I think its a matter of distance travelled versus the starting 'bonus' miles. The further you travel the less the bonus miles help.
Commute A:
50mi + 50mi (2 directions) and ~35mi starting charge overnight + any regenerative braking one can get along the trip.
The regenerative braking I think actually accounts for a fair amount. After all, that was the entire basis for non-plug-in efficiency.
So lets call it 45 miles of fuel-free and 55 miles of fueling at 35mpg is 1.6 gal over 100 miles or about 62.5mpg.
Commute B:
25mi + 25mi and ~35mi starting charge overnight
Now there are only the 15 miles of fueling (max) at 35mpg out of a total of 50 miles travel. Or 0.43 gallons over 50 miles is >110 mpg. I did slightly worse yesterday since it was below 32 and ran the heater. But I think the max for the trip will be in that neighborhood.
Basically its the inverse of a diesel: the longer the commute the worse the average. Short commutes done 100% electric. If your round-trip was 40 miles or less, I'd say with regenerative braking thrown in you'd almost never run on petrol.
To drive cross-country without recharging at hotels, for example, the 'start' charge would approach 0 impact and you'd just get petrol mpg of 35mpg.
Also, for commute B, if I had the 2nd Gen Volt, with 50 miles electric range, would achieve 0 petrol as well. Unless there are some really cheap Teslas or I win the lottery in the next ~4 years, I think my Volt 1 will be replaced with a Volt 2.
Agree on Prius. I think it held back my opinion of hybrids for so long just because its basically torture to drive (our company car is a 2005 Prius and its miserable to run errands for work in it )
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