[jason4225]

Originally Posted by CaptainDan

Well, actually the screen on the dashboard is misleading, if not an outright lie.

The only difference between a factory Prius and this version is an additional battery. That's the same engine, still running in an inefficient mode (not like the Volt), and the car now weighs more. It's gas mileage would be WORSE, not better. Unless you're counting the extra charge you got from plugging it in, but that charge was not made by ANY gasoline, so there is NO gas mileage at all for that. If you ran it on just the "plugged in" electric charge, without the engine kicking on at all, what's your gas mileage? 100 mpg? 150mpg? A billion mpg? It's just a made up number. In such a situation, the gas mileage is infinite - you didn't use ANY gas.

Now don't get me wrong, this is still a good set up. You're getting your driving energy from a much cheaper, and more efficient source than using gasoline. But trying to mislead people with bogus mpg claims is not a good idea.

You are completely right. The only benefit would be that they could achieve a high fuel economy number (which can be achieved by driving the current Prius a short distance on battery only and a short distance on the motor) for a longer distance due to the fact that the new battery would let them extend the battery only portion of the drive.