A few days ago my colleague Steve wrote: an article about the problems European regulators have with plug-in hybrids (PHEV)† Theoretical emissions, based on unreal conditions and driving, are often well below what the cars actually emit with real conditions and non-hypermiling drivers. So EU regulators have to take their regulations back to the drawing board to get the emissions numbers they’re actually looking for.
I would recommend read Steve’s whole piecebecause it gives a lot of good background on the situation, but I’ll go over some key issues before explaining the nuance needed for meaningful PHEV regulation.
How some automakers use PHEVs to cheat
One of the first EVs I owned was a Chevy Volt. Now I know some readers will tell me it’s not a real EV, but for me it was an EV. At one point the gas ran out after a trip out of town, and I didn’t bother to put gas in it for three months. When I got home every night I plugged it in and when I woke up it had about 30 miles of highway speed, electric only. This was enough to get the kids to school but not enough to pick them up again, but I would plug it in when I got home and it would be full again by the time the kids got home from school.
So the car was really an EV for me.
But in the years that followed, I learned pretty quickly that not all PHEVs are the same. An example was the Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid. It’s not advertised as an EV, but it does have a certain electric range before it becomes a fat Prius that can carry more kids. But during a test drive I found out pretty quickly that it really was a hybrid. If you did anything other than drive super carefully, the gas engine would roar to life to give you more power for things like getting onto the freeway, passing, etc.
Another Stellantis offering, the Jeep Wrangler 4xe was a great vehicle, but it had some ways it cheated. In EV mode, the vehicle was a lot less sensitive than the Pacifica. Only at full throttle would it give some throttle to give you more power. For most drivers, driving around in EV mode would be a true EV experience for 20-30 miles. But that’s not what the Jeep did by default when I turned it on. It always wanted to start in hybrid mode and would slowly give away your electric range, mixed with gas, for more efficient longer rides, but much dirtier short rides.
If I had one (and I still want one), I’d hit that EV button almost every time I got in the Jeep, but if you’re an average buyer who doesn’t know much about plug-in hybrids, then you’d get a much more Prius-like experience.
I’ve read about and tested other PHEVs, and the truth is they’re all over the map. Some PHEVs are like my Volt was, giving you fair electric range. Others are more like the Pacifica or the Jeep and give you a somewhat gassed experience. Some are even worse, don’t offer any EV mode and throw in gas seemingly at random because their electric motor just isn’t capable of moving the vehicle.
I don’t worry about one thing
There’s one big argument I keep running into against PHEVs that I just don’t care about: the idea that people aren’t plugging them in.
Most people who make that argument repeat it elsewhere. The few who know what it is mostly looked at a flawed research that came to this conclusion, but failed to give us the context that the PHEVs were owned by an employer and driven home by employees at night. The employer encouraged people to plug in the cars, but did not pay for electricity. But they did pay for gas. So, of course, employees decided to let the employer pay for gas instead of paying the bill for charging.
Better data coming soon from a better study using telematics data from private vehicles, and it shows that most people are doing the smart thing and plugging in the car overnight. I’ll share that data as soon as it’s published, but I’ve seen enough to know that people who don’t hook up PHEV don’t feel like being normal outside of unusual circumstances in the real world.
What am I worried about?
What worries me is fake PHEVs and their potential to rob us of the potential benefits of real ones.
I think it’s time we do what Chevrolet did when it released the first Volts and create different categories. A vehicle that defaults to EV mode, gives you no throttle at any throttle position, and has enough range to cover the average commute (30 miles or more) should be considered a type of EV. I would use old GM terminology and call them extended range EVs (EREVs). The Volt and the i3 REx are good examples of this. These vehicles, when owners do the sensible thing and plug them in, will cover your commute with electricity.
Other PHEVs should be considered hybrids and treated as hybrids. If a vehicle is in hybrid mode by default, even with a full battery, it is a hybrid. If it can’t get onto the highway without activating the gas engine, it’s a hybrid. If the vehicle cannot run at 80 MPH electrically, it is a hybrid.
Vehicles in the latter category should not receive tax credits, emissions exemptions, or any other benefit beyond the gas savings owners may (or may not) experience. They shouldn’t be marketed as EVs (because that’s terribly unfair). Buyers should know from the outset that they are not buying any electric cars.
If we can’t make this important distinction, we lose the opportunity to get more electric miles on the road. Of course, that won’t actually happen with fake PHEVs, but it will usually happen with EREVs. Encouraging EVs without encouraging fake hybrids is the way forward.
Featured Image: The 2013 Chevrolet Volt I drove, and probably should have kept. Image by Jennifer Sensiba.
Do you appreciate the originality of CleanTechnica and the coverage of cleantech? Consider becoming one CleanTechnica member, supporter, technician or ambassador — or a patron on Patreon†
