Trying to drive “green” in Zihuatanejo

I’m making plans to buy a vehicle in the Zihuatanejo area within the next year. It would mostly be for local travel with occasional trips to Morelia, Tequila, or Acapulco. I had hoped to be able to buy a BEV, but it seems impractical. From as best as I can determine, there is one level 2 charging station in Zihuatanejo and it is at a car dealership, so I would be limited to home charging.

Based on the PlugShare website map, it appears it would not be possible to drive to Acapulco or Morelia in a BEV.

In consideration of this, it seems that the next best alternative would be a PHEV. It seems that the most realistic option would be a Chevy Volt with 85 km EV range and 600+ km range including gasoline.

Does anyone have any suggestions for a better alternative vehicle?

Buy an electric for your usual local travels, and rent a gas car when you need to make those longer trips?

We recently bought a 2020 Honda CRV Hybrid. It currently gets an average of 36mpg. I find all the electronic stuff quite annoying, but it tells you its range based on the amount of gas in the tank. It doesn't require plugging in, since it charges its own batteries.

You could consider a Prius. My 2017 gets 65 mpg. A full tank range is around 625 miles. Now that I’veretired, I don’t drive as much. I last filled up in early April.

Are you sure about that mileage? Edmunds says it has a combined mileage of 46mpg.

From what I understand the e-cars have the equivalent mileage in the 80s mpg considering the source of the electricity and the tremendous amount of mining and mineral processing (500,000 lbs per car) it takes to make the batteries.

You could consider a Prius. My 2017 gets 65 mpg. A full tank range is around 625 miles. Now that I’veretired, I don’t drive as much. I last filled up in early April.

I too was going to recommend a Prius. Our 2017 Prius gets just over 50 mpg. NOTHING to plug in!!!!

Yup, I never reset one trip odometer. I have been presently surprised.

I have been driving Prii since 2004, because it was the least GHG emissions I could produce while driving then. I have been very happy with my Prii for 17 years

But the Prius is still an ICE vehicle with only battery assistance. Every drive I took would be emitting GHG. I’m working on getting as close to GHG neutral as possible.

Up north, I’ll be selling my current Prius soon, having replaced it with a BEV. I had hoped to do the same in Mexico, but that seems impractical. So far the only BEV I have found in Mexico that I recognize is Tesla. The cost would be at least a million pesos. The nearest Tesla service location would be in Mexico City. I’m no longer a big fan of 600+ kilometre drives and I sure wouldn’t want to pay for a 600+ km tow. ???? A used 2019 Volt could be under M$500k.

The Volt is essentially the opposite of a Prius. It is an EV that first runs on battery. When the battery is depleted, a gasoline engine kicks in, not as a propelling mechanism for the car, but to produce electricity to supply the electric motors.

That sounds more realistic. Toyota claims 60mpg highway, 51 city. So the average would be 55.0 mpg. My 2020 Honda CRV Hybrid shows 36.1; disappointing.

Here’s a pix of my 65 mpg odometer.

I've had a Volt for four years and I love it, though I'll admit it's not for everyone. 95% of the time I just putter around town, almost always on the battery alone, and I can go months between visits to a gas station. But if you drive more than about 100 miles a day, then you probably should look elsewhere. For the record the first 50 miles, more or less, are on the battery; the gas engine then provides an additional 350 miles of range.

I wasn't arguing with you, I just find it weird that a vehicle gets better mileage than what the manufacturer states. They generally claim to lie in their favor. I was hoping for better mileage in my hybrid Honda.

No one is more shocked than me. I thought the 57 I got with the prior Prius was pretty good. They have improved efficiency graphics and I pay pretty close attention to them.

Don't tell Tim, but I've been adding a gallon of gas to his tank ever week.

I wasn't arguing with you, I just find it weird that a vehicle gets better mileage than what the manufacturer states. They generally claim to lie in their favor. I was hoping for better mileage in my hybrid Honda.

As noted, I’ve been driving Prii for 17 years. I recorded my gas receipts every fill up for years for claiming work expenses.

Let’s just say that Toyota was quite generous to itself in reporting fuel consumption on the in-car displays. Not once in 17 years has the fuel consumption (based on calculating distance by odometers and gasoline pumped) been as good as what Toyota wanted me to believe.

I have the same experience. Ford 10 to 15% optimistic, my last GM 5 to 10% optimistic.

Have you ever calculated it manually for a comparison?

I haven’t yet, but will with this tank. The first time i9ve bought gas since April.

We’ve been driving green for the last three years, having NO car and walking most of the time and getting a taxi when needed.
Do you really need a car in Zihua ? I don’t think so...

You misinterpreted not think so, but you might be incorrect. My intended use is in the “Zihuatanejo area”, not in Zihuatanejo.

I won’t be in Zihuatanejo much, except for groceries and other supplies. Other than that I’ll be some 30 km away. I’ve used public transport quite a bit in recent years, but it’s not very good for buying groceries and other supplies. Taxi fares for that kind of trip are not very cheap.

So just for grins, I calculated with my last fill. The calculated mileage was 66.5,while the mileage on the odometer was 69.5. So the trip odometer was overestimating by about 4%. Assuming the same error over the 27k miles my actual mileage is about 62.3 rather than 64.9.