I am excited and inspired by electric cars. Their adoption has accelerated dramatically over the last three years as manufacturers have started to fulfill the promise of electric cars. They are good solutions for many Americans, but I’m not sure they’ll work yet for most Americans. What will? Plug-in hybrids, or PHEVs. As we move towards an increasingly electrified future, it’s about time we consider the role PHEVs can play.
Of course, any article about what’s to come in the world of cars requires a lot of important clarifications to preempt any arguments based on existing biases. There is no Switzerland in the automotive world. From the rampant anti-car screeds on r/FuckCars, to unhinged Tesla fanboys, to coal-rollers, to EV skeptics, to Radwooders, it’s not possible to find a real middle ground.
I will not attempt to find one here, but I’ll lay out a few beliefs I have to inform where my mind is at:
- Global warming is real and potentially quite disruptive to life on this planet.
- While electric cars are not perfect and do create pollution and contribute to global conflict, the carbon footprint benefit of someone switching to an electric car significantly outweighs the negatives.
- It would be a disaster if everyone switched to an EV tomorrow as the grid and public charging network is woefully unprepared. As a society, it should be a top priority to correct this.
- It’s clear that neither car manufacturers nor battery suppliers are in the position to meet even one-tenth of the demand for electric passenger cars under new government regulations.
- People have a right to travel and, if they enjoy cars, should be allowed to buy and drive just about any car they want.
- Commuting sucks for most people, and replacing a lot of it with public transit, biking, and work-from-home is a net benefit both to society and car enthusiasts. This is easier said than done in some places, but that shouldn’t stop us from trying.
- Just replacing every gas-powered car with an EV that has a giant battery doesn’t correct our land use issues.
- Driving in cities, largely, sucks. We should redesign public spaces and streets in denser environments to support biking, pedestrians, and public transit. Just putting chargers everywhere for, mostly, wealthier people is not solving the problem.
- Density is good, but not everyone wants to live in a higher-density environment. Cars are still necessary for a lot of people, and fun for others.
You may not agree with me on all of those points, but if you don’t agree with any of them then this is probably not going to be an enjoyable article for you to read.
The point is, right now we’re in a kind of transition phase. The traditional, gas-powered, not-smart era of cars is slowly giving way to a more electrified and connected one. We have a lot of problems to tackle as that happens, including adding access to new fuel sources and charging. But it also gives us a chance to reexamine what wasn’t good about that era of cars and try to make the future better.
Hence where I’m at on PHEVs right now. I see them as a great solution in this bridge era and probably beyond it as well—maybe more than most car buyers realize.
The options for PHEVs these days are fantastic, and cover a huge range of cars. If you want an off-roader, you can grab the extremely popular Jeep Wrangler 4xe. A minivan? Try the Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid. At the cheaper end of the market, there’s the incredible Toyota Prius Prime for around $34,000. At the extreme end of what you can buy is the $500,000 Ferrari SF90 Stradale.
What Counts As A PHEV?
What all these cars have in common are the following:
- A gas-powered motor capable of propelling the car (either driving the wheels or acting as a generator for batteries, which drive the wheels via a motor/motors)
- An electric motor capable of driving the car with the gas engine turned off.
- A battery pack.
- The ability to charge the battery pack using a port on the car that connects to an external power source.
That’s it. If the only source of power for the onboard battery is the car’s gas motor (plus brake regen), that’s just a normal hybrid.
Not all PHEVs have the same mission and not all are created equal. Some PHEVs, like the Prius Prime, have a larger battery pack and are designed for efficiency, allowing an owner to travel over 40 miles on a single charge. The aforementioned Ferrari? You’re lucky to get 9 miles of pure EV driving as it’s designed to use its electric motors to make you a lot faster on a race track.
Right in between is the Jeep Wrangler 4xe, which returns a completely usable 22 miles of EV-only range, plus gives drivers the added benefit of extra torque in off-road situations. There’s a bit of have-your-cake-and-eat-it-too to PHEVs in that, when run as EVs, they can reduce the need to use gas at all; when the internal combustion engine is utilized, a PHEV typically gives a driver more power and more efficiency, even if they never plug it in.
As with anything in life, plug-in hybrids aren’t without their drawbacks. A Wrangler 4xe starts at $54,735, while a comparable Rubicon starts at $47,495. The 4xe, though, does qualify for a $3,750 federal tax credit. Having both a gas engine and an electric motor adds weight, which reduces the efficiency of the vehicle.
See, if you only use the car in EV mode then you’re probably hauling around a gas motor for no good reason. And if you’re only using it in ICE mode, that’s sort of defeating the point as well. This is part of why PHEVs get so much shit in various emissions studies out of Europe: too many companies bought them for their corporate fleets thanks to generous tax breaks, and then those drivers (who were often using company gas cards anyway) never charged them. You have to charge these cars or you’re screwing yourself.
In order to evaluate the usefulness of plug-in hybrids, I borrowed two very different types of these vehicles: The 2023 Kia Niro PHEV and the Volvo S60 Recharge.
The Kia Niro PHEV: A Lot Of Car For $34,000
I can’t drive two cars simultaneously, so friend-of-the-site Joel Johnson picked up the Kia Niro PHEV for me. Almost immediately, he was cornered by someone in a grocery store parking lot who not only knew what it was, but wanted to congratulate Joel for driving it! I get it. The little Niro looks like a $60,000 design on a car that starts around $34,000 [Editor’s Note: I don’t know if I quite agree, but it does look interesting. -DT]. Even our completely loaded version barely cost over $40,000.
Fast Facts: 2023 Kia Niro SX Touring
- Cost: $33,840 (Base), $41,635 (as tested)
- Powertrain: 1.6-liter four-cylinder w/ electric motor assist (FWD)
- Electric Motor: 62 kW permanent magnet synchronous motor
- Power: 180 hp / 195 lb-ft (Combined gas/electric)
- Battery Size: 11.1-kWh lithium-ion polymer battery
- Electric Range: 34 Miles
The Niro is interesting in that it only comes in hybrid or EV form. The non-plugin Niro HEV is a 1.6-liter four-cylinder engine with a small battery and small electric motor that gets a combined 53 mpg. Move up to the plug-in and you get a bigger battery pack. The EV version gets a sensible 253 miles of range on the EPA range test.
There are two main types of plug-in hybrids: vehicles that connect the electric motor to the transmission to the drive the wheels (like the Niro), and ones (like the S60) that power the wheels or axles directly using one or more electric motors. This technology is still relatively new so there are some interesting variations. The Wrangler 4xe actually has two motors, with one connected to the 2.0-liter motor to provide additional torque (a BSG, Belt Starter Generator on the accessory drive — the “P0” hybrid system), and another connected to the transmission that replaces the torque converter (an ISG, Inline Starter Generator — the “P2” hybrid system).
