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

Aren’t mpg’s more important than transmission type?

 

i don't have the patience to sit through 35 minutes of nonsense to get to a kernel of real data, did they name any serious offenders?

 

i wonder if a 240 mile battery is a mistake for a 10 mile per day driving average?

a lot of wasted natural resources? plus the extra tire wear. but i'm encouraged to buy it because of the state and federal tax credits, whereas a phev no longer qualifies, nor does a 100 mile battery.

 

yeah, a lot of these round table discussions amongst 'experts' are just opinions like we all have. i've never found them stimulating.
i don't think most gas drivers consider any of the things they talk about. i'm sure the decision to move from all gas to hybrid to phev to bev is different for everyone.

 

There should be more choice in terms of ranges and battery sizes in the future. For me, a 240 mile range means I won't need to install a Level 2 EVSE for the weekly commute, but would with a 150 mile EV.

I don't think PHEVs are excluded from the current federal incentive, nor is there a range limit. I do remember a capacity minimum in the 7 to 10 kWh range, though that can be from bills that didn't reach law.

Do a power search at Fueleconomy.gov, and you'll find many European brand PHEVs that are power hybrids with batteries around the size of the gen4 Prime and shorter EV range. The plug is about increasing performance, and hybrid efficiency isn't much better than an ICE model. Then the original Outlander PHEV also had a relatively low efficiency ICE engine.

Which is part of how EU incentives for PHEVs lead to increased carbon emissions.

 

i guess the same could be said for bev's that focus on performance over efficiency. we're still at the stage where you have to find a way to swing buyers

 

Couldn’t watch it, skipped forward and heard the young guy talking about the Ford escape has a screen that shows ok, to select if your foot is all the way down in ev mode, before the gas engine kicks on. So it’s declared a negative. Others like the Prime and Volt stay in ev, as far as I experienced. No option except you alone select hv mode. The Ford warning sounds right to me. Either way is right, Ford spent a little more money giving an extra option appear on the screen in that special case. Not a negative.
With this kind of panel, I can see why people don’t think much of CR, although couldn’t watch but a minute or so of it.

 

My family has and had many hybrids, several plug-ins and an EV. Each has their use case. I refuse to get into the tribal thing of mine is bigger/better than yours.

What makes sense for me may not for you. And vice versa.

But when I see a tribal espousal being contradicted by the experience of the poster...

 

Extend that thinking, and it leads to PHEVs being no better than ICE cars.

 

There is a difference though.
With ICE vehicles, an increase in performance leads to a substantial decrease in efficiency.
With BEVs, added performance is almost free. Longer range through more batteries, gives more power.
The increased motor power is a small increase in price. Car cabling might need to be upgraded as well. Depending on just how much power, tires may need to be upgraded as well.

There is a lot of knowledge about ICE cars that no longer hold with BEVs.
Some of these are better for ICE, others are better for BEVs.

 

From a PHEV driver-
I appreciate the ability to choose if I will drive in electric mode or gas mode.

Due to current tragic world events gas is probably going to go up and possibly become a little harder to get.

For individuals who live in a small town and use a car sparingly this means they can choose to use no gas at all if it becomes scarce or limited.
Back when the kids where in high school we used to make 25 to 30 mile round trips in the morning and evening to take and pick them up from school. We would use the car during the day to run errands etc. With the Level 2 charger in the garage and a 2.5 hours charging time to fully charge the battery it was not unusually to drive up to 90 miles a day on all electric on the plug-in hybrid.

For some the Plug-in Hybrid is a great car and fits their lifestyle and transportation needs perfectly not only giving them an all electric means of transportation for 90% of their normal driving but an option to take off anywhere at the drop of a hat with a 600 mile gas range averaging 50 mpg with no planning or special route considerations for the trip.

Great fit for some lifestyles.

 

I admit that when EV's and plug-in hybrids first started coming out, I was one of the ones to be influenced into thinking a plug-in hybrid was neither a great EV nor a great ICEV. So I got an EV, a 3-year-old Nissan Leaf.

However, I soon found out how wrong I was. Yes, there are familes that own two cars, and one can be an EV and the other an ICEV, and that way they can get the best of both worlds. But for me, I had this nice, newish EV that was only good for going to work and the store, and a tiny, old, 1985 VW diesel with holes rusted through the floor and around the fenders for going and doing most everything else as a family. That didn't go over very well with the wifey, and our EV ownership was cut short and we traded the EV for a traditional hybrid.

Well, maybe some day I'll be able to buy a cheap EV beater for under a grand or two that makes sense for around town, with a nice newer ICEV for the highway. But as it stands now, I can only afford one nice car. I kind of wish I would have gotten a PHEV, such as a Chevy Volt or a PiP, now that I realize that I could have been and could still be driving my short commuter trips on EV power for all these years.

But anyhow, the Avalon is my newest car I've ever owned, and most of my other cars I drove until they were at least 30 years old, some with over half a million miles on them. The original goal was, and still is, to try to get that kind of longevity out of the Avalon. So perhaps some time after 2040 I should be in the market for my next car, if I'm still alive and still able to drive by then. Hopefully there'll be a lot of good EV and PHEV options by then.

 

https://gmauthority.com/blog/2023/10/2023-chevy-bolt-ev-bolt-euv-final-order-cycle-pushed-back-again/amp/

My 13 mile range pip supplies 90% of my needs.
If it wasn’t 11 years old and didn’t have an engine problem, I might have kept it.

 

That's great news! I hope they keep pushing it back. I hope that includes base models. I hope I can get a base one for MSRP after January first, minus both state and federal incentives of course. I'm not going to hold my breath though.

I'd buy it from you when you're ready to sell it, but you'd be better off selling it for what it's worth. I'm pretty stingy. A car like that might be at least 50% of my driving miles and I would likely go for weeks without ever using gasoline.

 

There will be oil for a long time, after everyone here is gone. But since it is called fossil fuel, finite, maybe we could save it for uses like aircraft? Or should we be like the buffalo hunters of old.