I just saw this article from May of 2024. I have to confess that as a car guy who drives a PHEV this opinion piece is totally without merit. It seems to ignore the obvious fact that a PHEV is basically an EV for most daily driving scenarios and yet you can hop in it and take a thousand mile long weekend road trip without any range anxiety. It also runs counter to what Ford CEO Farley said in a recent interview. Am I missing something here?
Motor Trend Hit Job on PHEVs
- Thread starter Astro_Guy
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Haven’t read the article yet, but I’ve got no issues with PHEVs or full EVs as long as I’m not forced out of buying ICEs. There are plenty who can take advantage of PHEV/EV depending on their circumstances. But there are also different inherent risks and costs with those vehicles that some people prefer not to have to deal with.
As much as I personally dislike the idea of owning them, I’ve driven some PHEVs and they apparently do what they’re supposed to. But EVs and their associated infrastructure are nowhere near ready to replace the convenience & ubiquitousness of ICEs & the hydrocarbon distribution network. Let it develop organically and coexist as consumers decide appropriate, and I don’t see any issues at all.
Edit: read the article. Yes, I agree with your take, and add that it’s more of a “shaming propaganda” for people not being green enough. I’d be interested who’s funding his articles…
As much as I personally dislike the idea of owning them, I’ve driven some PHEVs and they apparently do what they’re supposed to. But EVs and their associated infrastructure are nowhere near ready to replace the convenience & ubiquitousness of ICEs & the hydrocarbon distribution network. Let it develop organically and coexist as consumers decide appropriate, and I don’t see any issues at all.
Edit: read the article. Yes, I agree with your take, and add that it’s more of a “shaming propaganda” for people not being green enough. I’d be interested who’s funding his articles…
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at a certain point in life you realize magazine writers don't know much but they sure talk about stuff like they do.
Just like sports news, guys who never played QB are grading someone who does.
Imagine a job that allowed you to drive all sorts of vehicles at someone else's expense and you had your chance to give it hell or tell everybody how great it is, without actually having to live with the vehicle for more than a few days.
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My favourite is when the channel reviews a car/truck and is oozing praise over it "so smooth and refined", and the engine makes wards 10 best etc etc. Then 5 years later a new engine comes out and the channel reviewer says "oh this one is much better, the old one wasn't very good". (edmunds review, this is literally what happened with the older ram 1500/5.7 hemi vs the new 1500/3.0 hurricane).
Watch enough reviews and you come to one conclusion; 99% of them are clueless and have no idea what they're talking about.
You'll get more accurate information from the reviews with the sound on mute.
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yep... I prefer to ask somebody who has owned the vehicle for about 10 years what they think.. the only point of reading car mags is to g look expensive cars and the performance of a vehicle you will never drive.
I see where the author is coming from. PHEV is sort of greenwashing for automakers. If a PHEV must be charged every day, because of the small battery, then why not get an EV which could be charged weekly or semi-weekly? If PHEV owners are NOT charging their batteries as needed then they're taking a MPG penalty by lugging around the deadweight of the battery.
. Most OEMs, at least in the US, are starting to drop their aggressive ramp ups on the BEVs and are starting reallocate/ramp up volumes on PHEVs.You make a valid point. In my case I am able to charge at home and always top it up to 100% every day. Yesterday I managed to do it twice. EV mode covers 100% of my daily driving needs except when the temperature dips below freezing. That being said, I am able to take the car for three to four day road trips ranging from 600 to 1000 miles without the slightest bit of range anxiety or charging inconvenience. I do not believe that can honestly be said of pure EVs at the moment, at least not in the rural places I like to travel to.
I read it and conclude the man is a shameless touch hole pushing the green agenda.
Which I think gets to his point about greenwashing for the OEM's. The author is basically claiming that the majority of PHEV's are being driven on gas with dead batteries so in the field they're not reducing emissions which is the primary goal.
Off topic but this is so true for the magazine hacks. Of the 39 years I've worked SEMA, the magazines always wanted it opened to the public. I would tell them it's a trade show, we spend a lot of money to be here, and if they wanted to work my booth for an extra day open to the public, then more power to them. It's a grueling week to work. Anyways, I told them they are just as likely to be working for Modern Bride as their next assignment and they were by no means "the experts" as they referred to themselves as being.
Some of them were good guys but most of them were just hack writers who didn't know sheet about sheet.
I wonder if there is any data to back up that assumption? Why would you buy a plug-in vehicle of any kind if you have nowhere to plug it in?
Owners are too lazy to consistently plug it in? Perhaps email the author for the study from which he pulled his comment about owners not charging their PHEV?
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I read most of the article. Seems his bent is he wants full EV’s only.
So yes it’s another anything ICE hate article. There all designed as click bait anyway so who cares. Buy what you want.
So yes it’s another anything ICE hate article. There all designed as click bait anyway so who cares. Buy what you want.
All those mag writers are writing on borrowed time anyway. Pretty soon the editors will just tell the AI the slant they want the article to have and all the writers will be wishing they could get a job at McDonald's.
wemay
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I completely disagree with the piece but ehhh, just another opinion.
Thought trains like this writers are prevalent in all industries.
" People dont do what they are supposed to do" so the entire premise doesn't work.
< in the case of a phev people dont charge them so they aren't efficient>
I hear this type of reasoning for why I supposedly don't want to use an electrostatic precipitator type air cleaner.
<people don't clean them at all or often enough so they aren't efficient>
I own three Ive used over a decade that get cleaned every week dont presume you know what I will and wont maintain and dont try to talk me info a throw away filter.
I'm not "people".
Don't assume my use cases.
Don't assume what is or isn't convenient for me.
Don't assume I cant or wont maintain something.
" People dont do what they are supposed to do" so the entire premise doesn't work.
< in the case of a phev people dont charge them so they aren't efficient>
I hear this type of reasoning for why I supposedly don't want to use an electrostatic precipitator type air cleaner.
<people don't clean them at all or often enough so they aren't efficient>
I own three Ive used over a decade that get cleaned every week dont presume you know what I will and wont maintain and dont try to talk me info a throw away filter.
I'm not "people".
Don't assume my use cases.
Don't assume what is or isn't convenient for me.
Don't assume I cant or wont maintain something.
As someone with a Journalism degree it isn't necessarily the writers. The head editor or owners have a huge say on the tone of the articles. A good example is from a few years ago one of the writers at Jalopnik Mercedes Streeter had articles about her buying a school bus, and the myriad of oddball vehicles that she owned. They had 4-5 times the number of clicks or reads than any article Jalopnik had about a new vehicle. The new owners immediately canned any of the interesting cool stuff that Jason Torchinsky or the other guy had about his $500 cross country postal jeep or the weird tail light articles. That's what made jalopnik different. There are dozens of automotive publications that review and test-drive new vehicles.
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