With the Niro PHEV, the electric motor is typically powering the car at low speeds (where electric motors are more efficient), during acceleration where it can give the car a little extra punch, and when it can keep propelling the car forward during high-speed cruising. Here’s a neat graphic from Kia that shows how it works:
If all you want is electric power, the Niro has an EV mode to restrict EV use. There’s also an EV+ mode that uses the EV except when the accelerator pedal is pushed all the way to the floor.
In practice, this means you can have a pure EV for about 34 miles. That’s probably enough distance for many people to travel to-and-from work, though not everyone. According to a 2021 study by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, the average worker only commutes about 15.2 miles a day. This same worker, however, ends up traveling about 44.8 miles a day when shopping, recreation, and other activities are included.
If you own one of these cars and can charge overnight, but not at work, you’ll be covered for most of the day. If a Type 2 public charger is available at work, it should only take about two hours to fully recharge the battery from zero. Even with a standard three-pin 120-volt plug, the Niro can get to 100% in about six hours.
Joel has the ability to plug into a wall at his garage so it’s easy for him to charge up overnight. It’s a little harder for me as my parking spot lacks a charger, though there are public chargers nearby.
The Niro is definitely going on the list of cars I can recommend to people as I found the car to be nerdy enough to appeal to the tech-curious side of me and practical enough to appeal to the dad in me. I think the Niro looks great, is extremely efficient, and is quite roomy for something with a battery pack wedged under the seats. The EPA interior volume is 120.3 cubic feet, which is about the same size as a Honda HR-V.
We took both the Volvo and the Kia up to the FCP Euro Proving Grounds autocross course at the historic Lime Rock Park race track in northern Connecticut for some tire-squealing hijinks while FCP Euro worked on their BTCC-inspired Volvo 850 wagon project.
While its 0-60 mph time in the mid-7-second range isn’t great, the car does have 180 horsepower and only weighs about 3,300 pounds, so both Joel and I were able to toss it around without tossing our cookies. Is it fast, no? It’s not supposed to be. It’s sufficient.
Overall, it’s a completely livable car, at a reasonable price, that feels nice and barely needs any gasoline for the average commuter.
The Volvo S60 T8 Recharge PHEV: This Thing’s A Rocket
Patrick had an S60 T8 Recharge a couple of weeks before I did, and his advice was to go out and find an unsuspecting Challenger owner to dust at a stoplight. He was right. Given that it’ll do 0-60 mph in about 4.1 seconds, most muscle cars don’t stand a chance.
This thing is the rare sleeper these days that doesn’t scream “LOOK AT ME, I’M A SLEEPER.” It’s still a Volvo. It’s discrete and handsome. But it has 455 horsepower and can kick your ass before you even knew it was coming for you.
Fast Facts: 2023 Volvo S60 T8 Recharge Black Edition
- Cost: $57,950 (Base), $63,690 (as tested)
- Drivetrain: 2.0-liter turbocharged (front wheels), electric motor (rear wheels)
- Power: 455 hp / 523 lb-ft (Combined gas/electric)
- Battery Size: 18/8-kWh lithium-ion polymer battery
- Electric Range: 40 Miles
Unlike the Niro PHEV, The S60’s gas motor and electric motor are not connected via the transmission. Up front is Volvo’s turbocharged and intercooled 2.0-liter inline-four, which has enough grunt on its own to make for a quick little sedan. The 143-horsepower electric motor sitting over the rear axle creates an all-wheel-drive car that confidently pulls from a dead stop with a rush of acceleration and very little drama. This is quite similar to what the Polestar 1 offers, which makes sense since Polestar helped make this car.
It’s an absolute hoot in a straight line if you want to involve the gas motor. If you don’t, it’s also a relatively nice electric car. I got the S60 Recharge delivered and immediately put it in “Pure EV” mode to experience EV-only driving. While I did inadvertently trip the gas motor a couple of times under hard acceleration, I was able to drive from my kid’s ballet practice, to the store, to any number of weekend chores only using electric power. I was even able to plug in to a local fast charger during a coffee run and grab a couple of extra miles of range while I waited in line for a chocolate babka (look to the babka!)
While the S60 does weigh over 4,400 pounds, apparently 143 electric horsepower is enough power to not feel slow when poking around town.
As with the Kia, I took the S60 Recharge around the FCP Euro track to see how fast it could go in both modes. While the car was on all-season tires and is not designed for racetracks, it actually did quite well, setting a 42.8-second time. Our old friend Michael Roselli was there and was able to get the lap time down almost to 40 seconds.
In “Power” mode, the car is smart enough to guess what the driver wants and shoves as much torque into the rear tires as it can. It’s not a huge shove, but it’s enough to get the car to counter some of its natural tendency towards understeer. If, like me, you push the car right to the edge (or, perhaps, needlessly over it), Volvo’s seatbelt tensioners will step in to corset you into the seat until you promise to stop.
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For even more fun, we all challenged to go into EV-only mode to see how much slower just 143 horsepower will get you. It wasn’t slow! You can see in the video above that I was able to get a 48.4-second lap out of the S60 Recharge (curiously, all of us ended up at basically 48 seconds when we tried). The biggest challenge, honestly, was not making the engine turn on by pushing too hard on the accelerator pedal. I was able to get the car up to about 60 mph on the “straight” without tripping the gas engine and Volvo says the car can go up to 72 mph in Pure EV mode.
Again, the most obvious difference between this and the Polestar 1 is this car lacks the fancy Akebono brakes and Ohlins adjustable dampers at each corner. The S60 is also about $100,000 cheaper than the Polestar.
Inside, the Volvo is a comfortable and semi-luxurious place to be. It’s pretty much a standard Volvo and, other than a few extra controls, you’d have no idea it was a PHEV. With a larger battery, expect the S60 to take more than ten hours to fill up on a 110-volt home charger. On a 220v home charger, the Volvo should take about five hours and a Level 2 charger should take about 2.5 hours.
While Autopian writer Thomas might enjoy the $3,200 Bowers and Wilkins premium sound system, I’d chuck to keep the price closer to $60,000. The Black Edition does bring the black grill, badging, and dark metallic paint, which does look good.
(Editor’s Note: I absolutely love the S60 Recharge. The vague “Recharge” branding does it no favors, but it’s a land-missile of a sedan with incredibly comfortable seats and phenomenal fuel economy and electric range. The tech is a bit dated because that generation of Volvo’s been around for a bit, but it still looks great inside and out. And while it’s no handler, I couldn’t believe the speed this hybrid put down. I’m not sure anyone builds a better sleeper right now than this.
Oh, and to the driver of that modified Honda Civic Type R that I encountered on the Palisades Parkway: Sorry, kid. Nothing personal, I promise. -PG)
Honestly, just spay the $70,000 for the V60 wagon edition and what you’ll have is one of the coolest, most practical, and surprisingly fast vehicles you can buy.
I made the mistake of configuring this car on Volvo’s site and now I want it. If there are two complaints I have about this car, it’s that it requires premium fuel when it needs fuel (because of the high-strung motor) and there’s no physical button to switch between Pure EV and other modes, meaning you have to use the touchscreen to change your propulsion.
