Featured Plug-In Hybrids Are Not What You Think They Are

It could have been a good car, if it sold for the right price. One of the main reasons I sold it was the price of the battery went from around $5,000 to $8,000. The Leaf cost me $12,000 minus $3,000 in incentives, so $9,000 plus a lot of taxes. Before the Leaf, the most I had ever spent on a car was $3,000. So paying three times that for a car that didn't go far was a big mistake.

Ya, well, for most of us making the switch 100% away from ICE would be prohibitively expensive right now. And you'd have to convince a lot of individuals to make the switch, which would not be easy.

 

I live in a cool environment and thought that the Leaf would last quite a while and work out fine, in spite of battery longevity problems. It probably would have.

My main gripe is it didn't work for long distance driving, which I have to drive far, at least once a month. And there was a time when I had the Leaf that I ended up needing to drive far (over 70 miles one way) twice or thrice a week and had to do so for several months.

 

I'd like for CR to have gone for the jugular and just stated the simple reality that a lot of current PHEVs, particularly ones like the Jeeps, are compliance cars that the manufacturers never expect to have anyone plug in.

But PHEVs definitely confuse people. I've explained mine and half the time they respond "well 50 miles. You won't be taking that on vacation." They just completed blipped over the gas part. Not to mention the 55 mpg when on gas part. Combine that with the lazy people who can't be bothered to plug them in.

It's a fantastic technology that's being wasted because of people's behavior.

 

25 posts, and they're still what i thought they were

 

They actually will plug them in. It's the only way to get the max power from the truck. Compared to non-power PHEVs, they just have shorter EV ranges, and may not be much better than the ICE efficiency in hybrid mode. The Wrangler 4xe might actually be worse.

 

I get the question a lot of how much does it cost to drive my traditional hybrids off of electricity compared to running them on gasoline and how long I have to plug them in to charge up the battery.

I wish Toyota and others hadn't defined the non-plug in electric boost drive train as being "hybrid" when it doesn't actually have an alternative propultion system that can be fueled or chaged and used independently from the main propultion system.

 

Toyota’s most recent advertising campaign makes it worse yet.
Many of their commercials end with noting that Toyota has the largest ‘electrified’ fleet.
Lumping hybrids, PHEVs and BEVs (and, I suppose FCEVs), is confusing at best.
You may as well call any car with a 12V battery ‘electrified’.

 

My first car had a 6V battery and positive ground (1951 Plymouth Cranbrook). I guess it was also electric.

 

My DIL's plug-in gets used for trips but most often for around town. And gets driven an hour and back to see me when the mid-grandchild needs the hours of driving to count towards her drivers license. My son has had mid-grand out in the MY but wants her to use the plug-in as more conventional and what she got started on (Prius v) for a while. MY is his 30 mile commuter daily. Both get plugged in.

 

Yeah I watched that CR video a while back when it first came out. Huh, I've never thought the idea of a Plug-in Hybrid was to extend the battery. I must be in a minority but I've always thought it was to extend the gas tank.

 

I thought it was to use what's cheaper and most practical for the moment.

EV around town (in my area electricity is cheaper).

But when I need to go on long trips switch to gasoline when the electricity runs out.

 

I was never shy about switching to hybrid mode even when I had a full battery. Acceleration is the killer of all efficiency. I have tons of data and graphs that show that when I tracked the OBD in my PiP and Prime. Hybrid mode in my PiP and Prime was way more effective (not efficient) than using the electricity only when I accelerated to get to highway speeds or heavy HVAC usage (it also kept the battery and electrical parts cooler). This was basically because the electric only parts in the PiP and Prime were under powered compared to hybrid mode and they used a crap load of range for large hills, acceleration and heavy HVAC usage. I've often cruised in EV only at highway speeds and got almost as much range as getting around town. Once at speed it really didn't cost a lot (in terms of energy) to stay at speed. I was more of a micro mode manager.

 

40hp is enough for acceleration, at least in a 2,000lb car for me.

 

i thought it was you could do most of your driving electric, and had the engine for longer trips