Currently an EV would need to sport a battery capacity of about 42 KWh to provide sufficient range to avoid “range anxiety.” That pushes the price north of $40,000 big time.

Now it is possible to make a basic car and sell it in the USA for about $15,000. The price difference for a hybrid seems to be about $5000 so any cost above about $20,000 (Prius C price) seems to be driven by the battery. To go twenty mile in EV mode, you need to use about 6 KWh of capacity, with about 1.3 KWh reserved for regular hybrid driving. But with less than 4 KWh of EV mode capacity the Prius PHV costs $32,000. That seems to say either it is over priced to keep folks buying the other Prii or the Battery and associated support package costs almost $2000 per KWh.

Bottom line, OEM could, it seems sell Plug in Hybrids (with 6 extra KWh of battery) for less than $5000 more than the base Hybrid. Thus a Prius C PHV should be on the market for $25,000, and the Prius PHV should have a price of $29,000, not $32,000.

Me thinks something is rotten in Denmark.

Shocking!

MrEnergyCzar