Plug-In Hybrids Are A Great Way To Learn About Your Commute
How much do you really drive in a day? Most commuters are desensitized to putting gas in their cars and only become aware of it when prices at the pump get above a certain level. When driving a plug-in hybrid, as with a lot of EVs, you’re training yourself to think about how much you’re driving.
For instance, it’s about 5.1 miles from my parking spot to my daughter’s dance studio. If I add 0.2 miles to go to the bakery while she dances I can plug into the Level 2 charger nearby and add about 2.8 kilowatt hours of juice to the battery. I can also get a cookie. This means that, if I leave home with a full battery, by the time I make the round trip, I’ll still have about 35 miles of range when I get home.
While at the track, we used a couple of the Porsche Destination Chargers that Porsche has kindly put in key locations around the world, and it was fun to go and get lunch and come back to find a couple of miles had been added back.
Plug-In Hybrids Are Electric Cars With None Of The Anxiety
The question I ask when people complain about not being able to drive an electric car because of range is: How often do you drive more than 200 miles in a day? It’s rare. Most people can remember when they had to drive more than 200 miles because it was a special occasion of some kind. My parents live about 200 miles away, round trip, and that’s the longest journey we typically take. The average EV would be fine for us.
Trying to maintain the battery as much as possible, I found myself asking questions like: Is it worth it to get in the car to drive five miles to the good grocery store for milk or can I just walk around the corner to the average grocery store to get exactly the same thing?
Admittedly, it becomes a little bit like a game, but it’s a game that saves money and energy… assuming you don’t spend all of your money on cookies.
Is A PHEV Right For You?
PHEVs are usable for almost everyone, but I think these are the questions to ask before purchasing one:
- Do I have the ability to charge my car at home or access a public charging station convenient to where the car is parked?
- Is my typical travel under 50 miles a day?
- Do I occasionally need to drive more than 250 miles in a day?
If you answered “yes” to all of those questions then a PHEV is good for you. If you drive more than 250 miles a day, every day, then a more efficient gas or longer-range electric car is also an option with considering.
America (And The World) Want PHEVs. But We May Not Get Them For Long
Last year, one in four Jeep Wranglers sold in the United States was a 4xe plug-in hybrid. According to this Automotive News report, this number increased to one-in-three in the first quarter of 2023 (albeit, partially due to federal tax incentive rules changing). It’s actually this country’s best-selling PHEV. The Jeep Grand Cherokee 4xe went on sale late last year, and they represented about 13% of all Grand Cherokees sold through March of this year.
This isn’t just an American phenomenon. The biggest seller of electrified cars in the world isn’t Tesla, it’s Chinese company BYD. In 2022, they sold 911,141 electric cars. You know what they sold more of? Per InsideEVs, BYD managed to move 946,238 PHEVs, which was a 247% year-over-year increase. [Editor’s note: BYD is weird and tends to mix PHEVs and range-extender cars with its “electric vehicle” numbers, while we in the West tend to draw a harder line between the two. -PG]
[Editor’s Note: Matt alludes to this later, but I’ll mention it anyway: Though it may seem counterintuitive, buying a high-range fully-electric car could be worse for the environment than buying a hybrid, especially if you’re only commuting a short distance daily. Buying a 180 kWh Rivian R1T and driving that 33 miles everyday could be dirtier than buying a plug-in hybrid with a smaller battery whose EV-only range aligns more with your daily commute. That’s because with the Rivian, you’d be carrying over 1,000 pounds of dirty-to-create lithium-ion batteries around for really no reason (I suppose you’d have to charge less frequently), as you just need a battery probably not much bigger than 1/10th that size to handle your daily duties.
Of course, as you took your occasional 100+ mile weekend road trips using the onboard gas motor, the high-mileage EV Rivian would eventually become cleaner (and indeed, this is how most Americans drive their cars — it’s more than just short around-town driving), but it’s also worth considering the question: From a mineral-resource standpoint, does it make more sense to sell a single $100,000 truck with a 180 kWh battery, or does it make more sense to split that 180 kWh battery into sixteen 11kWh batteries (the same size as the Niro PHEV’s) and get 16 families out of gas-only cars and into cheap hybrids, commuting to and from work daily using only electric power? Of course, for any of these questions to even be worth asking, PHEV users can’t go on long gas-powered road trips all the time, and they have to actually charge their cars. This second point is important, because a PHEV can actually be worse for the environment than a gas car if folks don’t leverage its electric-only capabilities; perhaps there should be some kind of software requirement that makes it difficult to use a PHEV as a gas-only car everyday? I really don’t know, but I love PHEVs nonetheless. I own one with a tiny 22 kWh battery, and rarely ever use the gas range extender. For my use-case and on my budget, I think it’s the cleanest automotive option that provides me with piece-of-mind should I need to travel a few miles over 80 on an occasional weekend. -DT].
There’s a wide range of options for plug-in hybrid vehicles in the United States if what you want is a crossover, small hatch, sedan, or supercar. The best value is probably the $32,000 Toyota Prius Prime, though it doesn’t qualify for any federal tax credits. If you want a tax credit, the Ford Escape PHEV qualifies for $3,750 of federal incentives and returns a good 37 miles of range.
What we lack in the United States is a plug-in hybrid pickup truck and something more affordable, like the BYD Qin, which retails for about $20,000 in China. If an automaker can produce a sub $30k, reasonable PHEV that qualifies for at least half of the federal tax incentives I think it would be a hit. I feel similarly about a PHEV pickup that’s under $50,000.
The problem is that signs show this type of car may be in decline, unfortunately. About one in four cars Toyota/Lexus sells is a hybrid, but only three of their U.S. cars are of the plug-in kind.
Few other automakers are willing to get into this market if they aren’t already because they think it’s more cost-effective to “skip a step” and go straight to EVs. Considering the costs involved, it’s tough to blame them. And on the buyer side, battery EV demand and ownership is rising fast while the same for hybrids and PHEVs is either peaking or declining.
That’s a shame. Almost everyone outside of urban apartment dwellers could make great use of a PHEV. Their smaller battery packs are a net benefit because they utilize fewer precious metals to build and require less energy to fully charge while delivering enough electric mileage for most people. PHEVs can train drivers to think about their commutes and optimize for efficiency as opposed to just convenience. In the case of both the Wrangler 4xe and S60 Recharge, the plug-in hybrid versions are more capable vehicles than their purely gas counterparts. And despite what some studies say, they are phenomenal at reducing emissions—which we should all care about—versus their all-gas counterparts, not just saving on fuel costs. If drivers actually charge them and use them right, of course.
I think most people, eventually, will switch to purely electric cars, but we’re not as close to that day as many people would like to think. This great country was built on clever and well-intentioned stopgap solutions. I don’t see why this should be any different, and if we’re in this bridge phase, I’d like to see more automakers step up and fill that need.
