Motor Trend Hit Job on PHEVs

[alarmguy]

That writer wrote an opinion piece and presented in a different light.

One thing for sure you would not want that writer to review a vehicle you were interested in because it will be based on his opinion and not a balanced story on how a particular vehicle could fit into somebody’s lifestyle.

Clearly biased, This guy definitely knocks down the credibility of Car and Driver in my mind. I’ve said it 1 million times over the years I find it freaking scary what mass media has become only because the masses follow what they say.
Just the fact that this guy is writing pieces like this shows how the public no longer thinks critically about what they have seeing, reading and watching. If I was wrong, this guy would not be writing for the magazine.
Another example of trash journalism

 

[Trav]

With as much hate as you carry and fear of the future, I'm amazed you get your pants on to get to work and get a check to keep the internet on to argue with all of us.

What is wrong with you? I have no fear of the future and I don't go to work, I work right here when I want to, my tenants rent checks, retirement, etc are all direct deposited. LOL

 

[Torrid]

What is wrong with you? I have no fear of the future and I don't go to work, I work right here when I want to, my tenants rent checks, retirement, etc are all direct deposited. LOL

Seriously though, this EV crap bothers you so much that you have to come in here and argue with everyone like we care what your opinion is and then carry preconceived notions about how everyone is losing their rights to own an ICE vehicle and just determined that everyone that made a decision different than you for their own reasons wrong and what is wrong with this world.

Maybe it's time to take a break and check this out. Link

 

[Astro_Guy]

A PHEV is nothing more than an HEV with more battery capacity.

That may not be entirely accurate. A Prius HEV can make it up to 30 MPH on level ground before the ICE steps in. My PHEV can travel at up to 80 MPH in EV mode. Obviously the latter requires more horsepower and more battery output. Is the main drive motor M1 identical between a Prius and Prius Prime? Hopefully someone more knowledgeable that I can chime in.

 

[JeffKeryk]

One might just as well say that they don't see the merits of a limited range EV when a HEV full of fuel can do well over 700 miles an a full tank of fuel and that tank only holds thirteen gallons.
Under favorable conditions I can easily see range of over 800 miles.
It's not as though a Model 3 is a great handling car either, although it does offer killer acceleration, which would get old after the first few times of flooring the pedal.
I can drive the HAH on much longer trips than any EV can do without ever stopping for fuel.

Model 3 is a great driver's car. Flat handling, and no, the acceleration never gets old. Ask any owner; they are a blast to drive.

 

[Astro_Guy]

I don't either. What is it?

PHEV is a hybrid gas / electric technology that typically has enough EV range to get you through a normal day's driving before you plug it in to recharge. It also has a traditional gasoline powered drivetrain that takes over when you deplete the battery. My humble ford C-Max Energi was last fueled up in your home state of West Virginia. Inwood, WV to be specific. That was on April 6 and roughly 160 miles from home in southeastern Pennsylvania. As of tonight I have 1800 miles on that tank of gas with 5/8 of a tank remaining. In other words, I've driven 1800 miles on just over 5 gallons of gasoline. Driving on electricity is far more cost effective than driving on gasoline.

Were I to limit this car to local driving I could probably get by on 20 gallons per year. The thing is that it has much better road manners than our 2017 Prius V so we take this car on most extended road trips now. The ICE doesn't work as hard on short grades because the hybrid system picks up the slack. The Prius seems work a lot harder on grades, however; it's a good option for the flat terrain between here and the Jersey shore.

 

[slo town]

Seriously though, this EV crap bothers you so much that you have to come in here and argue with everyone like we care what your opinion is and then carry preconceived notions about how everyone is losing their rights to own an ICE vehicle and just determined that everyone that made a decision different than you for their own reasons wrong and what is wrong with this world.

Maybe it's time to take a break and check this out. Link

The problem with EVs is that they're slowly being mandated as the only option, in California at least. For city dwellers who travel short distances they're great - so long as you own your own home with your parking spot and your own charger. For city dwellers who live in large apartment complexes, even those who travel short distances, exactly how is that going to work? In that respect EVs have an elitist element to them.

With respect to my situation, I live in a semi-rural area. My trip to the grocery store is a 15 mile round trip - well within the range of an EV. But let's suppose I want to visit my son and his family. I often do what I call a "flip turn" where I drive up in the afternoon, have dinner with them, and then drive back home - about 375 miles worth in total. Is an EV viable in that scenario, or am I simply supposed to get used to range anxiety during my final 50 miles, pretty much out in the middle of nowhere and late at night? There were times I planned my fuel range poorly. I don't like sweating bullets waiting for the moment my cars sips its last tablespoon of gasoline and coasts silently on the shoulder of a dark highway. With an EV I'll be sweating bullets every trip, unless I stop in Salinas somewhere for an hour so my EV can snort some electricity.

