plug in hybrids rarely plugged in

[davehu]

Interesting study. Based on vehicles in Germany so not sure if it has validity in the US but interesting never-the-less.

It’s time to pull the plug on plug-in hybrids

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[Maquis]

“…less than 1/3 of PHEV are plugged in only occasionally or not at all…”

So more than 2/3 are being used as intended. The data seem to contradict the premise of the story.

Ours gets plugged in every time it enters our garage.

 

[K6CCC]

So more than 2/3 are being used as intended.

If you think that running almost entirely on gas is the intended use for a PHEV. Which is what the article says is happening.

 

[Maquis]

If you think that running almost entirely on gas is the intended use for a PHEV. Which is what the article says is happening.

The wording in the article has been changed since my last post. It now says “…the vast majority….are plugged in only occasionally or not at all…”. No longer “less than 1/3.” They must of caught their screw-up and fixed it.

 

[22legit2quit]

Another good idea with great intentions, but executed so poorly. This is one of those things for the owners who probably bought with good intentions trying to get some sort of tax credit either federal, state or municipality, that realized that it gets decent enough mileage and the plug in capacity of 20 miles isn’t enough for anyone’s commute. So why plug it in and make space in the garage or at their apartment? If these had 80-100 miles of electric range people would almost consider these as rev or reev and would’ve bought it but that would cut into chevron, bp or insert oil company name or foreign country’s monetary lifeline.

 

[RocketGhost]

If you want owners to plug them in they need an incentive to do so. There's little incentive with plug in hybrids.

I'm curious how Ford will execute the Lightning EREV. For the gas engine to provide enough generating power for full performance it will need to be as big as an engine in an ICE truck.

 

[hammer thumb]

My wife drives our PHEV and we plug in ever night to get our 40-50 miles of clean er & cheaper E miles. PHEVs need to get their E mile higher than 5 - 10 to make it worth it. Thanks Toyota Rav … great car!

 

[chl]

I appreciate that a plug-in hybrid works for some.

When we bought our 2015 Prius, the plug-in version had a pitifully small EV range, maybe 12-15 miles as I recall.

Just did not make economic sense at the time, it was $5,000 more I think.
If it had been 40 miles EV maybe we would have bought one.

But besides the higher cost, having to both charge and fill up with gas was not going to be convenient with only 11 miles EV range and only one EVSE - I already had a 2012 Nissan Leaf with an 80-100mile range and I used that for most of my driving needs.

EVSE were still fairly expensive, and wiring up another one for such a small EV range just didn't appeal to me.

So if we had bought a plug-in hybrid back then, we'd likely be in the less than 1/3 statistic.

The Prius V we bought has an EV mode which gives something like one mile of EV range at 25 mph before switching to Hybrid, lol.

Toyota was not on the EV band-wagon yet in 2015.

 

[Tony Burgh]

This is kind of funny to me.
Two kids with hybrid SUV’s. One mid range priced, the other luxury.
The cars are plugged in every night. Both used daily for work commute and childcare runs.
I have to remind them to run the gas out monthly so it doesn’t get too stale.

 

[biers]

If you want owners to plug them in they need an incentive to do so. There's little incentive with plug in hybrids.

I'm curious how Ford will execute the Lightning EREV. For the gas engine to provide enough generating power for full performance it will need to be as big as an engine in an ICE truck.

In the NW the incentive is built in. Costs about $1 to charge our Pacifica Hybrid which gets us the same distance as one gallon of gas which is about $3.75 here currently.
But where gas is less and electricity is more…

 

[chl]

In the NW the incentive is built in. Costs about $1 to charge our Pacifica Hybrid which gets us the same distance as one gallon of gas which is about $3.75 here currently.
But where gas is less and electricity is more…

There are gas additives that prevent it from going 'stale' - fuel stabilizers like STA-BIL - and if you have stale gas, gas restorers like PRI Fuel treatment - I have used both over the years for lawn mowers and gas generators.

Usually gas won't go stale in 1 month though.

 

[Zprime29]

We have the XC90 PHEV, wife is not great about plugging it in. I typically do that for her when I get home. She gets a solid 40miles on 15kWh useable. One tank of gas lasts about 5-6 weeks, used to fill up every 2 weeks. So far it's been great. If the kids' school wasn't so far away we'd probably make it several months on a single tank of gas. My biggest gripe is that Volvo reports efficiency stats in a very strange way and I don't fully understand it. They combine EV and gas into a single MPG metric, currently reporting 50mpg. When the battery is depleted, I've seen it report as high as 30mpg city and 28mpg highway (with battery on hold mode).

 

[bryce]

Had a Porsche Cayenne PHEV. The electric range was rather limited, 8-12 miles depending on the weather. While on gas averaged overall about 30 mpg, which was not bad for an 5500 pound 400+ HP luxury vehicle. But still had all of the maintenance expense of an ICE vehicle, with the added luxury expense. And unless you gave that vehicle full beans, it was hard to tell whether it was using electrons or dinosaurs.

However I really prefer the full BEV (otherwise, why would I be on this forum?), and we are planning full electric for next vehicle. Wife got used to plugging in at home, and dislikes having to go to gas station.

Have a friend whom has a 40 mile round-trip commute and has charged all of his EVs on his home 110V outlet. For many people with "shorter" commutes and ABC charging, using the 110V charger should be fine. 240V systems are nice, and I can fully charge my Lightning at 80A overnight.

I am really interested in the home battery with DC charging systems coming out. Having someone come by to talk about the Franklin system soon. Sounds like a real home charging/backup/time-of-day usage winner, and if it comes in near my neighbor's Generac in cost then I think will be something to pull the trigger on.

 

[Steely]

We have the XC90 PHEV, wife is not great about plugging it in. I typically do that for her when I get home. She gets a solid 40miles on 15kWh useable. One tank of gas lasts about 5-6 weeks, used to fill up every 2 weeks. So far it's been great. If the kids' school wasn't so far away we'd probably make it several months on a single tank of gas. My biggest gripe is that Volvo reports efficiency stats in a very strange way and I don't fully understand it. They combine EV and gas into a single MPG metric, currently reporting 50mpg. When the battery is depleted, I've seen it report as high as 30mpg city and 28mpg highway (with battery on hold mode).

We have an xc60 plug in and I drove it to work and back recently and after I did the math the ev only mi/kwh was 1.6, worse than the Lightning. Sure it was cold and the heat was on but sill surprised based on low speed and overall size of the car.

No real complaints though, it's even smart enough to use the gas when it's getting old. We got that message a few weeks back. I really didn't think the gas was that old but whatever, couldn't stop it from doing what it did.

Phevs are like that they just seem to do what they want, every now and then the computer surprises you with something that keeps the engine on when you don't think it needs to be.

 

[Zprime29]

We have an xc60 plug in and I drove it to work and back recently and after I did the math the ev only mi/kwh was 1.6, worse than the Lightning. Sure it was cold and the heat was on but sill surprised based on low speed and overall size of the car.

No real complaints though, it's even smart enough to use the gas when it's getting old. We got that message a few weeks back. I really didn't think the gas was that old but whatever, couldn't stop it from doing what it did.

Phevs are like that they just seem to do what they want, every now and then the computer surprises you with something that keeps the engine on when you don't think it needs to be.

Yeah I would have expected better in that case as well. What did you use to compute the mpk? I noticed in the trip report it include regen energy in the total energy used for the trip. I subtract that out to see what the actual energy usage was from the battery.

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