[https://www.techradar.com/vehicle-tech/hybrid-electric-vehicles/don-t-fall-for-the-phev-hype-go-battery-ev-or-go-home](https://www.techradar.com/vehicle-tech/hybrid-electric-vehicles/don-t-fall-for-the-phev-hype-go-battery-ev-or-go-home)
Pretty much my thoughts as well we had a PHEV and didn’t even keep it for 1 year. It was not a good EV and not a good ICE. Gas motor ran too frequently even in EV mode, still needed all the ICE maintenance, needed constant charging….Traded it back in for an Ioniq 5 and that was that.
PHEVs cost as much or more then many EVs. Plus all the confusion they cause, like every day someone here is saying they want a PHEV but can’t charge it and ask if they can just drive it on gas without ever plugging it in…
by bobjr94
30 Comments
Or just get the car that best suits your need. If someone has a home charger, drives 30 miles a day but does a long trip every 2 weeks where fast chargers aren’t plenty then PHEV is a great fit for them.
Agree with the confusion comment. I am active on a car recommendation sub and anytime someone says they can’t charge they want a PHEV instead and lots of people agreeing it’s a good idea. While I would own an EV if I couldn’t charge either, an EV is much better in that situation than a PHEV.
So I have the Jeep 4xe PHEV. I also have a Kona EV. As I like to camp I have the Jeep, but I also use it to commute to work. Fortunately I work 12 km from home, so I’m able to use EV for my full commute. I generally get about 2400km to a tank of gas, yes the engine kicks in when I want to pass or go up a steep hill, but mostly it’s EV. Had my Jeep for 2+ years now. Done 66000 km on it. My average fuel consumption is 6.8L/100km
Don’t sell them short. Just know what you’re buying
I think there are more inexpensive PHEVs than there are EVs (in terms of different models), but I agree with you.
I bought a 2021 Niro PHEV since I liked my 2017 Niro HEV so much. That “little taste” of EV range made me an EV believer. Traded the Niro (for more than I paid for it!) in on my Ioniq5.
Counter-point: If you are scared about going electric then at-least go PHEV. But the low cost of driving on electricity (assuming that you have home/work charging) and the quiet enjoyment of it will be a gateway drug to full EV.
While I agree with the PHEV point when someone isn’t using one as intended (e.g. never charging it), this article appears to be written by the comments section on Reddit.
>Then, there’s maintenance. While battery EVs basically just need new tires, new wiper blades, and wiper fluid refills, PHEVs require the same maintenance as other gas cars – regular fluid changes (oil, coolant, and transmission), plus tune-ups and emissions tests.
An EV still needs coolant, and and it still needs an MOT [in the UK]. Furthermore, most transmissions are now sealed units that theoretically don’t need fluid changes for the life of the unit/vehicle.
>The inconvenient truth is that at the core, PHEVs are still basically gas cars. Sure, they also include a small EV drivetrain, but they are based on the same platform as their hybrid and gasoline twins, with the same packaging and safety compromises.
That *really* depends on the PHEV. Some are basically ICE vehicles with a battery shoved somewhere, but some are EVs with a range extending motor.
Ultimately, get what works for you. I would personally avoid a PHEV in most circumstances, but they may work well for some people.
If folks are *trying* do reduce their carbon footprint, let’s not shame them for it.
Never buying another vehicle or furnace that burns fossil fuels.
PHEV’s let most people realize most of the benefits of an EV without having to change any habits outside of plugging it in each night. There are plenty of people for which an EV or traditional hybrid ICE is a better choice, but that doesn’t make a PHEV a bad choice, even for those people. I’d argue that most PHEV’s are cheaper than comparable EV’s, and give doubters wary of charging and range anxiety the security they need to pull the trigger.
The main problem is that there are few good PHEV’s available in the US. The only really great ones are the Toyota Rav4 Prime and Prius Prime for the mass market. There’s also some other decent high market luxury options such as the Volvo XC90 and XC60, but once you’re getting in the 70k+ market I think you lose plot unless you either have too much or just hate money.
Well, when you need range, like 500 km, with no electricity or charging infrastructure, you don’t have a choice.
Lol thanks but I’ll take a phev.
Legacy auto and the fossil fuel loves PHEVs because they can greenwash their products. Yes you could *potentially* reduce your carbon footprint if you diligently charge every day. **That rationale was debunked long ago by studies showing that most PHEV drivers don’t bother to charge up; they drive it like a gas car**. That gets worse as the rollout goes beyond early adopters to the mainstream. Not only are they blowing up their carbon footprint, they’re wasting valuable minerals in batteries that don’t get used anywhere near their full potential.
I have an EV, and I’m considering a PHEV for my next car.