Also too, my wife and I enjoy road trips. We made a trip to this year's Indy 500, the two of us banging out 600 mile days one after the other. Perhaps you read about it. Tell me how an EV is going to make that trip faster, better, or even possible without having long delays and having to carefully choose our hotels.

The issue I have with EVs is not the EV itself. Rather EVs are represented to be "the only solution" when in fact they're not.

IMO, the ultimate solution are hybrids because they satisfy the needs of everyone from short distance city dwellers to long distance road trippers like my wife and me. Unfortunately that doesn't satisfy the agenda of some the EV advocates because of their all or nothing attitude.

A perfect example is the article the OP posted where the writer thought people who bought PHEVs were selling out somehow, you know compromising. Even you @Torrid said you didn't think much of PHEVs, but last I knew you had two cars, an ICE (a GTI IIRC) and and a Tesla in order to suit your driving requirements. Does that mean everyone should have two cars like you, even apartment dwellers?

We all know that compromise is a sign of weakness in today's society and government, so is anyone really surprised with that missive the OP posted?

Scott

 

[Trav]

Seriously though, this EV crap bothers you so much that you have to come in here and argue with everyone like we care what your opinion is and then carry preconceived notions about how everyone is losing their rights to own an ICE vehicle and just determined that everyone that made a decision different than you for their own reasons wrong and what is wrong with this world.

Maybe it's time to take a break and check this out. Link

I have no problem at all with EV vehicles I do have a problem with some of the people that own them and agendas that are trying to force them on on those of us that don't want to own one, they believe it for common good which is pure crap.
I can see hybrids being a great solution for city dwellers, less pollution less wear and tear on the vehicle yet still have the ability to go long distance without the worry of charging.

I lived in a big German city, drove a lot in town and also took longer trips in the winter with the car. I owned my own home but most people do not but it would still be ideal for that environment, take into account some cities are now either banning or proposing banning ICE vehicles in town but not ev's or hybrids. Obviously the rump swab who wrote the article took none of that into account, he is just pushing the agenda.

BTW I suggest you take your own advise.

 

[fdcg27]

That may not be entirely accurate. A Prius HEV can make it up to 30 MPH on level ground before the ICE steps in. My PHEV can travel at up to 80 MPH in EV mode. Obviously the latter requires more horsepower and more battery output. Is the main drive motor M1 identical between a Prius and Prius Prime? Hopefully someone more knowledgeable that I can chime in.

I think the ICE steps in simply because the battery capacity of the HEV is not sufficient to allow more. The traction motor should have ample power to sustain 80 mph, its just that the battery capacity isn't there with the HEV while with the PHEV it is.

 

[loneryder]

PHEV is a hybrid gas / electric technology that typically has enough EV range to get you through a normal day's driving before you plug it in to recharge. It also has a traditional gasoline powered drivetrain that takes over when you deplete the battery. My humble ford C-Max Energi was last fueled up in your home state of West Virginia. Inwood, WV to be specific. That was on April 6 and roughly 160 miles from home in southeastern Pennsylvania. As of tonight I have 1800 miles on that tank of gas with 5/8 of a tank remaining. In other words, I've driven 1800 miles on just over 5 gallons of gasoline. Driving on electricity is far more cost effective than driving on gasoline.

Were I to limit this car to local driving I could probably get by on 20 gallons per year. The thing is that it has much better road manners than our 2017 Prius V so we take this car on most extended road trips now. The ICE doesn't work as hard on short grades because the hybrid system picks up the slack. The Prius seems work a lot harder on grades, however; it's a good option for the flat terrain between here and the Jersey shore.

When you are driving on ICE does it charge the battery or is it just charged by plug-in? Should have stopped in Winchester....gas is cheaper.

 

[edyvw]

His understanding of reality is non existent.

 

[UncleDave]

When you are driving on ICE does it charge the battery or is it just charged by plug-in? Should have stopped in Winchester....gas is cheaper.

Depends on the car.
There a lots of different schemes.

 

[GMBoy]

To be honest I stopped reading Motor Trend and Car and Driver as the journalism has gone complete to trash. The days of Brock Yates, the guy with the funny name I can' remember Csaba or something are long gone and the magazine is only 3-4mm thick now and NO I don't want to log in online to read more about the article as I paid for the WHOLE magazine to read on my lap.

