PHEVs aren't bad!

There is a fundamentally misleading campaign going on which ignores the causes and jumps straight to demonizing the vehicle (both the automobile and the means by which the conclusion is arrived at).

Basically, I've seen no end of articles claiming that PHEV's actually consume far more gas than stated.

This is both pure nonsense and truthful. But, the way in which it is truthful is the deceptive bit, and in no way the fault of the vehicle itself. It also, potentially, undermines other positives.

Basically, the root of all such articles is simply that some (perhaps many) PHEV owners tend to treat their cars as normal hybrids; they don't plug them in often, if ever.

A PHEV has more battery capacity and more powerful electric engines than a regular hybrid. So, all other things being roughly equal, a hybrid will outperform a PHEV which is running in hybrid mode. In short, when used this way, the PHEV appears to be a waste of money.

However, I don't believe the fundamental problem to be the PHEV itself but rather government policies and automakers decisions. I also think that these complaints over look another at least one other fundamental problem; the alternatives.

Governments in my opinion have totally botched EV incentives. And they have achieved this, by and large, by only offering the full incentive to full EVs and generally a reduced incentive to PHEVs and then nothing at all for hybrids.

This sounds all well and good. Doesn't it? But, I think this actually ignores the reality of the situation. EVs are still out of reach of most people even with incentives, whereas as PHEVs are moderately expensive but often not much more expensive than a hybrid, and this will come into play again in the next point on the role automakers play in this farce. When you combine this with a general inability for manufacturers to meet demand for electrified vehicles you wind up in a scenario where the only people receiving subsidies are the people who frankly don't need them and don't make up a large enough percentage of the population to have a real world impact on carbon emissions.

A lowly hybrid may be a bigger polluter than an EV. But, they tend to still be substantially better than a traditional ICE vehicle. They also have much smaller batteries and electric drive trains making them easier for manufacturers to produce in larger volumes. Not to mention, out of all electrified options, these are the most likely to be within or just out of reach of average buyer.

If governments are serious about reducing automobile emissions, they should be targeting normal hybrids as well for incentives.

If this sounds crazy, the math is actually pretty simple. You can make 30-60x more batteries for normal hybrids than EVs using the same raw materials. And probably 4-10x then PHEVs. Given that battery production is the major constraint and the bulk of the cost you can start to appreciate why PHEVs and hybrids are appealing to more people than EVs. And, if one wealthy person buys a Tesla, it does a lot less for the environment than 60 buying a cheap hybrid.

If you assume a hybrid is just 20% more efficient than a traditional ICE car (which according to this is the lower end of the benefit), those 60 cars would have the same environmental impact as 12 people choosing a Tesla. In short, trading in one Tesla driver for 60 hybrid drivers is actually 12x better for the environment. This is of course assuming that they were driving an ICE vehicle before, and that they wouldn't have bought a full EV. But, both of those assumptions are VERY reasonable and we can even add in a bit of a fudge factor in our numbers to accommodate for the exceptions. So, let's say instead that instead of being 12x better, it is only 8x better. That is taking quite a loss on my end, especially since I'm assuming that 100% of hybrids are the least efficient hybrids out there. And I'm still ending up with an 800% improvement. 

Obviously, as they saturate the market, the dynamics will change, but, as they saturate the market the supply chain will improve and batteries should be getting produced in larger quantities and at lower prices. When that happens, THEN, governments should shift their efforts more heavily upstream.

None of this explanation (so far) says much about PHEVs. PHEVs after all, are worse than hybrids at hybrid driving. So, where do they fit into all this? Well, PHEVs are actually far better than hybrids at the other end of the spectrum when people DO charge them. People are opting for them, even when they don't fit with their life styles in part because of the government subsidies. If the same subsidies were available to normal hybrid drivers, then drivers would be less incentivized to buy a PHEV over a hybrid unless they actually wanted to use it as a PHEV.

In short, it isn't the PHEVs fault that the wrong people are buying them. Government incentives are nudging the wrong people toward them. In the right hands they are INSANELY economical vehicles. If I remove road trips, I fill up maybe once a year as a result of my regular driving. And only that often because my particular PHEV uses a heater pump, heated by the engine in the winter and I live in Canada.

But, even if the subsidies shifted, it still wouldn't eliminate the problem entirely. And a part of that is because of the auto makers themselves. In addition to government subsidies, another problem is availability and pricing of PHEVs. Firstly, there isn't even necessarily an overlap in makes and models. Some models come with only one option, the other or neither. And, when they come with both hybrid and PHEV the PHEV there isn't always overlap in the trim lines they are available in. So, if you want a more premium trim, the hybrid option might disappear.

Given most car sales go to higher trim lines except for in the case of the most frugal buyers, this means that in a lot of cases automakers are also indirectly forcing the sales. And, the frugal buyers are going to take neither as there is no incentive for the hybrid to no reason for such a buyer to spend more.

The final problem with the critique of PHEVs is while they may not be as efficient as advertised in the wrong hands. They are still more efficient than ICE vehicles. And these buyers were unlikely to buy a full EV in the first place. Remember PHEVs still aren't cheap. These people probably COULD afford to splurge and get the EV but are avoiding them for other reasons (range anxiety, not available for their desired make/model, etc...). And, in that case, while the benefit may be over stated, it is still an improvement over an equivalent ICE vehicle and only a minor loss over a hybrid.

I also see them as a gateway vehicle. Range and cost anxiety are hard things to overcome in a purchase as large as a car and a PHEV can be a considerable stepping stone toward an EV purchase a user might not make otherwise.

The short version of it is this; the problem isn't PHEVs. It is the external forces pushing the wrong types of drivers toward PHEVs. If auto-makers made hybrid engines the default and available across all trims and governments included normal hybrids in their incentive programs at a level on par with PHEVs then I suspect that we would see fewer people grabbing a PHEV and not charging it. And that would immediately rectify these seemingly horrid results.