Toyota Prius
One of the guys on my hiking trip this past weekend was driving a new Toyota Prius gas/electric hybrid car.
I didn’t get a chance to ride in it but it looked nice and he raved about it. He said it gets from 50-65 miles per gallon and it never needs to be plugged in because the batteries are constantly being recharged when the car is being driven.
It uses a Hybrid Synergy Drive System® which continually monitors road and driving conditions to determine what mixture of gas and electricity to use. My friend said that it gets the best milage in the city, which is surprising. It is also very quiet. So quiet that at first I thought it was an electric car.
The Toyota site provides a fuel cost saving calculator to compare the cost of driving your current car to driving a Prius based on several factors like the price of gasoline and the number of miles per gallon your current car gets.
I tried several calculations.
Assuming a gas price of $2.25/gal, the owner of a gas guzzling SUV that only gets 10 miles/gal., who drives 15,000/miles a year would save $2761.36 per year in fuel costs. The Prius would pay for itself in fuel savings in about nine years.
If we ever reach a peak oil situation where gasoline costs $5.00/gal., the savings estimate would be $6136.36 per year. In less than four years, the gas savings would pay for the Prius.
No wonder the Toyota dealerships are experiencing a shortage.
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