But there really is no comparison between the Volt and the Prius as far as I’m concerned. The Prius will still start the engine during modest acceleration (meaning almost always). And the Volt will blow the Prius away in acceleration. I got tired of the shimying of the Prius as it started and stopped the engine (maybe new plug-in Prius won’t shimy as much). None of that with the Volt. Plus the Volt is sexy – at least it is to me.

But to nit pick some points, the Prius PHV MSRP is $32,000. Its EV range is up to 15 miles. These claims come from both a “build your own Toyota sales site, (price) and from our Hybrid Car article on the Prius PHV:
http://www.hybridcars.com/vehicle/toyota-prius-plug.html
Now prices vary over time so a range of prices and ranges can be found. For example, the $32,000 base Prius PHV has heated seats and a Audio system with NAV. But to get heated seats and a NAV system on the Volt, the price is $43,880, not the $39,995 MSRP base, found on the build your own Volt website.

As I said, after the Toyota Prius PHV actually shows up in showrooms and CR does an evaluation, we can revisit this issue. And once the Ford Fusion plug-in joins the fray in March 2013, we will have sufficient data to make a choice.

10, 4.4, tometo, tomato whatever, the volt is never going to take off. Even if it were priced below a prius PHV I still wouldn’t buy it.

My reasons:
1. Have had GMs before and they all broke down, things went horribly wrong
2. I would not buy a 1st gen hybrid from anybody. But then thats just me
3. Volt is not priced correctly so benefits are marginal or non-existent for an average user
4. I don’t really have spare dollars to rescue a failing company

The PIP costs $32,760 – $2,667 (tax rebate) for a total of: $30,093 plus tax.

The Volt costs $40,845 – $7,500 (tax rebate) for a total of: $33,345 plus tax.

So the difference between the Volt and PIP is: $3,252. Lets say you drive 30 miles each weekday (7,600 miles) and 42 each weekend day (4,368 miles) for a total of 11,968 miles per year. The Volt would use just under 20 gallons per year. The PIP would use about 160 gallons. So at $4.00/gallon the PIP would cost $560 a year more in gas. So payback would be in 5.8 years. Gas would have to be $5.80 for payback to be four years. I keep cars a long time. My current car is at almost 168K miles. I did a detailed comparison for my driving and I would save 175 gallons/year with the Volt. So for me the Volt would save a few bucks with payback in about 4.6 years.

In conclusion, the Volt and PIP are both excellent ways to save gas. With the exception of pure EVs, they are the two best cars at this time for saving fuel. Your driving habits will determine which is the best for you. If you do a lot of long distance driving the PIP will be best for you. If you do mostly < 45 mile days, the Volt would be best. The crossover point is about 103 miles per day, if you do not care about the payback time.
PIP: (103 miles-11 mile all EV)/50 MPG = 1.84 gallons
Volt: (103 miles-35 mile all EV)/35 MPG = 1.84 gallons

The Volt does do one thing the PIP does not, and that is it has a true all EV range.

Now if I drive 30 miles per day, i.e. all Volt EV miles, then I could rack up close to 11,000 EV miles in a year. So it would be hard to make a case for fuel savings even under the best conditions of more than $2500 per year. But OTOH, if you consider a Prius PHV, its fuel cost would be be (12000 minus 5000 EV miles) 7000 divided by 50 times $4.50 or about $600 per year. So at best the Volt could save you $600 over 12 months and $1800 over 3 years. But the Volt would cost at least $5000 more out the door considering a $5000 rebate reducing the $10,000 dollar additional cost. So after three years you will still be better off with a Prius PHV.

But lets wait for the car to be tested by CR and then compare the report with the report on the Volt. If the Volt price can be justified by its superior performance, fine. But I stand by my expectation that the Prius PHV and the Ford Fusion plug-in will provide more value for the price. Time will tell.

http://gm-volt.com/2011/08/29/could-a-chevrolet-volt-cost-less-to-own-than-a-chevrolet-cruze/

http://news.topwirenews.com/2012/04/01/chevy-volt-emerges-with-best-total-value-in-strategic-vision-study/%25

Fox/conservatives are flip flopping on the Volt because they saw how it debuted in europe with over 7000 reorders and they realized they couldn’t kill it. If the Volt takes off world wide and boosts Detroit, Fox/conservatives would look like the idiots they are.

Think about it, the first time you saw a conservative on Fox saying the truth about the Volt was pretty much the same day sales figures were released in europe.