Question on fuel economy among two Hyundai models.

[MIE1992]

If my math is right, then if I travel for 67.2k miles in a Hyundai Ioniq Hybrid Blue, then every bit of travel after that will be saving me money in fuel versus if I had bought a Hyundai Kona SE.

Allow me to explain my math. I took the combined MPG of each vehicle, which was 59 for the Ioniq Hybrid Blue (rounded up to 60 for convenience) and 35 for the Kona SE. I also took their respective MSRPs into account, being $23.4k for the Ioniq Hybrid Blue and $21k for the Kona SE. I also assume the average price of fuel is $3.00 per gallon.

The price of fuel alone can be represented as (m/(m/g))*3, where (m/(m/g)) is the number of gallons I’d be using, or in other words, the mileage divided by the miles per gallon of each vehicle. The price of fuel is added to the MSRP of the corresponding vehicle, meaning the resulting expression should be as follows:

23.4k + ((m/60)*3) = 21k + ((m/35)*3)

I am trying to figure out how many miles I’d need to travel in the Ioniq Hybrid Blue to start saving money on fuel. Is 67,200 miles correct?

 

[eran0004]

It’s correct.

It’s a little easier to verify the result if you first take cost per gallon / miles per gallon to get cost per mile for each car. Then you get C1 + c1*m = C2 + c2*m, where C1 and C2 is the price of each car and c1 and c2 is the cost per mile. Solve for m to get m = (C2-C1)/(c1-c2).

 

[TonyJZX]

I think that in places where fuel is cheaper then obviously your breakpoint where you save money is less evident.

This is a good question/thought puzzle.

Here's an example.

2021 Toyota Camry Ascent Auto Petrol $29,000
4 Door Sedan
4 Cylinder, 2.5 Litre 133kW petrol
Sports Automatic, Front Wheel Drive
Petrol - Unleaded ULP
7.8 L/100km

2021 Toyota Camry Ascent Auto Hybrid $32,000
4 Door Sedan
4 Cylinder, 2.5 Litre 88kW hybrid
Constantly Variable Transmission, Front Wheel Drive
Petrol - Premium ULP
4.2 L/100km

So for $3,000 you half the fuel consumption but you have to run premium.

This is ok? I personally dont want to run hybrid but Toyota has 25yrs experience in making this work.

$3,000 buys a lot of petrol but some people like the way hybrids drive.

 

[eran0004]

This is ok?

It depends on what your criterias are. In your example you’d break even after 85,000 miles, or around 7 years and after that the hybrid is cheaper. But more importantly you would have cut your emissions by almost 50%.