<prompt> Human: Hello personal finance! Im in the process of buying a new car and need some advice on hybridsEVs.I currently commute to work 5 days a week for 45 miles total. That means I drive 11700 miles to work every year. I also love to take road trips to see California and surrounding areas. So I put about 15k miles a year on my current car. The place I work at has a 240V charger so I could charge a plug-in hybrid for free. I dont think a fully electric car like a leaf would be a good choice for me since the range would not be suitable for long trips. Ive been considering a Chevrolet Volt and a Toyota Prius C One. Ive found the Prius on Truecar.com for 17k and the volt for 30k. With a Volt, I will get a 7500 fed tax credit and another 1500 state credit. My brother works for GM so I would get an extra 1k taken off the asking price for the friends and family discount. Whereas the prius does not quality for any tax credits or additional discounts.Im trying to hold off on buying a car til the 2016 volt is released since it has a 50 mile range and I could charge it only at work. This would mean I would not have to pay for gas or electricity to power the car during the weekdays.The prius gets 51mpg in the city and since Im in Los Angeles its mostly bumper to bumper driving anyways.I currently make 65k a year and I have no debts. Rent is only 525. I can definitely afford to pay the higher monthly payments and if I purchased the Volt I would take the tax credits and apply it towards the principal of the car. Ive already been approved for a car loan with 5 rate. I wrecked my credit rating a few years ago and Ive been building it back up.My question to you is, which of these two cars would be more economical? Is it worth the initial higher cost to buy the Volt or in the long run will the Prius be a better buy?  <response>: The Prius C is not especially well rated, its economical but its too small, doesnt handle or stop as well as the regular Prius, worse on crash tests if I remember. I test drove one and it just felt cheap, its more anemic than the 200k 2nd gen Priuss I drove for work. At least the Volt is decent looking. Its been mentioned but I considered the Volt too but I wouldnt get much of the tax rebates, didnt makepay enough. 