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Is this true though based on real world actual use?
We do a few medium journeys, occasional long journeys, but lots of short journeys - eg 5 miles p/d to nursery, 8 miles p/w to tennis, etc. etc.
I bet a 15 mile range would cover 80% of our driving.
I can believe rep spending their week on the M4 would be better with a modern diesel over a PHEV, but the majority of UK drivers? I struggle to believe it.
hugo7-
I see I've triggered a few PHEV owners in this thread in the last 24 hours.
There are a few news reports and studies, including this US one from the end of last year that suggest two things:
- People aren't charging their PHEV at all or as much as they should be to come anywhere close to the claimed emissions figures
- Fuel consumption (and therefore emissions) are much higher in real life for PHEV than the stated emission per mile anyway
It's also worth noting that calculations for emissions for fuel consumed do not consider environmental cost of extracting, transporting, refining, transporting again, storage and delivery of fuel over electricity which, even when created through the burning of fossil fuels, is far better for the environment.
Sure there are people on this thread who own super edge case, no longer for sale, hybrid oddities or who charge every day but there are also loads of people who bought a 330e or an X5 hybrid on their company scheme because of the massively lower company car tax who haven't charged them once in their life.
Even if they do, the range claims are clearly false, with that Guardian article that started this discussed yesterday showing the BMW tested as spewing out 3x more carbon on average than claimed.
Finally, the vast majority of hybrids are also large vehicles. Toyota make a few small ones but most are large SUVs which only exacerbates the problem.
Con. Job.
- People aren't charging their PHEV at all or as much as they should be to come anywhere close to the claimed emissions figures
Soul
But when they're in EV mode, the battery is too small and the ICE engine shortens the range, meaning more electricity is required per mile (that electricity is still partly generated by fossil fuels). When you're doing a long trip, the petrol engine has to work harder as it's carrying a heavy battery so pollutes more than a conventional ICE.
They're also more complicated than either a conventional ICE or an EV and so servicing is more expensive.
It's literally the worst of both worlds and a total con job.