Cargo to Go

[Farrell]

Sorry about the spreadsheet - it came through just fine on my computer. With regard to the battery - quoted from Road & Track Magazine:

"Bob, your straightforward question turned out to have a surprisingly complex answer. Toyota warranties the Prius battery pack for eight years, "but the expectation is it will last much longer than that." How much longer no one is willing to speculate, so we'll guestimate a 10-year lifespan from the nickel/metal-hydride unit.
Even more confusing to our Casio 10-key calculator is that the Prius battery pack is priced at $4000 by Toyota public relations, $3420 by our local dealer and is expected to cost only $1000 in eight years (Toyota's estimate) due to greater economies of scale as more vehicles require battery replacement. While that may sound too good to be true, Toyota is insistent on this point. They also expect the batteries to get lighter and more efficient. What's more, it's forecast that reconditioned battery packs will be part of the picture. (You'd likely replace your conventional 10-year-old car's engine with a rebuilt one, right?)

So, which is more financially sound, gasoline or battery power? At $1000 for the battery and a lifespan of eight years or longer, the battery clearly wins any contest of the calculators. At a worst case of $3500 for a new battery pack, installed, along with $1.65 per gallon of gasoline, we find the battery pack is worth 2121 gallons of gasoline. Our Road Test Summary rates the (first-generation) Prius at 40.3 mpg, which would yield 85,476 miles of driving. That would be a bit over 4 cents a mile for the battery, and a financial dead heat given 10,684 miles per year of driving in eight years. Adding even a little to battery life or subtracting from its cost makes the battery a winner; and that's not to mention any change in the price of gasoline, which is only going to go up.

Installation costs are not an issue; the battery pack is easily accessible by removing the back seat, à la VW Beetles and Piper Cherokees."

Terry Farrell

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Don" <pianotuna at yahoo.com>
To: "Pianotech List" <pianotech at ptg.org>
Sent: Monday, April 10, 2006 8:18 AM
Subject: Re: Cargo to Go


> Hi Terry,
> 
> Your spreadsheets don't post very well. Thanks. How much to replace the
> battery in 7 years? Or will you flip the vehicle then?
> 
> At 12:43 PM 4/10/2006 -0400, you wrote:
>>         had zero traffic and I could drive  as silly as I wanted - I was
>>averaging about 85 mpg until I ran into a bit of  traffic that made my
>>average plummet to 75 mpg!     that first tank of gas, I have been
>>recording our fuel purchases and  mileage. Below is a spreadsheet of our
>>data so far:                      Date            Price            Gallons 
>>          Miles            Computer MPG            Actual MPG           
>>Cumulative Computer MPG            Cumulative Actual MPG            Total
>>Miles            Total Fuel Cost               01/21/06            2.349   
>>        8.978            434            55.0            48.3               
>>        48.30            434            21.09               02/04/06       
>>    2.299            8.269            474            55.8            57.3  
>>         55.80            57.32            908            40.10            
>>  02/17/06            2.199            9.408            498            57.1
>>           52.9            56.45            54.99            1406          
>> 60.79               03/04/06            2.259            8.463           
>>460            56.8            54.4            56.57            54.78      
>>     1866            79.91               03/14/06            2.439         
>>  9.167            498            56.6            54.3            56.58    
>>       54.66            2364            102.26               03/26/06      
>>     2.509            7.968            439            53.8            55.1 
>>          56.02            54.74            2803            122.26         
>>     04/09/06            2.739            7.415            381           
>>55.4            51.4            55.92            54.25            3184     
>>      142.57   As you can see, our cumulative mileage is 54.25 so  far -
>>and that includes a lot of rush-hour driving when traffic does not let you 
>>drive the way you might like.    Terry Farrell         
>>   Original message
>>       improvement over my Lincoln)!       Terry  Farrell
> 
> Regards,
> Don Rose, B.Mus., A.M.U.S., A.MUS., R.P.T.
> Non calor sed umor est qui nobis incommodat
> 
> mailto:pianotuna at yahoo.com http://us.geocities.com/drpt1948/
> 
> 3004 Grant Rd. REGINA, SK, S4S 5G7
> 306-539-0716 or 1-888-29t-uner
>
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