Hippie'sMom Posted March 27, 2013 Report Share Posted March 27, 2013 I have an Ice Storm SEL I bought in mid-October. I jokingly call it Hippie (as in nice hybrid--hippie!) and have been please. I am a short distance driver--less than 4 miles to work, so the mileage has been in the 30s in this cold February and March in NC. Was doing much better when the sun was shining and the battery was warm! I expect to see better mileage come April and real warmth. I have the first trip of any note next month, so I am looking forward to seeing how I do on long highway stretches. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tdefny Posted March 27, 2013 Report Share Posted March 27, 2013 Welcome to the forum. I can empathize. I had to fill up my Prius the other night and I realized I hace been filling up the Max only about once a month and it doesn't look like this will be my month to do it. I admit that I cheat a bit by having a plug-in, but I sure have gotten rusty at the pump. With the electric rates around here, I doubt that the electricity is cheaper than gas, but it is sure convenient to not have to fill the tank in the cold weather. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roninsd Posted March 27, 2013 Report Share Posted March 27, 2013 Welcome to the forum! I've had my C-Max about a month less than you. My usual route to work and back is about 20 miles, and I'm averaging about 2 fillups a month -- much better than my one a week previously. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jus-A-CMax Posted March 27, 2013 Report Share Posted March 27, 2013 Welcome to the forum. I can empathize. I had to fill up my Prius the other night and I realized I hace been filling up the Max only about once a month and it doesn't look like this will be my month to do it. I admit that I cheat a bit by having a plug-in, but I sure have gotten rusty at the pump. With the electric rates around here, I doubt that the electricity is cheaper than gas, but it is sure convenient to not have to fill the tank in the cold weather.I am curious...do u actually save more money with the Energi in the gas vs electricity? How much has your elec bill increased? Someone must have done the math on this... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ryan McEachern Posted March 27, 2013 Report Share Posted March 27, 2013 Jus-A-CMax, It totally depends on the electricity cost versus the gasoline price where you live. There is some extra electricity used in charging the battery. I have ordered a 240 volt sub-meter to keep track of it, because I enjoy things like that, but we can do some "back of napkin" type calculations and get pretty close. Assume I get 30 km out of 5 kWh, that's 6 km per kWh. We pay less than .10 per kWh here, but I round it up to 10 cents to cover off the transit tax, and carbon tax, plus delivery cost. so, 10 cents gets me 6 km in EV. That's 1.67 cents per km. Lets round that up to 2.5 cents per km to cover off the occasional cold morning, and the capital cost of the charging equipment. On gasoline/hybrid mode, we are getting about 5.2 liters/100km. We pay about 1.40 per liter, so thats $7.00 to drive 100km, or 7.3 cents per km. Round that up to 7.5 cents to cover the more frequent oil changes that will come with using the ICE. So, using broad, sweeping generalizations, and living in the Lower Mainland of BC, running off the battery is 3 times cheaper than running in hybrid gas/electric mode. Its not an attractive stat until you start looking over 10 years of driving. I figured on 10,000 km battery per year, and 10,000 hybrid mode, so 100,000 of each over 10 years. that's $2,500 of electrical power and 7,500 for the gasoline derived power. That's a total cost of $10,000 for the Energi, versus $15,000 if we had bought the regular hybrid.(and a staggering $36,400 if we continued to drive our 13L/100km minivan) So, you can see that with the Energi priced apporox. $5,000 more than the Hybrid, it is really about a break-even to go that way unless you get some sort of government rebate (We got $2,500 in BC)or drive more than 10,000 per year off the plug in, (that's unlikely for most, due to the size of the battery you would have to charge more than once per day). Or have cheaper electricity than us, and costlier gasoline. We figured all this out before we made our Energi decision, and decided that if it ended up a break-even after 10 years, we would still be happier driving the Energi for other, non financial reasons. Your mileage may vary! JAZ and MikeB 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
