Motor Trend Hit Job on PHEVs

[JeffKeryk]

I thought this was a good article:
https://jalopnik.com/the-chevy-volt-was-so-ahead-of-its-time-automakers-are-1851585578

I know that I really enjoyed mine for the two years I leased it. It could have used a little more electric range, like 80 - 90 miles total, but for the time it was pretty advanced.
GM messed this one up too of course.

Owners around here loved their Volts.

 

[paqza]

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?

As someone with 2 EVs, the article is spot on. At the end of the day, if you can charge at home / work, you're better off going with a BEV and if you can't, you're better off going with a non-plugin. I've road-tripped plenty in my EVs with zero issues.

There are obviously exceptions - if you live in Canada, for example, in colder, low-density environments with long, long drives, a PHEV is likely a better choice. If you tow, a PHEV (or better yet, a diesel) is going to be a much, much better option than an EV. PHEVs tend to be more expensive right now, real-world, than comparable BEVs.

 

[paqza]

A major thing you miss is ones like the Toyota RAV4 PHEV flip themselves into a hybrid and get superior MPG to their gas counterparts.

My sister in law likes hers as she charges at work with enough to return home. At home she charges the 42 ish miles to get to work. They like the extended range of hybrid(40 mpg) as they don’t have time to charge driving 3hrs+ each way for kids in sports leagues.

The cost of PHEV premium vs hybrid when she bought was negated by $7500 tax credit federal and the $2100 one from State of MA.

The RAV4 Prime is a really solid machine. The problem is it's not available in most states and where it is, there's a huge markup to the point where it's significantly more expensive than going all-electric and significantly more expensive than getting a regular hybrid RAV4 or CR-V. The massive price delta makes it so buyers will never actually break even on fuel savings vs a regular hybrid or electric.