Hacker News Reader

Comment by theK | Hacker News Reader

What is the benefit of PHEVs compared to BEVs again? Aren't they just as overcomplicated as normal hybrids?

There are still some vehicle classes that don’t have a lot of full BEV options. We wanted a small SUV (which, I know), and the BEV choices as far as I was aware were a $75k Tesla or a $100k Rivian. Kia and Nissan had PHEV SUVs, and Chrysler had a PHEV minivan. All were only available in the more expensive trims, but they were still much more affordable.

The advantage is you can plug them in and run them as EVs ~80% of the time.

That is a nice theory but study after study finds out that people just aren't "plugging in"

https://theicct.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/real-world-ph...

As an anecdote, I know a handfull of people that exchanged their pricy SUVs for the equivalent PHEV version and where laughing at the fact they where getting roughly 10k of gov kickbacks for doing it, even though they didn't even have anywhere to plug in.

sure, but even if that's true when they sell their PHEV in a few years the next buyer will be able to plug it in and save a bunch of gas (and money). The cars we are making now will be around for another 20 years, so making vehicles that can plug in will mean that 10 years from now (as charging proliferates) they will use less and less gasoline.

Point of order: normal hybrids are not overcomplicated and they're a very mature technology that works great.

Come on, any ICE drivetrain is magnitudes more complex than an electric one...

Reply on news.ycombinator.com