Photos: Author, Joel Johnson, all the good ones: Mark Loper/FCP Euro
This article neglects to mention the #1 CATASTROPHIC problem with PHEVS. Every single PHEV sufferers from the following irredeemable problem and not mentioning it is extremely irresponsible. PHEV batteries die VERY prematurely. All existing battery chemistries last about 1000 cycles before the capacity plummets, and if you get close to 2000 charge/discharge cycles the battery is scrap. Now if you take a full electric with 300 mile range then 1000 cycles can get you to 300,000 miles on the odometer before the range reduction becomes a problem. BUT, if you take a PHEV with a 40 mile range the vehicle can only do about 40,000 miles pure electric before the range starts to dramatically decrease. Some people try to use the ICE very little or not at all in the PHEVS and they will all pay the price, unless of course they are leasing the vehicle and the problem will be the next owner’s. I drove my PHEV Fusion (has max 32 mile all electric range) to work 20 miles in all electric, charged it at work and then drove 20 miles back. In the first 2 years most of my driving was full electric. BUT at year 3 the range started to decease and at year 4 there were engine codes related to the battery and the battery had to be changed under warranty at 55,000 miles on odometer. WHY? I was running about 10 charge/ discharge cycles per week or about 500 per year. Had it not been for Covid and working from home the battery would have failed at year 3 not 4. Of the 55k mile on the odometer I estimate that 40k were all electric so it all fits into the 1000 cycle limit. Be warned, it is 100% inevitable that all PVEV batteries presently produced will have reduced electric range at 1000 cycles and likely complete failure before 2000 cycles. Take your PHEV’s all electric range, multiply it by 1000 and that’s how many trouble free miles you can expect from your PHEV. There is no way around it. The batteries in PHEVS simply go through too many charge/discharge cycles because of their limited size. Thankfully for the manufacturers the battery failure happens outside of the warranty the majority fo the time. If you think you can get a PHEV and drive it in all electric mode for more than 60,000 miles you got another thing coming!
My first PHEV was a 13 Volt. I drove it from Socal to Seattle and back when new. The car climbed the grapevine at 75 mph, more than acceptable.
My second PHEV is an ’18 Pacifica Hybrid. Similar battery size to the Volt, plus 3.6 Pentastar. Chrysler did not publish a torque figure but it’s um, more than adequate…
I believe C/D recorded 50-70 at 1.5 seconds faster for the Hybrid. That’s a lot faster.
The car will simply walk away from most on a mountain pass. The EVT screams like a turbo but is not as limited by thin air.
Piggybacking off Paul Magno, I’ve been beating an AWD PHEV Maverick drum since it came out. The Escape shares a platform and has a PHEV version. I love my hybrid trucklet but would trade it in immediately for a PHEV version. My hope is it’ll debut during a refresh or when Ford really wants to make a PR splash.
For further insight, during a November 2021 AMA on the Maverick Reddit, Ford engineer Chris Mazur was asked “Is the reason there’s not an AWD hybrid option at launch?”
Chris wrote back, “There is nothing architectural preventing an AWD hybrid variant.”
As for PHEV, he responded to the question “Was the maverick platform built to accommodate a future plug in hybrid version?” with “At this time, there are no plans for an all-electric or plug-in hybrid version. As Ford drives down the cost to deliver fully electric vehicles, Maverick could be a great candidate for full electrification.”
I highly recommend reading the full AMA as Chris answered a lot of good questions (as well as a company spokesperson can). https://www.reddit.com/r/FordMaverickTruck/comments/qbbnc9/upvote_for_visibility_ama_with_the_maverick_chief/
…I will also do whatever it takes to buy a Prius Prime if they make a GR version.
I’d be happy with a hybrid AWD Maverick, but agree a PHEV AWD would be ideal. Seeing the Escape doesn’t have a PHEV AWD, I’m not sure if there is some issue to overcome there.
I’d imagine the simplest solution to adding AWD is the Prius/Rav4 Prime route, using an electric rear traction motor.
I would ditch my Ioniq PHEV and my ’02 F150 today if Ford released a PHEV AWD Maverick with the increased towing capacity.
Remote work is overlooked as a potential way to alleviate some of our issues. A lot of articles I see on land use for roads and traffic in cities fetishize living in the city as though everyone would love paying twice the money for half the space if only they would try it. You also have aging executives desperate to retain relevance claiming that being in the office is critical, despite the evidence that it is absolutely not critical at all. Remote work reduces pollution and congestion. It can give people hours and hours of their day back. It gives companies access to much larger talent pools. It is the future.
In terms of plug in hybrids, I would never buy one. More complexity, more stuff to break. All the drawbacks of ICE and batteries brought into one vehicle.
The next significant generation of battery technology is going to be the turning point. You can make the case that EVs are sufficient for a massive proportion of the driving people actually do but, emotionally, its clear that they don’t buy it. I think a moderate increase in charging speed and range will make a huge difference. Improved safety, less weight, and less environmental impact are also within reach.
Manufacturers realizing cars don’t have to look horrible is also an idea that is starting to take hold. Sorry, but that Kia Niro is absolutely *hideous*. The Volvo looks great because it looks like a normal, well styled car.
I wish there was more attention on the grid and I’m glad this article points that out. Its typical of the political situation in america today that the only acceptable narratives are “electric cars are socialism!” and “electric cars are utopia!”. Electric cars are very obviously the future, but we are failing miserably to deal with getting there because its a difficult issue, and difficult issues just make everyone sad.
Matt, thank you for this. I’m known to be too gung-ho on some things, BEVs included. I’ve been thinking more about it, and this is a great article to use to show people where I am now. I’m a fan of all things automotive, and really enjoy seeing what manufacturers can do with BEVs and the dyeing days of ICE.
I can make a great argument about BEV ownership, but I think PHEVs are the better place for most right now, and a great stepping stone to get people electrified and on the path to BEV acceptance.
I’m a bike-commuting, low-car use, car guy, transportation planner/engineer and I support 99% of this article and its foundations*. PHEVs allow folks to only own one car while making 80% of miles electric. It avoids the American insistence on 400 mile range. Imagine carrying around a 100-gallon fuel tank everyday that doesn’t get any lighter as it empties? My only regret is that these articles will increase demand in PHEVs before the gen 2 Volt prices come down to reality.
*I only disagree with “should be allowed to buy and drive just about any car they want” as today’s oversized trucks and SUVs are extraordinarily dangerous in cities. A truck optimized for desert jumps and traversing mudholes shouldn’t be allowed in downtowns.
“It’s an absolute hoot *in a straight line* if you want to involve the gas motor.”
From an appliance perspective, I agree with everything you said. But as a driving enthusiast, the quote above is where my interest stops. If there was something like a WRX that had a manual transmission where the ice was running one axle and the battery the other so that the manual was active in ice mode, I’d be all about it.
The next car I buy will be a plug in hybrid. I was hoping it would be the Prius Prime, but it’s not available with AWD (yet?).
