Demystifying the Differences between Plug-in Hybrids and All-Electric Vehicles, Part 1
Part one will focus on plug-in hybrids and discuss the technology, models, pricing incentives and how you can save money with your daily commute.
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By Grant Gerke, Senior Writer, @Plugged In
Founder of Chargeway, Matt Teske, has been known to discuss EV adoption at many conferences and stresses the concept of “electric fuel” as the way to describe EV driving. You fill a tank for a gas car and do the same with EVs, except it’s electricity.
While the concept is clear for all-electric cars, plug-in hybrid cars are quite different and have a more complex design — consumers don’t need to know the engineering details by the way. While plug-in technology has more engineering under the hood, the technology offers an easy transition into electrification due to a range of over 340 miles approximately with gas and electric.
Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) use a gas engine and battery pack to produce either pure electric driving, hybrid driving or completely gas-based driving. This is in contrast to battery electric vehicles (BEVs) that only use a battery pack and an electric motor to propel the vehicle.
Another difference between BEVs and plug-in hybrids is the battery pack. BEVs use large packs and PHEVs use much smaller battery packs, and operate charging at lower speeds, such as 120V or 240V sources for car charging. There’s no need for fast charging with PHEVs, as you only have 20 to 65 miles in the battery pack.
Both car technologies are a lot of fun to drive. In the early days of the Chevy Volt —released during the modern EV era — owners would discuss and compete in online chat rooms about how long you could drive electric and NOT have fill a gas tank. One thing in common for both car types is new technology and features, such as one-pedaling driving with all-electrics vehicles — more on this Thursday.
Part one of the tech brief will focus on plug-in hybrids and the second installment will discuss pure battery electric cars.
Plug-in hybrid cars Overview
Drive anywhere & quick refueling via gas
More model types (minivan, sedan, SUV) to choose from, but limited electric range options (The Chrysler Pacifica PHEV has 32 miles; a great get-around town vehicle).
Quick acceleration.
Exponential fuel economy compared to regular gas vehicles, just depends on use case.
Many analysts say a plug-in hybrid can achieve twice the fuel economy of standard plug-in, such as the Toyota’s Prius
Plug-In Hybrids
PHEV’s selling points include long driving distances that are similar gas vehicles and the ability to “fuel up” rather quickly.
The now discontinued 2019 ChevyVolt produces a total range of 420 miles, including 53 electric miles. The 53 miles marks the largest battery pack of all the PHEVs since 2010 — some would say the i3 REX but that a story for another day.
So how do plug-ins work? A PHEV can be driven in different modes: pure electric battery/motor pack; a combination of electric and engine/generator — think 45 mph & over on electric; or completely using gas. Below is the Audi Q5 with a 20-mi. electric battery and a grand total of 390 miles.
Model Types
Many automakers introduced PHEVs over the last ten years and Motor Trend's car of the year in 2011 was the Chevy Volt. While Volvo, BMW, Mitsubishi, Ford, KIA, Audi, Fiat Chrysler America (FCA) — now called Stellantis — have offered vehicles over the last ten years, there’s been a lack of imagination with the car designs and function.
Another beast in this category is the 2020 RAV4-Prime plug-in hybrid electric truck with its 5.7-second 0-60 mph time and 302 total horsepower from its gasoline engine and electric motors. According to Mark Phelan, that’s 99 hp more than the gasoline-only RAV4.
Even though popularity has been limited, cult-like followings emerged for the Chevy Volt and the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV and its 22 miles of electric battery pack.
Today, you can find automakers being more ambitious with some of their product launches, as they release models in the sub-compact, compact, sedans, SUV and even the Jeep category. For example, FCA produced the 2021 Jeep Wrangler PHEV with approximately a 25-electric miles of range. See below.
Pricing and Incentives
PHEVs have an up-front price premium — like all electric cars — compared to its gas counterparts and is part of the reason for lack of sales. These price premiums range from $2,000 to $8,000, compared to a traditional hybrid vehicles, like the Toyota Prius and a regular gas vehicle in the segment.
Battery packs are expensive and some are bigger than others. The last generation of the Chevy Volt offered a large battery pack of 17.1kWh that achieved 53 miles of range (EPA rated). Overall, batteries are more stable over the last ten years as automakers have learned more about electrification drivetrains.
The electric range of some PHEVs correlates to a study by the Department of Energy (DoE) that states close to 80% of all Americans drive under 40 miles each day.
You’ll like the incentives that are attached to plug-in hybrids and drive down the cost. Many U.S. states, European countries, utilities and automakers have created incentives to knock down the initial upfront cost or a tax credit. For example, a Canadian citizen can receive up to $13,000 CAD in provincial and federal incentives.
Performance
Most plug-in hybrids offer plenty of torque and horsepower to make these cars attractive. While Chevy's Volt aims for the mainstream car market segment and has pleasant acceleration, Volvo's XC 90 PHEV high-end luxury class delivers 400-hp and 472 lb-ft of torque while providing 14-mile of pure electric range. Another beast in this category is the 2021 RAV4-Prime plug-in hybrid electric truck with its 5.7-second 0-60 mph time and 302 total horsepower from its gasoline engine and electric motors.
According to Mark Phelan, “that’s 99 hp more than the gasoline-only RAV4.”
The only problem is Toyota drastically reduced the amount of deliveries of the 2021 model to U.S. dealerships in 2020, stating 5,000 will come to U.S. shores.
Overall, PHEVs have been a tough sell in North America due to dealership resistance, disinformation campaigns (the Volt explodes on Fox & Facebook) and a lack of educational campaigns by automakers to fully spell out the technology.
However, most consumers enjoy the PHEV test drives at dealerships and ownership can be the “gateway drug” to all-electric cars. And, as mentioned above, more effort into these models are coming as all-electric upstarts like Rivian and its class of light-duty trucks and SUVs are causing a stir. Plus, European sales have been tracking in 2020 due to higher emission standards for automotive fleets.
European trends from from Auto_Schmidt:
>> Coming in October | More on PHEV & EV Incentives in October.