US consumers aren’t buying PHEVs despite automakers embracing them. The hype surrounding plug-in hybrids isn’t translating to sales. PHEVs only accounted for 1.9% of 2024 sales so far. EVs have accounted for 9.4% of 2024 new vehicle sales.
https://www.greencarreports.com/news/1144678_us-consumers-aren-t-buying-phevs-despite-automakers-embracing-them
by mafco
37 comments
The additional cost for a phev makes no sense from a financial point of view. You would basically have to drive only on battery for years to offset the marginal cost. If that’s the case, why not simply go electric?
It is certainly an appealing concept to have gasoline AND electric power source to drive the vehicles. After looking into it I decided to wait because the EV mode is limited in range so it does not yet justify the extra costs just for 50 miles of EV mode range. My wife drives almost 100 miles per day for work. When they can make one with a range of up to 200 or more miles I will buy it if price is reasonable enough.
Hybrids are for scaredy cats… It make little sense to have to worry about two systems in the vehicle when the benefits of a full EV, having fewer moving parts and less need for maintenance should clearly, or clearly does, show people understand this.
Idk i bought a tahoe in 2022 if there was a phev version within 10% of ice cost maybe 5-600 miles range or higher with relatively proven reliable components i would have gotten it. Problem is we have to choose between being limited to certain models or get ICE
PHEVs don’t really make a lot of sense.
If you regularly have access to a plug, just get an EV.
If you don’t have regular access to a plug, the EV part is barely worth it.
The user that it is a good fit for is such a narrow slice of the market.
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We bought ours 4 months ago and absolutely love it. We put gas in once a month.
I’d consider it, if I had access to an outlet outside.
HEVs sales are outpacing EVs. Consumers are willing to adopt HEVs because they don’t have to worry about range or charging infrastructure. HEV sales make it easier for manufacturers to add PHEVs for minimal extra cost.
At the current balance between gas and electric prices there’s not much incentive to opt for a PHEV over an HEV. If Harris wins and spikes gas prices we’ll see an uptick in PHEV sales.
I have a phev. I like it.
Good luck finding a RAV4 Prime on a lot
No one can afford groceries. No shit people aren’t buying brand new cars.
PHEVs are about useless (compared to hybrid) unless your one way daily commute is under 30 miles, and you can charge at work.
If PHEVs are so great, why aren’t there options in every vehicle segment? This could have happened a decade ago
There’s not very many available and many of the ones that are available are in the form of cars that are better as EVs. For example, why a Prius PHEV?…Just get a BEV.
A good pick-up PHEV would be useful (mainly battery for short trips but gas for towing) but I don’t think there are any!
So many terrible decisions by automakers.
The PHEV Wrangler is popular because it’s eligible for the tax credit. It’s essentially a free Rubicon package and you never have to plug it in. Seriously the amount of lifted PHEV Wranglers I see in NorCal is astounding.
The problem is that there are many different types of PHEVs. Some are good and some are not so good.
The Chevy Volt was a great PHEV, but it was discontinued. Same can be said for the Honda Clarity. Both of these vehicles could get around 70km of electric range and didn’t need to switch to gas on the highway.
The Rav4 and prius primes are also great PHEVs but they are hard to find and you need to pay a premium for them.
Most of the other PHEVs either have bad range, low power in ev mode that based on mild hybrid systems.
Because PHEVs have garbage range that haven’t improved in a decade.
Great. Maybe they’ll finally give up on this idiotic plan to go all electric 🤷♂️🤷♂️🤦♂️🤦♂️🤦♂️
PHEVs were consultants trying to maximize profits for legacy. Mostly MBAs and Accountants at the helm. Good luck out there with disruption.
I call BS. I would buy PHEV all day long, but they just don’t exist. Last time I saw a PHEV in stock was 3 years ago. There is no “automakers embracing them”
I think it’s because they are stale.
Most don’t have much better range than a regular hybrid, making it harder to justify the large increase in price. Those that do have a good EV only range, are expensive enough your better off just getting an actual EV.
Then there is the performance. PHEV’s tend to have better performance than their gas and Hybrid counterparts, but still not comparable to full EV’s.
