new-cars/prius/  ........... price from £22,245

https://www.toyota.co.uk/new-cars/prius-plugin/ ........... price from £32,125

 

[FROSTYBALLS]

Most new purchasers would be looking at the same trim level. Also, as stated earlier, prior to last November, new PHEV's were eligible for a Government grant of £2,500. With the withdrawal of the grant sales of PHEV's from all manufacturers have been adversely affected.

Presumably Toyota won't introduce an Active version of the Plug-in as equipment levels would be low when compared to other vehicles in the same price range,the difference would in cost only be approx £2,000, and sales volumes would be minimal.

Compare the costs of other hybrids and PHEV's (eg Kia Niro, Mitsubishi Outlander, and Hyundai Ioniq) and the difference in the new cost between the hybrid and PHEV versions is at least £7,000-8,000. 

[johalareewi]

One attraction of the plugin is the dual fuel aspect. If there is a petrol shortage (remember them?) you can use electricity.  If there is a power outage, you can use petrol.

A lot of the additional price difference is the bigger Battery and charging equipment.

[Starmans]

Think for some company car people its the BIK tax benefits from a PHEV - it would of been for me if i was ordering one now.

[Nickems]

Most contributors here have ignored the fact that the phew gen 4 is a totally different car from the ordinaries gen 4

The shape is different

The performance is different the suspension is different. The economy even on hybrid running is better. Let’s not compare apples with oranges eh.....

[Mick F]

10 hours ago, Nickems said:

 Let’s not compare apples with oranges eh.....

I agree, but my point still stands.

The plug-in Prius compared to the normal Prius - even the same trim spec - is higher, so much higher that you'll never recoup the extra cost by the better fuel economy.

Nice to have, but financially speaking, it's not worth it.

Mick.

[Catlover]

Been said (many times) before - its not just about fuel economy savings. Its about the car travelling without burning fossil fuel for longer, ie driving past schools, busy pedestrian areas with no exhaust emissions etc that appeal to some drivers.

[PeteB]

23 minutes ago, Catlover said:

Been said (many times) before - its not just about fuel economy savings. Its about the car travelling without burning fossil fuel for longer, ie driving past schools, busy pedestrian areas with no exhaust emissions etc that appeal to some drivers.

plus some, like me, also just like the way it drives.

I love the way the Toyota Hybrids drive, and one that is in EV mode much more of the time would be even more appealing.  I'd love a true EV if one would work for me on the odd days I do very long journeys, but until tyre technology has moved along much further I stubbornly insist on having a spare wheel, and am delighted that my latest car actually has a full size spare.

I had experience of a Gen 2 Prius converted to a plug-in about 12 years ago, and it wasn't as clever as the dedicated ones brought out by Toyota since about 2012, but it did have about 40 miles of EV capability and the small team that did the conversion left room for the space saver tyre under the boot floor.  I sometimes got about 1½ thousand miles between petrol tank fills.

So when the first Toyota plug-in came out about 7 years ago, I was really interested as even with it's claimed 13-14 mile range (9-12 in reality) it would work well for me most days as I do lots of short journeys and can plug in at home in between many of them.  I'd expect to use little or no petrol all but 2-3 days of an average month, but could jump in and do a 500 mile round trip in a day with no special planning or range anxieties.

After the 2007 conversion by a fairly small company, it didn't even occur to me that the Toyota would not have a spare wheel.  I know some here believe I'm being unreasonable when I say that I'm surprised, with their massive resources and access to specialist skills, tools, and experience of Hybrids for over 22 years that Toyota couldn't have achieved this because of all the regulatory and safety demands in many markets, but if they had put their minds to it I'm sure with the modest range of the first official plug-in they could have managed it.

After all, the original Prius team were given just 2 years to develop a car from scratch with half the emissions and fuel consumption of the Corolla of the time and every time they went back to the Chief Exec (or whoever it was) and said it couldn't be done, they were told to go away and do it - and they did.