About 60 mile / day commute with no charging available at work. Northeast, so there is definitely going to be a storm or two every winter that causes that 30 mile ride home to take well over an hour with lights / heat / wipers running the entire time. While that’s within the limits of a BEV, I can’t say I’d definitely remember to plug in every night. Driving to work with 100 miles of range may not make it home in those conditions.
Now that I can get nothing suitable with a third pedal, I’m willing to go with something automatic and I may as well make it a plug in hybrid. I’m glad to see more of them coming into the market.
I had a ’16 Sonata PHEV Limited. I routinely got around 28-32 miles per charge. It dropped a bit as the miles went up but I had a trouble-free 80k miles.
That car only had a ~65 hp motor, along with the 150 hp gas 2.0 liter engine (combined rating was 202 hp). Even with significantly less electric HP, I was able to get up to 80 mph on EV only, sometimes bit more going down hill. I really like the S60 Recharge and the V60 Recharge even more, but if it can “only” do 72 mph in EV only, that is a tough sell. Traffic here moves quickly on the highway and with 40 miles of range, I should be able to do half of my commute in EV, like I was sometimes able to do in the Sonata.
I really like the performance of the Volvo and I believe I just fit as a tall guy so these are on my radar. Unfortunately, they haven’t depreciated as fast as Volvos did even just a few years ago and the ones generally available now are the ones with reduced range vs the latest version.
For now, happily stepped back to an 87 octane drinking Sonata N Line that I generally am able to break the 400 mile range per tank and get decent 27-30 mpgs per tank year round. When I tracked MPGs and cost to fuel during my PHEV ownership, it was pretty much equal between electricity cost and gasoline cost driving in hybrid mode. Now, 2023, I would bet there would be a small savings using EV vs higher relative gasoline costs.
The electric motor can easily take my XC60 up to 87 mph before running out of oomph, so unless something’s wrong with that S60 it should be able to do at least that much.
The lease on our Rav4 Hybrid is ending next year, and we are ready to actually buy the next vehicle instead of leasing. Since we love the Rav4, and it is available as a plug-in hybrid we are serious about buying. Our town is less than 10 miles end-to-end, so a plug-in makes a lot of sense. The EV has sufficient range for all of our around town driving. We occasionally head to Lake Tahoe or to Puyallup WA to visit kids, which is when the hybrid does its thing. A plug-in makes really good sense for us. With 600 miles range, we can get to Puyallup with a single gas stop!
I have had a RAV4 Prime for almost a year, and 18k miles. I WFH most days, and my wife commutes 8 miles each way. We have kids in college 3.5 and 4 hours away, in different directions, which contributes to the mileage. Before buying the RAV, I looked into EV’s (Model 4 and Mach-E), but neither would work efficiently for our road trips. We’re very happy with this car. If not doing other driving, my wife can commute 3 days without charging. It takes 11 hours on a standard wall plug to get 45 miles of EV range.
One thing to note: EV range gets crushed at anything over 65 on the highway. The RAV has a hybrid only mode that’s activated by a button next to the shifter that I use on highway.
Based on what you said, I think you would be very happy with the Prime.
Just a warning, availability of the Rav4 Prime is slim to none. I’ve heard of waiting lists of over a year if not more. If you want to actually get a PHEV soon, you might have better luck getting a Ford Escape or a Kia Sorento.
I think that’s changing. When we got ours, we were fortunate enough to get a dealer to give us one of their allocations, and did a factory order. We had to wait a couple months, but got exactly what we wanted. One of my local dealers (Prestige in Ramsey, NJ) now has a couple SE’s on hand, and just dropped ADM. Maybe different in other areas of the country?
“Matt alludes to this later, but I’ll mention it anyway: Though it may seem counterintuitive, buying a high-range fully-electric car could be worse for the environment than buying a hybrid, ..” This has been shown to not be true.
The immediate problem is that the only way they solve the inconvenience of urban EV use is by not having to charge them. This is what most people do. Without DC Fast, it takes as long to charge a PHEV to get 40 miles, as a slow charging EV would take to get around 3 – 400 miles, and a fast charging EV to get 600 – 800 miles. I know where I’d feel I was getting return for my time.
Also, you don’t always have to charge fully with a BEV – so if your commute is short, and you’re in a rush, picking up 40 miles is a matter of maybe 5 – 10 minutes.
I get the anxiety thing, and there may be places where this is very real for even daily use. But, I’d evaluate the charger infrastructure in your area, and see if it is a real issue, or a fear of the unknown. There is a little learning curve, but soon it becomes second nature.
Oh, and EVs are a blast. If you thought your Volvo was fun, think of a “low power” EV like the Bolt: 200hp and 288ft lb torque. Does that sound fun? It is.
I’d buy a PHEV for both cars if I could find a good option, and it isn’t too expensive to “upgrade” to it.
The Volvo XC90 Recharge is like a $10k premium over the XC90 gas-only. While running errands on EV power would be nice, you can buy a lot of gas for $10k.
The Prius Prime will be unobtainable for $34k for at least a year. The RAV4 Prime is still hard to buy years after launch.
For my commuter, I want the PHEV to still get good mileage when it is running on gas. My gripe with the Volt back in the day was its fuel economy wasn’t that impressive after your EV range was gone. Same with the X5 PHEV today.
Looks like the Kia doesn’t have that problem. Toyota certainly doesn’t.
I love this article because it’s something I’ve been talking about with my wife, parents, and friends for the past year. I will probably be needing a new vehicle in the next year or so. I would love to have a small truck (Maverick or Stout look good) but would also like to have a PHEV.
My vehicle is primarily used for commuting 70 miles round trip. Occasionally, I need more distance than that. I would like a small truck for the odd jobs around the house that it would come in handy for. But, if I was to buy right now, I’d probably go with a PHEV just because I don’t NEED a truck. My wife’s Explorer can tow a trailer for things like lumber or mulch.
PHEV would let me run on electric almost exclusively as I can charge at home and at my office (for free!). If I could get a PHEV that hit that ~70 miles of purely electric range and around that $40K mark, I’d be ordering one as soon as I could.
I’m really hoping that since smaller trucks seem to be making a comeback, someone will make one with a PHEV model.
Great article!
I live out in the burbs and travel longer distances about once a month or so. If my PHEV could do 50 to 100 miles on battery, I feel like it would be perfect. Essentially all of my local trips would be electric saving the dino juice for longer trips.
Same, but I’m in a pretty small town. Even 40 miles of EV range would be fine as long as I’ve got ~300 range from the ICE for monthly trips to the office (across the state). Will someone please give me this car in a relatively small hatchback or wagon??
You’re looking for about the same car I am. So far it looks like the Niro (mentioned in the article) is about it without going into the luxury market…
My Gen-2 Volt still seems to have some of (if not the) best EPA battery-only range (53 miles – it gets far more in summer) of any PHEV out there…and it’s six years old and discontinued.
Also, the fact the engine will not turn on unless you tell it to or run out of range is a massive requirement in my book. A number of these will fire up the engine at the slightest too-heavy press of the accelerator as I believe their main drive motors are a bit less powerful than the Volt’s.