plus 3 golfer Posted March 27, 2013 Report Share Posted March 27, 2013 I am curious...do u actually save more money with the Energi in the gas vs electricity? How much has your elec bill increased? Someone must have done the math on this... I have done the math (for me in AZ) based on the initial o-p-c difference including Federal tax rebate and Ford incentives plus the additional annual cost for the AZ Vehicle License Tax (based on difference in base price of Energi vs Hybrid) and insurance. On about 5000 annual plug-in miles, my electric bill would increase $144. The equivalent fuel to drive 5000 miles, would be about $469 at 40 mpg and $3.75 / gallon. First year fuel savings would be about $325. First year AZ VLT would be about $75 more for the Energi (declining each year thereafter). I can't remember what the insurance diff was but I think it was less than $50 a year. The X-Plan pricing difference + sales tax difference + $1000 rebate available on Hybrid but not Energi less Federal tax savings on Energi was about $2125 more for the Energi. This was not a huge difference but my annual savings would be limited by the range of the Energi in EV mode. There is also likely a FE penalty for hybrid only driving (using fuel) since the Energi is about 259 pounds heavier. This would erode the $325 savings and be dependent on how many non-plug-in miles were driven. So, unless there would be a significant increase in the differential between gasoline and electric price escalation rates, the payback for me was too long. If the range were 30 miles instead of 20 miles, I likely would have bought the Energi. Of course everyone's assumptions will be different. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zhackwyatt Posted March 27, 2013 Report Share Posted March 27, 2013 I am curious...do u actually save more money with the Energi in the gas vs electricity? How much has your elec bill increased? Someone must have done the math on this...I made this a while ago that might help: http://gocalipso.com/2013/02/plugin-hybrid-energy-cost-comparison-calculator.php#post Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
plus 3 golfer Posted March 27, 2013 Report Share Posted March 27, 2013 (edited) I made this a while ago that might help: http://gocalipso.com/2013/02/plugin-hybrid-energy-cost-comparison-calculator.php#postGreat link (did you post this before, it looks familiar). Yep, pretty much what I got. With only $2125 cost difference, 8.5 cents / kWh, and $3.75 gas. Payback is 14 years - way to long for me. And again, there's a higher annual VLT on the Energi in AZ over the Hybrid and slightly higher insurance. Edited March 27, 2013 by Plus 3 Golfer Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StoBro2 Posted March 28, 2013 Report Share Posted March 28, 2013 (edited) Getting back the the original poster's mention of an upcoming long highway trip, I wouldn't get my hopes up about getting stellar fuel economy on the highway. Once you get up to steady highway speed, it's been my experience that the C-Max behaves pretty much like any 3600 pound vehicle with a large frontal area. If you can stick to the speed limit, you'll probably see MPGs in the mid-to-upper 30s. If you let your speed creep up, which is easy to do in a C-Max because it's so smooth running, mileage takes a big hit. I've taken a couple of road trips that included fighting some headwinds while keeping up with 70mph traffic and I saw lower 30s, which dragged down my lifetime mileage. Hybrids in general are designed to compensate for inefficiencies in everyday, low to medium speed stop and go traffic. For sustained long distance driving, diesels are the fuel economy champs. Edited March 28, 2013 by StoBro2 JAZ 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zhackwyatt Posted March 28, 2013 Report Share Posted March 28, 2013 Great link (did you post this before, it looks familiar). Yep, pretty much what I got. With only $2125 cost difference, 8.5 cents / kWh, and $3.75 gas. Payback is 14 years - way to long for me. And again, there's a higher annual VLT on the Energi in AZ over the Hybrid and slightly higher insurance.Yes I did. The only thing I'm not sure about are the battery figures of the Energi. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jus-A-CMax Posted March 28, 2013 Report Share Posted March 28, 2013 Thanks everyone for your great input...I need to look into this much further. Obviously some great research and blogging here :rockon: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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