A thorough examination of today's PHEV market, analyzing cost, fuel efficiency, battery, and mechanical differences.
From the May/June issue of Car and Driver.Although the descriptor is a mouthful, plug-in-hybrid electric vehicles are a relatively recent powertrain creation, brought to the mass market by the pioneering 2011 Chevrolet Volt. They promise zero-emission electric motoring for shorter trips, with the ability to charge at home and bypass the gas station.
Vs often force the gas engine to start. Perhaps unsurprisingly, given the complexity of two commingling propulsion sources, more can go wrong, so Vs versus hybrids or internal-combustion-engine vehicles, and it stands to reason that having the complexity of two different propulsion sources could cause some additional bugaboos. J.D. Power's Frank Hanley, senior director of auto benchmarking, confirms that
Vs are equal. Hanley says, 'Toyota V and a Toyota Prius and Prius Prime—on a city loop and our 75-mph highway route with the goal of mimicking a regular flow of traffic, not hypermiling. Our urban venue was roughly 200 miles through Orange County, California, with plenty of stop-and-go that led to average speeds of around 25 mph. On the city loop, the Sportage hybrid beat the
Vs use a smaller fraction of the battery's gross capacity for propulsion than EVs do.Currently, the average EV has a battery pack with around 100 kilowatt-hours of energy, and the usable capacity is approximately 90 percent of that total. V's 20.0-kWh battery has optional DC fast-charging capability via a not-always-easy-to-find CHAdeMO connection. The Mercedes-Benz S580e offers optional DC fast-charging too.Don't Call Me a
V label on its new Ramcharger pickup, instead calling it a 'range-extended electric truck.' Elsewhere in the Stellantis empire, Chrysler oversimplifies by labeling the
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