Even with those “issues”, a good PHEV is the way to go. Being able to drive on electrical (or mostly all electrical) for most trips around town – or to work and back – makes things so much better…and cheaper.
I was looking for this comment. I dont like that if I press the accelerator more than 50% in my Pacifica PHEV the engine will scream trying to assist to get you going. I don’t even know if its good for the engine since its dead cold and suddenly you start using it full power. My Chevy Volt is much better in that aspect, no matter what, if I have battery range, the engine will not start unless its freezing outside. We are in 2023, and nobody had created a better Chevy Volt so far in the aspect on how it works.
You can still find Volts on GM’s certified pre-owned page. We bought one that came off lease. Was half the original retail price. We never have to worry about running out of battery since the Voltec generator is there to power the motor. This should have been what the auto industry started with and not done the full mondo electric car until there were things like good battery capacity and numerous chargers. Too many “absolutists” out there fighting against the good and striving for yet unachievable perfection.
Totally agree. Bonus points for using the Pareto Principle!
I had a 2012 and now a 2017 Volt. I honestly can’t imagine driving anything else, I am entirely spoiled at this point.
I like PHEVs, and a subcompact- or compact-sized one (a bit smaller than the Niro) would be on my shortlist. The Audi A3 e-tron Sportback is the sweet spot.
So glad you wrote this fine article, lots of good points. I fully support that PHEVs should be a bridge. Also the point that it changes driving habits to increase mph, that hit home. Unconsciously I started paying attention myself.
So piping up for those who can’t afford new and bought a used PHEV, the experience so far has been good. Bought a 2015 Ford Fusion Platinum about 2-3 years ago with 47K in miles. Just hit 77,777.7 miles (I took a pic), and it serves its purpose as I had hoped.
My daily commute is 26 miles one way. I drive up and down elevations of over 1200′ on a twisty two lane highway. Temps can be in the 30s to 110 and it’s mostly dry. Previous vehicles were between 22-26 mpg. The Fusion when new was supposed to have a 19 mile EV only range. When we got it, it was around 15-17. Now it’s about 10 as a DD. That said, it still averages around 65-85 mpg in DD, (occasionally lower depending on A/C, heat, or lights). Even trips of 90 miles (which we occasionally do), will get us 35-45 mpg mostly on the engine.
I know the battery will need replacing, and this one right now is around 4K all in (reconditioned). From what I’ve read, with patience and following strict instructions, I can probably do it myself.
Is that worth it? So far the signs are yes. The car’s been trouble free on the whole, it’s comfortable, handles ok for what it is, and while I doubt it’ll do another 75-100K as a physical car, it would meet our needs for several years more for much less than the cost of something to replace it.
So a Ford of questionable reliability is serving us well and we’ll go for another PHEV when the time comes.
I have a C-Max (regular hybrid) with 230k miles on it with minimal maintenance. Your Fusion will easily do another 100k.
I love PHEVs but what I want in particular is a PHEV tow vehicle–like the RAM 1500 or F-150. I’m considering the F-150 hybrid right now. The reason is simple: I could actually do just fine with an EV at the moment, I like PHEVs, and that V60 would be a hoot, but it’s not cheap and if a Model Y gives me similar performance and 300+ mile range for considerably less, I think that’s just fine.
But with tow vehicles it’s another matter: EVs for towing are not there yet. A PHEV tow vehicle could get you around town when not towing and then let you tow without having problems…that would be a HUGE benefit, IMO. I think most electric trucks are more of a gimmick or glamor thing at this point. They are hugely expensive and fun, but can’t tow very well (and you can’t charge it without unhitching the trailer), which is a major reason for owning a truck in the first place.
Well said! I use my truck to tow my camper many hundreds of miles. I’d buy a PHEV truck, but not an EV truck. 90 percent of my travel is not towing and would be nearly gas free.
Well said! I’m at a loss as to why hybrid drive trucks haven’t been a thing. It seems being able to use battery power for short (unloaded) trips, gas for longer range, the extremely torquey electric motor to assist when loaded or towing, with better fuel mileage when up to speed due to a smaller ICE would be quite popular.
I’m hoping for a PHEV minivan to replace my Dodge Grand Caravan; I know the Pacifica is PHEV but isn’t rated to tow anything, and I still need something to tow my pop-up camper (2,000 lbs). We use the Caravan for carting the kids to stuff, run errands around town, my wife’s commute to work so 90% of our driving could be EV. But I still need something I can pull my camper with for our camping trips. The Toyota Sienna can tow 3,500 lbs and is a hybrid, but I’m hoping they come out with a PHEV for 2024. The Caravan has 167k miles on it now and may not last forever…
I’ll jump in and support this comment as well! Our household needs a truck that can tow maybe 7-10 days a month. We would love a PHEV truck.
I love the looks of the new Prius and appreciate the boost in performance, but Holy F-, It’s about as hard to get into as the General Lee from the Dukes of Hazzard. My friend and I did the NY auto show, and we could not forgive the front door portal. I’ve driven the misery of a Gen 3 Prius and it was much easier to get into.
“While its 0-60 mph time in the mid-7-second range isn’t great”
Exactly how spoiled are you? Mid 7 second 0-60 is a great time for an everyday car.
I have a Niro PHEV and I agree that it’s a great vehicle (not that I’m biased or anything). Now if Ford would just make an AWD PHEV Maverick, I would be set.
Hold on a second Hondo. Your column is writing checks that common sense cant cash. Sure clean air and lower pollution is a good thing but a few errors.
1. A well maintained ICE car will make less pollution than just the building of an EV.
2. IF YOU buy a zero emission EV but resell your ICE car you have increased pollution. You may be polluting less but that ice car is still running there is the tremendous pollution to just create the EV, and then run it and the pollution to create the electricity to run the ev.
3. The whole density thing is so stupid and actually the way cities operate worsens pollution. You think 20 year old cars pollute? How about 100 year old buildings? Room AC units 5 to a apartment 600 apartments? All that concrete. Refusal to allow Walmarts so you have mom and pop stores every 3 buildings running 60 year old equipment. Traffic sitting in for 5 light changes? Having so much light pollution to amuse the idiots. Turn them off before you even beg me to move to the hell that is a city.
I live where a traffic jam is actually waiting through 2 light changes. Rarely happens. My lawn creates more oxygen than I use so i am a zero polluter before i do one thing. Global warming is a real thing. But it is caused by cities and city dwellers. The worst of the conspicuous consumption people. Now like a lot of ill informed environmentalists they have ignorant solutions that let them off the hook by asking the non offenders to carry the load. Cities are climate offenders who are like the NIMBY people everywhere. Solve the problem but dont inconvenience me.
#1 does work for low mileage drivers. It doesn’t work for average people driving 10,000 miles per year. It’s a simple calculation, just add the production emissions to the driving emissions and see where the lines cross in the two scenarios. (Engineering Explained had a video on it: https://youtu.be/L2IKCdnzl5k ) If you keep your old ICE car, you avoid being responsible for building a new car. That’s enough to offset the CO2 emission of the little gasoline you do burn if you barely drive/don’t drive much.