 

[oil pan 4]

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?

Yeah I saw the article when it first came out.
Imo Ford wants all us stupid plebs to stop playing with hybrids, plug in hybrids and stop buying what we need and start buying what they need and just go full electric already.

 

[UncleDave]

Driving on electricity is far more cost effective than driving on gasoline.

For you, and probably true for many.

Electricity in california is so expensive that may not be the case for people that live in mountainous areas where nothing gets anywhere close to the rated MPG/MPKWH

 

[Revving2Redline]

For true automotive journalism, I always went to Jeremy Clarkson and the boys. For everything else I come here, Chris Fix, Scotty Kilmer () already on.

 

[Carmudgeon]

To be honest I stopped reading Motor Trend and Car and Driver as the journalism has gone complete to trash. The days of Brock Yates, the guy with the funny name I can' remember Csaba or something are long gone and the magazine is only 3-4mm thick now and NO I don't want to log in online to read more about the article as I paid for the WHOLE magazine to read on my lap.

Ironically, "Chabba Chudduh" has been writing for C/D again.

MT has always been closer to bird cage liner than the other buff books, and little has changed. I tried to give it a chance for a year after refugees from other publications took over, and still found it lacking. But, there is at least one good thing that came out of Petersen Publishing, the car museum its founder built.

This is a good example of the Streisand Effect. The only reason why many of us, at least, know of this piece is because one of us disagreed with a columnist's opinion, and posted about it. Otherwise, it would just be another random column that would go unnoticed by most, and perhaps better left that way.

And let's be honest, "true" automotive journalism has never been a thing. That's never how the game, machine, or whatever one wishes to call it, works, or has worked. Even the TG guys, who do dare to offer criticism, and not just praise, are opinionated columnists doing thier thing on film, participating largely in staged humor pieces for entertainment, with a car theme. Entertaining it may be, but it's not journalism, and even when the show wasn't a thing, Clarkson was just a loudmouth columnist, in print. When spending the big bucks for the UK auto rags, TG was last on the list, well behind Car, Evo, and the like.

On the whole, it's not even worth the not-so-few bucks any more to pick up a rag at the airport terminal convenience shop to have something to fight off boredom on a long flight, never mind subscribing for the ever-shrinking numbers of subscription issues. Everything has moved online, and it's more of the same, if not worse.

 

[macarose]

Let me tell you guys an unbelievable story.

A decade ago Jonny Lieberman and I got into an all out fight in front of everyone on Facebook.

I had serious doubts about Cadillac's decision to focus their energy on cars and I thought moving their headquarters from Detroit to New York City was downright stupid and pointless.

Jonny comes out of the woodwork badmouthing me. Of course he had an agenda. Cadillac was paying Motor Trend beaucoup bucks for naming the Cadillac CTS car of the year, and they were going to carry the Cadillac banner for at least the next 12 months.

I didn't call him a shill. Instead I told him that Cadillac should be focusing instead on trucks and large SUVs.

It was as if I spat on one of his kids. Never in my life have I met anyone with such thin skin and a nasty demeanor.

The last post I saw of his was him badmouthing rural Southerners.Why? Because of all the Trump flags he saw on a drive through the South.

After that I knew it was lights out for this spastic 45 year old acting like a 14 year old.

Toyota taking advice and guidance on the Toyota Prius Prime from Jonny Lieberman is like NATO getting military advice from an old hippie who has spent the last 25 years of his life living in a shed.

Jonny lives in a dream world. He's not even a good writer. If you want really good analysis on anything automotive check out The Car Care Nut or Alex On Autos.

 

[slo town]

To be honest I stopped reading Motor Trend and Car and Driver as the journalism has gone complete to trash. The days of Brock Yates, the guy with the funny name I can' remember Csaba or something are long gone and the magazine is only 3-4mm thick now and NO I don't want to log in online to read more about the article as I paid for the WHOLE magazine to read on my lap.

And don't forget Peter Egan from Road and Track.

Scott

 

[loneryder]

When I was young I had a subscription to MT. When a new issue came out, we looked for the 0-60 times. I don't know if they were paid or not but their reviews were very real world. I bought two Pontiac 6000STE's and loved them. Also ordered a Pontiac SSEi that was black with blacked out wheels. That was the first time they started doing that. It had a 3.8 with a sport suspension. That car ran and handled like a dream. I loved it. Both of these cars were top 5 Car of the year. I think the 6000STE was the COTY one year. They compared it to a BMW 3 series.