Reasons:
1) In cold, the range can be cut by 50 %. Also, the charging speed is greatly reduced in cold. If you preheat, you lose additional electricity. I don’t want to be charging multiple times a day. Your normal charge at home speed suddenly goes from 12 hours to 30 hours, which affects tomorrow’s plans.
2) Range anxiety is real. You never know whether the chargers are occupied or even working. Seems like every charger has a different method of payment. Sometimes the payment doesn’t work in the app or website. Sometimes the chargers are out of order.
3) Always planning your trips around charging. Always guesstimating how much battery you will have in spot A and B, and where to stop for a charge. There’s no leeway for any random stress free sightseeing when you are like this.
If I lived in a warm place with short commutes, sure, an EV would be my pick. But for me, not worth the hassle. I own a car for the freedom it gives. At the moment an EV does not give me that. Maybe in the future when there is double or triple the amount of chargers, and also double or triple the amount of range in the cars themselves.
I had a PHEV and I fucking hated it after owning a BEV. Shitty EV and shitty ICE .. worst of both worlds.
Disagree. EV will get you frustrated in a couple of years, range slinking and slinking. Holidays are terrible.
This is nonsense. I drive an EV but we have two cars in the family and the second is a PHEV. No question which one I’ll take on a road trip or when there’s uncertainty as to how long I’ll be out. It goes 20 miles full electric for day-to-day use, but won’t get me stranded in the cold or in the mountains.
I have a PHEV Outlander and it’s great. Unfortunately there was no BEV that fit our needs (small/mid SUV with a 3rd row under C$55k, with a tow package). The new Kia EV9 is too expensive and I’m also weary of Kia’s EV drive systems.
About 70-80% of our driving is in EV mode and while it sucks to be lugging around the ICE engine all the time it’s cheaper than the ICE Outlander when you consider the gas savings.
I had a PHEV lexus for a bit and I had 2 huge complaints. During the winter I would preheat the car. It wouldn’t heat up, the remote start would run on the battery so the engine never turned on so it stayed cold until I actually started driving so starting it early was useless. Also the remote start would only work if the battery was at 30% or more. There were times I would want to start it but the battery was too dead to start. Weird PHEV only things.
Why can’t chargers just work like gas pumps? All these various apps and setting up payment. It’s just backward. We already have a good system for paying. This is where governments have failed us all. They did not step up to ensure some basic things for the get go. So now the landscape is a mess. They need to dictate that all these chargers are just like the gas pumps for payment systems.
The gate keeping in this sub is hilarious.
Any alternative fuel vehicle purchase is a win. We are no where near the tipping point. In the US, EVs has been on the market for 15 years now and still only account for 6.5% of total new vehicle sales.
I don’t know what all the PHEV hate is for. PHEVs are very good for a particular niche and use case. Eg one of the requirements is you have overnight charging at home.
Another thing articles often ignore is the purchase cost. PHEV is usually a lot cheaper than BEV with a decent range.
The Ioniq 5 is a case in point. Great car. But if I traded in my Ioniq PHEV for it my monthly payments would triple. In what world does that make sense?!
I agree – it’s the worst of both worlds. Complexity and maintenance needs of ICE, plus small battery and poor range.
Go full EV or go home…
This sub also creates a negative bias for other ev brands while also wondering why people are moving to PHEV
My wife considered the RAV4 Prime. The interior of the model we tested was far better than the Model Y LR (especially the ventilated seats). But the RAV4 did not qualify for the federal rebate and the drive experience definitely wasn’t as fun in terms of acceleration and handling
Absolutely!
The problems with PHEV is that they currently suck – short range, slow charging, extra weight for tiny range. I think in the future they will change considerably, just as they have in the Chinese market.
I don’t know, the new Prius looks pretty interesting. The solar panel can get like 5 miles additional per day. If you live close to work that basically eliminates refueling. If not, the savings add up.
PHEVs are a transition tech that has already had its time.
Fud
I think big part of the problem is sheer amount of confusion of what a PHEV is (as well as full hybrid and mild hybrid) and how they are supposed to be used.
PHEV is a solution to very specific problem – how to electrify the car if the owner can charge it at home *but* the wider charging network sucks. Buying one for any different reason is highly likely to be a mistake (or exploitation of tax/incentive loopholes).
Hybrids and mild hybrids, to me at least, put weirdly large stress on how different they are from ICE. Even though they are through-and-through an ICE – just one that’s moderately more efficient. Painting them as anything other than small improvement to efficiency is quite weird, yet it happens a lot. Still – with no reasonable access to charging infrastructure they will be an improvement over a less efficient car.
Also – don’t even get me started about how people get duped into thinking that all three of the above (along with several other niche variants) are just single group with label of “hybrid”.
My main issue with PHEVs is that there are twice as many components that can fail. And these components are closer to being under-dimensioned than in an EV/ICE/.
I want my car _not_ to fail.