Let’s say that the two cars to compare are a 25 mpg ICE vs. the Tesla Model 3, which requires 10,400 kg CO2 emissions to produce. Each gallon of gas you burn in a well-maintained ICE car produces 10 kg CO2e. So basically, building a Tesla Model 3 is equivalent in terms of CO2 emissions of burning 1,040 gallons of gasoline before you even drive it a single mile. The 0.125 kg CO2e per mile of the Model 3 eventually will have you producing lower emissions overall than keeping the 25mpg ICE car after about 35000 miles. Every mile afterwards is a win for the environment (unless your car gets 80 mpg, where it would always be about equal, at least using calculations based on the Engineering Explained video).
Where the EV doesn’t make up for the initial 10,400kg production CO2 emissions is for low mileage drivers like me who are ran/bike/ski commuted to work, live where they want to recreate and otherwise minimize their driving. I only bought 59.9 gallons of gasoline in 2022 (per my Fuelly log) – basically only drove to get groceries or go to very nearby trailheads if not running/skiing directly out my back yard. At that rate, it would be 17 years/26K miles of burning gasoline in my old Subarus before it equals the amount of CO2 just to produce one Tesla Model 3 and drive it zero miles. By the time the lines cross in the calculation, it would be 2 decades+ old and the Tesla’s battery would be long dead.
You’d have to do the calculations for any particular case (gallons burned per year), but I’d say people driving less than about 5K per year are already living a low-emissions lifestyle and should be praised. They should probably be encouraged to keep their well-maintained ICE cars while leaving the EVs to high mileage drivers who are better able to put those savings to work. My 80+ mom for example only drives 2K per year. It wouldn’t do the environment any good for her to buy an EV. The calculation just doesn’t work out. She’s not going to drive another 30K in her remaining driving life, much less get there in 3 years.
The big miss in all of those calculations is that the ICE car you sell is replacing a much more polluting older car for someone else. That has a tremendous affect as the most polluting vehicle owners aren’t buying new cars, they are waiting for others to sell their newer cars. If you include those macro effects in your calculations, they will change the result in many cases. Maybe not for mom or those others driving very little though. You have to run some pretty decent simulations to understand it but that kind of modeling is not brain surgery. Just harder for people to understand.
To put it another way. those calculations you cite only make sense if you are going to take your old car to the scrap yard. It doesn’t take into account the portion of manufacturing pollution banked in your current car that would be passed along to the next owner. You have to expense the manufacturing cost (in terms of pollution) linearly over the life of the car.
I don’t sell my ICE cars.
Well that doesnt help either.
Manufacturing enssions of my cars is already banked and was roughly similar to, probably a bit less than the 10K kg CO2 of a Model 3 because they weigh less. You can average that over 20 and 27 years for my Subaru wagons and counting, and that part is always going to look good no matter who owns it. But me not treating them as shitboxes and never selling any cars I’ve ever bought makes them last only longer. This is a good thing. I’m an environmentalist (and environmental scientist) making an environmental argument for well maintained ICE cars to be used for low mileage drivers, grannies like my mom.
Is it? Or does some radwood hippy buy it and put it in his garage or does he give it to his son to deliver pizzas driving it even more often? I think if you follow the math we continue to have more vars on the roads by millions. Shit aint going down til we have less cars. And even with the lack of new cars available for purchases the number of cars on the road is higher than woody harrelson
Interesting. Thanks for the reply. I’m not sure I agree with you 100%, but I like that you have taken the time to think about this issue, unlike Tacodave and others who parrot the line that EVs are bad for the environment. I’ll check out that engineering explained video.
I still would like to know the total CO2 generated by ICE vehicles. Tailpipe emissions are the most obvious contribution, but emissions generated by oil drilling, fuel refining, and fuel delivery add a lot of emissions as well. Plus, emissions are generated by building ICE vehicles, so that should be factored in (I’m only talking about scenarios where you are replacing the car anyway; dumping a perfectly good ICE vehicle to buy an EV is probably not the best for the environment). Although, it also would be appropriate to consider CO2 emissions from power generation for EVs to be the best comparison.
I’m not sure I agree with your assumption that batteries will be completely dead after 20 years. I’m sure a battery would have lost a lot of capacity by then, but if you are only driving locally a few thousand miles per year, a Model S with 30% capacity probably meets your needs.
Fuelconomy.gov has the data you want for upstream CO2 GHG (global greenhouse gases CO2, methane CO2 equivalent, and nitrous oxide CO2 equivalent). For the zip code where I live the data shows that a Prius hybrid’s tailpipe+upstream GHG is 155+33=188 g/mi, while a Tesla Model Y AWD Performance is 170g/mi. Tesla Model X is worse than a Prius hybrid at 190g/mi in my zip code. The Mach-E in my zip code is 190 to 230g/mile, worse than a Prius hybrid in every model. I’ll let you look up EV trucks data.
I’d argue for more small hybrids being encouraged at this time can accomplish the same climate change goals at a lower cost to consumers if we can get/persuade by rule making more people to relinquish big ass vehicles.
A Model S at 30%would be unusable. Battery packs are not linear when busted like that.
When did i ever say evs were bad for the planet? I simply stated that introducing millions of evs without reducing ice cars and not considering the fact the usa electric grid is at capacity, is stupid at best. Enviromentalists never want to plan, they probably like to protest more than solve issues. I remember when in the 60s they demanded building nuclear reactors in every town for free energy for all. That didnt work now they want to tear the reactors they wanted down. Tear down coal plants that towns need and fuck keeping power on in the town.most enviromentalist are living off their parents earning and doing nothing doing drugs and protesting things they dont understand. You calling me out and lying about what i have said makes me think you are one of them.
You explained better than me in more depth and yes nothing beats a walker biker, orvpublic transportation. My main point was sell your car buy an ev. The buyer is still driving the car so no overall reduction which i think you agreed with. (A little late for math for me) Perhaps your knowledge surpasses mine, it certainly seems so but noone has really covered the climate change damage resulting from overbuilding in the northern hemisphere so much and in such tight areas how it affects the planets rotation, plus the billions of tons of space dust that has landed on the planet over the centuries. Hell just the spread of earth dust from major events like pompeii and many other disasters has to affect the planets balance. But i am not smart enough to measure it and unfortunately Stephen Hawking probably the only one to be smart enough to run such a study is no longer with us. But we are only looking at the temperature over the last 100 years and nothing else that may affect it.
That there is a troll. Or just really, really ignorant.
It’s kind of sad how hard it is to tell the difference…
I’ve found the arguments against PHEVs fall into 3 main groups: A) the minority of people who BEVs work perfectly for; B) people who have no grasp of just how big the gulf is between “where we are” and “where we need to be”; and C) people who are just against electrification because that’s what they’ve been told to think.
