What do you people think of plug-in hybrids?

Better than most gas cars (especially in fuel efficiency), and they have the advantage over non-plug-in hybrids, in that you can, to some extent, if you learn how, use (at least some of?) them like a very short-range electric, not using gas until the battery runs out.

I drove one for a month lately (a 2024? Volvo XC40), and it was fairly nice once I set it to not second-guess which engine(s) I wanted it to use.

I liked it better than the 2016? Volt (IIRC) Hybrid I rented, which mad much less power, but was also ok.

(Not as nice as my EV, but nicer than most ICEs.)

@Zaku. That’s very helpful. The Volvo XC40 is what I’m thinking of. My usual drives are about 5 miles and 15–30 is usually the longest.

My wife has a 2017 Prius Prime hybrid plug-in. She loves it. It can go 30 miles on electricity alone. Gets unbelievable mileage per gallon of gas. Depending on the driving distance, she gets between 60 and 99 mpg. Never has to worry about running out of electricity. When the battery is depleted the care just uses gas.

Is it possible, to rent the vehicle you are looking at? Or a similar model?

From what I hear, most “problems,” depend a lot on the buyer. You may love it, or grow tired of it over time.

Mostly, technology just needs to get less expensive, and more readily available. But gasoline, is NOT the future of the civilian car market.

@gondwanalon

“When the battery is depleted the care just uses gas.”

Doesn’t the motor recharge the battery when it’s using gas?

I want one. If my old Camry ever dies I will be seriously considering a plug in Prius.

@janbb Glad if I can help. We liked it ok but do much prefer our Nissan Ariya (though it’s an EV, so never mind ;-) ). Some things we noticed that might be helpful:

* Definitely test drive it with the automatic speed feature turned OFF (and briefly ON, to notice the difference) – with it ON, it does weird things in response to the pedal, with it off, it responds much more smoothly and predictably (and better IMO) to the accelerator.

* Ours had a very annoying warning for driving even slightly over what it thought the local speed limit, which we discovered could be turned off, but needed to be turned off every time you started the car. However I think/hope that’s only on European versions.

* The top-down parking view is great to have, but it’s not very accurate compared to the one we have on our Nissan Ariya – but that’s something to experiment with on a test drive.

* The mileage varies a lot depending on how fast you drive. If you’re traveling 50 mph or less, you’ll have much more range than if you’re traveling 60+ mph.

I think they’re very much worse than an actual EV and nearly everyone buying one would be better off with no gas engine and a much larger battery. You have the maintenance expenses of the gas vehicle, and you’re going to wear out your batteries way faster because you’ve got smaller batteries that are having a higher depth of discharge on the cycles. In 50 years people are going to look back at these as we do with the Amphicar today. It’s neither a good boat, nor a good car.

Plug in hybrids are heavy, have worse efficiencies and sacrifice the safety benefits of EVs. I could go on…

We just got a Honda CR-V Sport L. It is a hybrid, but doesn’t plug in. We love it.

I’ve been driving a PHEV of one kind or another since 2015. It’s nice that I get 2 hr of free charging per day at work.

2015 Ford Fusion Energi – 17 mile battery. That was too short. Most of my weekend trips are around 20 miles so I always ran out of battery. I was charging at home and at work. That puts a lot of cycles on the battery each year. The battery was showing signs of wear out by the time the lease ended.

2018 Hyundai Ioniq – 27 mile battery. That is much better. Work is 26 miles round trip so I only needed to charge at work on Mon-Thur night. Most of my trips are less than 27 miles so a tank of gas lasts about 4–6 months. But it gets 50 MPG on the highway, so has >500 miles of range. I had to drive back and forth between San Jose and San Diego a few times and never had to stop at an expensive roadside gas station. It’s 6+ years old and the battery is still capable of 27 miles. PHEV are good for when you normally take short trips. Then you’ll use very little gas.

Right now with pure EVs it’s best to be able to charge at home. They are inconvenient to charge while you are out and about.

@Brian1946 My wife told me that the battery only get recharged while going down hill or applying the brakes.

@Brian1946 My wife told me that the battery only get recharged while going down hill or applying the brakes.

@gorillapaws I’m pretty sure that the “Amphicar” was a joke the year it came out. Less than 4,000 were made. Hybrid vehicles are the best solution for our time right now. There are many problems with EV’s as you likely know but didn’t mention.

@gondwanalon “There are many problems with EV’s as you likely know but didn’t mention.”

I’m not going to derail this thread debating the pros/cons of EVs. The OP asked our opinion of plug-in hybrids and I explained a few of the reasons why they’re worse than gas cars and pure EVs for nearly everyone in my opinion. If you want to discuss the “problems” with EVs, you should start a new question and I’d be happy to clarify any of those concerns.

@gorillapaws No thanks. I don’t want to go down a rabbit hole with you. Thanks for your opinion. Very illuminating.

We have been driving plug in hybrids for several years now and wouldn’t consider any other kind. We leased one for three years, and then bought a brand new Chrysler Pacifica.

In a way, PHEV is like “training wheels” towards owning an EV. You drastically cut down your usage of gas. Get experience (good and bad) charging an EV. Can power your car with solar power. Have a backup means of powering your car if charging is not working out. Once you are able to handle the charging issue, going full EV is actually the best way forward.

I’ve seen a few people forget to charge their car, so it’s always funny to see some fancy person pushing their car at night.

That’s what you get for being rich!

There are service trucks that carry batteries and charging cables to charge EVs pooped out on the side of the road.

I don’t think I’ll ever be able to afford one, but I would definitely want a hybrid as opposed to a fully electric car if I did decide to go that route at some point. However, I’m in an apartment building so I would have to figure out where to charge my vehicle because we don’t have charging stations.

I agree with @gorillapaws. Although a good friend of mine bought a plug in Rav 4 and had driven across country with it 4 times and loves it. So they’re getting better. My current car is a 2006 beat up Rav 4 and I’ll drive it into the ground. My next car will probably be electric IF the prices come down. I don’t spend money on cars as to me they are a tool to get from point A to point B and I generally don’t drive that much.