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There are fundamentally four types of vehicles out there that use a battery that isn’t just the 12-volt under the hood. There’s a traditional hybrid (which Toyota calls a self-charging hybrid), there’s a plug-in hybrid, there’s a range-extended EV (EREV), and there’s a full battery-electric vehicle.
While I know this can be confusing to the general public, understanding the differences isn’t particularly challenging, but the one that seems like a “Holy Grail” of EV adoption is the PHEV.
A PHEV operates as a traditional hybrid vehicle, meaning that the gasoline engine can propel the vehicle, the electric motor can propel the vehicle, or they both can propel the vehicle. Unlike a regular hybrid, a PHEV has a bigger battery pack on board so the vehicle can travel extended distances (like 50 miles or more) on electricity alone.
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On the surface, that kinda sounds excellent. For your day-to-day driving, you can operate on electricity alone (which is cheaper if you charge at home), and then for longer trips, you have a gasoline-powered hybrid setup that you never have to worry about finding a place to plug in for.
If you do plug in at home, it can be a solid experience for someone worried about going full-EV, but could benefit from the day-to-day advantages of EVs.
If you don’t plug it in, you end up with a vehicle that’s heavier than both a traditional hybrid and a traditional EV, because you have to have a decent battery pack, a full gasoline engine, all the associated hardware, and a tank full of flammable liquid.
But I promised you a new rant, and not a rehashed old rant. The new rant around PHEVs is how automakers are now using combined range as something to brag about.
We don’t typically talk about gasoline vehicle range when we talk about gas cars. Unless it gets terrible fuel economy or has a thimble-sized fuel tank, we all just know there’s adequate range and we can stop to refill.
When automakers do talk about gasoline or diesel range, consumers see the big range number and don’t bother to check on efficiency. Sure, your vehicle might be able to go 1,000 miles on a single fill-up, but I’m willing to fill up more often if the vehicle is more efficient, because I save money in the long run.
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With PHEVs (and to extent, the EREVs coming out), automakers are focusing on the big range numbers. “Our PHEV gets 600 miles of total range,” an OEM might state. Now, it might be because the vehicle can go 50 miles on electricity alone, and 550 miles on the basic hybrid setup, or it might be 20 miles of electricity alone and 580 miles on gasoline. One of those is more efficient than the other, potentially by a lot.
Maybe it’s because consumers still think that the range number on a full EV matters more than anything, and that since a PHEV has electric-only range, the automaker needs to highlight the biggest number it can.
But like on full BEVs, just focusing on range doesn’t help move the needle on adoption, or on environmental impact. The front cross-section of a vehicle affects range and efficiency just as much as weight does, so to get the 450 miles of range Cadillac claims for the Escalade IQ, it has to have a battery pack that weighs as much as a new Honda Civic.
What’s important here is to hype of the efficiency. It’d be better to talk about electric-only range, but if that becomes the sole metric, then automakers will just put bigger batteries in to meet those goals. With the EU requiring 70 miles of all-electric range on PHEVs, that’ll be the test market to see if automakers will fall into that pattern.
A quality PHEV would deliver enough range to handle the daily driving duties, with the option of using the gasoline motor on longer journeys. That’s how you should approach buying a PHEV.
If you can’t plug in at home or at work, though, you’re likely better off just having a solid hybrid. It’ll be lighter than a PHEV. It’ll be mechanically a little less complex than a PHEV. And long-term, it’ll be cheaper to own and operate than a PHEV.
If you can charge at home or work, and drive under a couple of hundred miles a day, then an EV makes sense (especially as a work car or a second car). Then you have a vehicle that’s even less complex.
You see why I think PHEVs are a crutch? You have to be a very specific customer to take advantage of them, and while more choice for the consumer is good, it’s also not the perfect transition vehicle to move someone from a fully-gasoline car to a full BEV.
EREVs might be, but that’s for a future rant.