I drive for an hour, charge for two hours, carry unnecessary weight. This is the ecology of plug-in hybrids

On paper, plug-in hybrids look like a great thing. They have a battery, an electric motor and will allow you to travel tens of kilometers purely on electricity. For example, in the city and its surroundings. But when you need to go further, they also have a classic internal combustion engine and a petrol tank available. So you can travel hundreds or even thousands of kilometers with such a car without recharging. Just stop at the gas station.

In theory, it looks like a great thing that would allow the car to drive cleanly, without emissions in cities, and at the same time there would be no problem with recharging on longer routes. Unfortunately, the reality is far from the theory. And plug-in hybrids are proving to be the worst thing that could happen in the world of motoring.

Let’s start with electricity. The paper range values ​​are decent for normal shorter commutes. The car can easily drive tens of kilometers purely on electricity (and when the energy runs out, gasoline remains). Such driving may be ecological, but it is no longer very economical. Plug-in hybrids “eat” quite a lot in pure electric mode, which makes them a completely pointless choice.

And it’s not the only problem. When electricity runs out, it needs to be supplied. Unfortunately, plug-in hybrids do not support fast charging. What does this mean in practice? If you think that you will stop for half an hour at the store and get a few tens of kilometers of electric range from the stand, you are wrong. Plug-in hybrids only charge slowly. So in that half hour you will get 10 kilometers. What’s the point then?

Plug-in hybrids also have an internal combustion engine and a gas tank. At first glance, this is good news for longer distances. But only in the ideal case. The way these cars work is that the internal combustion engine rarely runs on its own. Sometimes its power is used, for example, to recharge the battery, which unnecessarily increases its consumption. In addition, the tanks of plug-in hybrids are also not among the largest, so a longer route combined with high consumption means more frequent refueling stops, unfortunately.

Electric motors and the battery account for the majority of the weight in electric cars. For an internal combustion car, it is the engine, all transmission technology and the tank. And for a plug-in hybrid? Yes, there is both. Accumulator, electric motor, internal combustion engine, gearbox, tank. And all of this must be set in motion every time you drive. It is no wonder that the consumption of such cars is logically not optimal.

When driving purely on electricity, we have to carry all the internal combustion engine technology + fuel in the tank. When driving with an internal combustion engine, we pull unused electric motors and accumulators at that moment. It makes sense?

It is the height of hypocrisy to call plug-in hybrids eco-friendly and give them EL labels. On paper, according to the WLTP, it is suitable, but in practice the driver can easily drive on gasoline all year round, burn more of it than a classic internal combustion engine, and still use the advantages of brands that place it in the category of electric cars. Nonsense about entou.

survey