Group A: You guys are living the dream, enjoy it
Group B: There’s a saying; “Perfect is the enemy of the good.” Basically enough attainable “good” changes can often be more effective than one extremely difficult/near impossible “perfect” change.
Group C: They’ll come around when the vested interests that feed their opposition do…
Okay to set my record straight EVs are great we need them especially in the cities. But a new ev without the reduction of a corresponding more polluting car does nothing. Passing laws to eliminate ice cars and mandating public transportation everywhere because it works in the city but is a horrible reversal in small town usa is stupid. In cambria county they have buses running all over the place empty. They provide 26 passenger buses to give private rides to elderly or the poor for free. They will provide a free trip for a drug addict to get their fake heroin from pittsburgh across the state to philidelphia or wherever the hophead wants to go. Yes i worked for camtran. They installed a million dollar bus wash that after 3 years still hasnt washed a bus. Of course its all union. I suggested some needed money savings ideas and was fired from a well paid taxpayer funded job.
Almost everything you just said is what I was referring to in Class B. There simply isn’t going to be a perfect, one size fits all solution that will be attainable in the timeframe we need.
This isn’t to provide justification to just give up, we just collectively need to accept the reality we face and be understand that a lot of mostly effective, actionable solutions are at least as effective as a single perfect solution that is nearly impossible to implement in a usable timeframe.
To apply that logic to the current BEV vs. PHEV debate; a PHEV generally requres about 1/10 of the battery specific resources as a BEV (for the pedants: we’re just assuming a new car is being built with equivalent impacts as an ICE car for simplicity). So for all the negative exernality costs of producing one BEV for one person to get off gasoline, you could have eliminated 80-90% of the average fuel use for 10 people. Now extrapolate that over the number of people who have bought new ICE cars over the past few years vs. BEVs because the (often overblown) concerns over BEVs. All the while technology and infrastructure will improve (at least technology, that’s kind of what it does) potentially making BEVs more practical for more people but you’ve already reaped the benefits of reduced fuel consumption and subsequent decreased pollution during that time.
On your local busing example; I’d think a gov’t operated Uber-like service would have been more effective, but that’s where best-fit infrastructure changes come into play…
I’m not sure trolling and ignorance are mutually exclusive. He can be both.
Damn straight it doesnt matter where you are for co2 and such.
Reread but if you sell your ice and that person drives it all that pollution is still being made plus any pollution made from your new car a car must come off the road to reduce pollution.
As far as the 1st statement it was an article here or on Jalopnik. I will try to find it.
For the 3rd that is the hardest. But between the COL in the city, plus citizens all wanting multiples of everything and not actually having 1 big store grocery, hardware etc but many little ones, plus they have public transport and the cities are jam packed. Now i could generate a 10 page report but who is going to read it.
However building a new eco city from scratch would result in a far better enviromental usage but you have the whole cost and enviromental damage of a new city and still have the old city.
Great article Matt! I’ve been on team PHEV for a while now. They’re a great solution that works for most people today. Not tomorrow. Not a few years from now. Right now. Most people will have to make 0 lifestyle adjustments if they switch to one and the benefits as far as emissions are concerned are significant. I have no idea why we aren’t talking about them more.
I think the aspect that gets lost in translation too often is that you don’t NEED specialized equipment to charge these. Do you have a wall outlet and an extension chord? If you do you can use a PHEV effectively. The batteries are small enough that they can be charged overnight on a regular old outlet, and if your commute is within their range you won’t have to use gas during the week.
Then you have the gas engine for weekends/longer trips and even when you use it it’s going to be getting better fuel economy than a normal ICE vehicle because most PHEVs can just revert to being normal hybrids. For right here and right now they’re amazing and I think everyone obsessing over BEVs has kind of caused them to get lost in the shuffle. Again…thanks for this article! It’s a good one.
I agree with 99.713% of your comment, but I respectfully disagree with your implication that high capacity BEVs require specialized charging equipment. It might take 2 days to fully charge a flat Model S on a standard outlet, but that is irrelevant for drivers that average 40 miles per day (i.e. the average driver). If you take the occasional 300 mile road trip, you can make up for that on days you drive 10 miles. A higher capacity battery offers more flexibility to catch up charge on days you drive less.
Otherwise, I agree that PHEVs are both the present and the future.
I own a S60 Recharge and it is honestly the best all around vehicle I have ever owned. My commute is short enough where I barely use any gasoline, the power is impressive, it’s quiet and comfortable and it looks amazing.
Plus it is always fun dusting a challenger bro at a stop light when they cut to the inside lane to get by the “slow” Volvo.
I am so jelly, those cars are beautiful
Let’s just come to an agreement on PHEV Jeeps ( or, FFS… Any Jeep) – less than 2% of them go off-roading.
98% of Jeeps are Mall-Rated, and of those, the only off-road stretch they see is when Jimbo or Karen drop a tire off the edge of the road when leaving a titty bar or Starbucks.
Okay noone goes to malls anymore but if you want to get technical. We all buy cars just to drive them for fun. That is worse than buying a Jeep to drive and not 4 wheel. Before we point fingers get rid of all your toys and only drive a phev. Plan your trips so you shop on the way home and never drive for fun. Man the hypocrisy in some of these pointing figures comments is amazing.
I’ll bite.
I live in southern Arizona.
I have a lifted Jeep Wrangler JK on 35’s that I use for camping, trail runs, small trailer towing, and is technically my daily driver.
A perma-project 240sx with an SR swap, converted to flex fuel for that E85 goodness, and no Air Conditioning
And a small Motorcycle.
The motorcycle provides 80% of the same fun as the 240sx, with the same general flaws, but the 240 has significant sentimental value rolled into it.
Neither the 240sx nor the Jeep are fun to drive to work, neither is really good at being driven to work. The jeep is loud, inefficient, and annoying to park in small lots or parking garages.
The 240, barely clears speed bumps even with its suspension adjusted fully ‘up’, is too tempting to hit boost and spool, and is a sweat box 5 months a year.
A PHEV would be perfect for my 20 mile round trip to and from work, would keep miles and wear off the expensive components of my other vehicles, and allow me to enjoy them for what I built them for.
Hitting the mountain and curved roads in the 240 is fun, commuting or grocery shopping is less so. 90’s era anti theft measures dont add up to much, and I have to be careful about where I park and how I leave it.
The mall rated jeep thing, and lifted bro-truck thing is 100% true. People, out of personal style choices, made their vehicle worse at doing the thing they use it for.
You do you, but I would prefer to use fun cars for fun purposes, and appliances for appliance purposes. Wanting the aesthetic of a jeep for standard commuting makes sense.
Otherwise we should all daily drive Caterhams and Morgan Three Wheelers.
no one goes to malls? have you been to florida? (if you answered no then consider yourself lucky) especially the gulf side. It’s all they have/do over there. Giant outlet malls as far as the eye can see.
Nashville, TN area checking in. Cools Springs Galleria, Opry Mills Mall, and Green Hill malls are packed. Not all malls are dead.
Having been to Gatlinburg I’d say that whole community counts as a mall too.