My parents recently had a Ford Escape Plug-In Hybrid as a rental. I myself own a 19′ Smart EQ for reference. They let me drive it around a little bit, and I was impressed, it drove well and was good overall. I definitely enjoyed the creature comforts that my car doesn’t have. My Smart is definitely quicker though.
However what I couldn’t wrap my head around was the fact that even on level 2 charging, it took over 3 hours for a full charge, for ONLY 31 miles of EV range (ford says 37 on a full charge, I went off the display)! Even from half the battery, it was still 2 hours My Smart ForTwo gets EPA 58 from a full battery (but can be pushed further if you drive carefully) and even from completely dead it only takes 3 hours on Level 2. I generally charge from 50-80% and it only takes about 30 minutes. In practice this doesn’t mean much for those that will park at home and plug it in when not in use, but for everything else, I think it could be much better personally.
Give me more electric only range, better acceleration, and faster charging. You still have to pay for gas and oil changes, so I’d definitely want a significantly longer range from a PHEV.
Given the price tag, you’re better off buying a full EV, or getting a better deal with a used EV. Especially with Government and even local incentives, you can get a better deal and vehicle
RAV 4 Prime has been hard to get… so not sure what this is about.
One of the biggest advantages of EVs is never having to stop at a gas station. Once a consumer gets used to that, there’s no going back.
Also, PHEVs don’t have any of the maintenance advantages of a pure EV.
ppl didnt get EVs because there is no place to charge.
buying PHEV suddenly isnt going to give ppl a place to charge.
if you are not going to charge why pay extra for hybrid?
Because EVs and hybrids are for dorks is why. Too expensive, too complicated to repair, too little resale value
Do they have any idea what the price was for those over the pandemic? Worth their weight in gold. The demand still outweighs the supply, go even try finding a RAV4 Prime for MSRP.
They never made enough.
If gas is being phased out and you care enough about the environment, why would you buy a vehicle that needs gas?
I like my 2017 Chevy volt. I can drive 60 miles in town all electric with the motor never coming on during summer/spring/fall. Winter is lower range. I mostly drive in town, so I’m 90% electric. There aren’t that many charging stations around here, so I don’t want to worry about it. We have exactly 0 commercial charging stations in this 20,000 population town.
So, I charge at home, and away from my home city it’s mostly gas. Also, I looked at the rates they charge at the nearest Charging stations and they charge like 4 times what I pay for home electricity. You’d think they’d just markup like 50%. It’s not a great deal to charge versus pump at those rates.
Personally I don’t find standard hybrids all that attractive, with the engine turning off and on all the time.
Most of the PHEV’s on the market aren’t great compared to their ICE counterparts, expect Toyota.
A RAV4 Prime is a ~75KM EV with ~450KM gas range. You don’t use the gas if your trips are the right size.
PS: hybrids don’t have great highway speed efficiency as its mostly gas propulsion.
meanwhile all new cars in eu are plugin
A gas/hybrid is cheap like $30-$35K for civic/camry/accord. But if you want plug in hybrid isn’t it like $10K more? It’s not worth the extra cost
One youtuber who repairs PHEVs says that they are great. You can save allot on gas so you can spend it all in the workshop.
Toyota can’t make their PHEV’s fast enough. The rav4 and Prius have been on a waitlist around me since they launched.
A big reasons is the electric motor of a PHEV can only handle like 30% throttle before the ICE kicks in. Plus you still have to run the ICE for climate control and then the electric range on them is crap. They need to electric range to be like 40-50 miles minimum and be able to do it at highway speeds, run the climate control and handle most of the driving with out the ICE.
Hence why I have a full BEV as my main car. It has more than enough range to cover my daily needs and I can still take it on a road trip.
With EV ranges increasing, PHEV’s top benefit of practically unlimited range without a QC stop is fading. Also is a more complicated design with more maintenance vs an EV, and PHEV prices are in the same ballpark as EV prices.
PHEVs are horrible. Expensive, heavy, unreliable, impractical. They exist due to regulations, not demand.
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