Featured 1 in 5 Californians have swapped their EV for a gas car — and this is to blame

The articles are all referencing the study I linked to in post #13. It was of California residents only. We have to consider the effects of their incentives, like HOV access. Which may have encouraged people in which a plug in wasn't a good fit for to get one.

Some interesting data points for the study. 41% of the people that had a plug in didn't have access to home charging. Over half the people that went back to a non-plug in said they would consider a plug in again in the future. When asked what they wanted to see in a future PHEV, the response was for an EV range well over a hundred miles.

Concerning the PHEV abandonment, keep in mind that a PHEV means compromises to both the EV and ICE side of the car. Considering the time period most of the PHEVs in question would have been the Volt, PiP, Ford Energis, and maybe the early Prime. They all have issues with space, seating, or EV ability to some degree. the the nature of tax incentives means the buyer still has to out more money at the time of sale than with a non-plug car. Even leasing may mean higher cost to the user. With likely most of those without home charging getting a PHEV, why pay extra for a function you can hardly use?

A warmed up cat will reduce emissions to less than a quarter when it is cold. Only CO2 has a direct relation to the amount of fuel burned. The others are influenced by engine design and combustion control. So a hybrid burning more fuel for warm up is likely still emitting less of those than a pick up.

 

Based on my measurements the cat never got warm during the duration of my winter trip into work thus just blasting out tons of voc and wasting fuel for no reason or gain, likely also wearing my cat prematurely.

15% of trips based on the government metrics are too short to fire the cat correctly during fair weather, let alone in cold weather

Wasting fuel no matter how cleanly you burn it results in 100x the pollution per gallon on the supply side.

 

The ‘swap batteries’ are a critical resource needed for another EV.

Bob Wilson

 

I lived in L.A. for years and still have many friends there. Some of them are now driving PHEVs and EVs.

Based on what I hear when I'm talking to them or visiting out there? HOV lane access is only responsible for a paltry 99% of their interest in driving pluggy cars. The rest is motivated some other way.

I know, anecdotes ≠ data. But word on the street does tell you some stuff just fine.

 

We've had posts here from buyers who had no intention of charging their PHEV, and got the car mainly for the HOV access. Considering the number of respondents to this study that didn't have home charging, the phase out of some types of PHEVs from the HOV lane, or just uncertainty of it being there at time the lease was up, and move PHEV owners not getting another plug in isn't surprising.

You look at California for this because of the high adoption rate of EVs there, but the generous incentives means more people on the edge of a plug in working for them will try it..

 

It’d be interesting to see the reaction, say if Cali HOV lane requirement was revised to exclude plug-ins.

 

Keep in mind that once upon a time you only needed a hybrid to access those lanes. Hybrids sold very well during those years, and volume declined after "cordless hybrids" were excluded from HOV lanes in favor of pluggables.

At some point the pluggables won't qualify, it'll be strict EV only. And I won't be surprised if CA PHEV sales go over a cliff that same day.

 

The author's message w/ a twist . . .

4 out of 5 drivers who buy a plugin - never look back.

 

Some of these articles are giving the study results a more negative slant.

 

Pluggables did loose HOV after a certain age, lots of complaints from PIP and Volt owners whose tags became non-renueable

 

as far as I know you can still get HOV decals for plug hybrids... but the decals always expired before the cars did, even when they were granted for cordless hybrids.

The other end of the scheme is that the carpool lane access was supposed to stimulate sales of the very cleanest running cars. If you want to maintain long-term access to the HOV lanes, you need to replace your car frequently.

 

They probably bought the plug-in hybrid in order to get the car pool stickers and rarely/never plugged it in.

Remove those data points and you probably have a better survey.

Mike

 

In 1990's Calif - 1st stickers went to (ev1, 1st gen rav) electric cars & also (honda) natural gas. Hybrid stickers came later.

gas hit $4/gallon for the 1st time ever

the strategy calif uses to limit stickers .... whether PHEV or ev - is term limits. Keeps many owners upgrading to the next Rev sticker, via new purchases. That provides used product to those who can't afford new. California is on their 6th iteration of stickers - using this principal. That's a whole lot of used EV's!
.

 

Almost universally all your complaints are why Tesla is taking most of the BEV market in the US (minus the low end).

The Superchargers are all over, both in cities and on Interstates in good locations.
They have lots of chargers so one being broken isn't usually an issue.
But Tesla is responsible for the chargers and they fix them, unlike GM, Ford, etc.
You don't need an app for a Supercharger. You just drive up and plug in. The plug IDs your car.
Granted you do have to have a credit card on file with Tesla, but there is no fiddling with a phone app or anything.

And then there are the Tesla destination chargers, hidden away at all sorts of places you "drive to" but are clearly shown on the Nav screen. All free.


Mike

 

Northern Wisconsin/ UP has a very poor charge network in general and that includes superchargers and most of my complaints still apply as the superchargers are in cities in poor locations,
to the south in Oshkosh the only Tesla setup requires you to drive 3.5 miles off the highway through 6 roundabouts to Festival foods and if memory serves it’s a slower system.

Wisconsin: buy a Model X, fears | Tesla Motors Club

True I would have a longer range car but $9999 Bolt Vrs $3xxxx Tesla is a lot of bank to still have the issue of near zero public infrastructure until I get nearly into MN

Going from here to twin cities winter would still be problematic and to the north along Lake Superior where I drive multiple times a year would be equally frustrating

 

There are chargers in that location. Yes, they may not be ideal in terms of location and speed, but neither was it ideal to carry around fuel in jerry cans for trips during the early days of the ICE car.

The charging network needs to improve, and it is. New chargers are opening up all the time.

 

Look at the superchargers in CA. Even go back a few years (if there is a way to do that)
Now estimate how far your state is behind CA to estimate when you'll be in the modern age.

Mike

 

Escanaba and Marquette Michigan should have a Supercharger open sometime in the third quarter of this year.