All About Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEVs)

in this video I'm going to cover plug-in hybrid electric vehicles the vehicles that run on electricity then automatically switch to gasoline when the battery runs out but you've probably been asking yourself is a plug-in hybrid really an electric vehicle no you've you've never you've never asked that question well like Inception I'm going to play with your brain today and get you thinking about it right after the intro all right right or wrong an electric vehicle is often defined as any vehicle with a plug and an electric motor so what is a plug-in vehicle then looking from left to right an internal combustion engine vehicle is definitely not a plug-in vehicle even if it's a diesel with a warm-up plug a hybrid vehicle like the Prius is not a plug-in vehicle either it does have a small electric motor it does have a small battery it does not have a plug jumping over to the hydrogen vehicle it has an electric motor to move the wheels but it generates electricity from hydrogen no need for a plug a battery electric vehicle definitely is a plug-in vehicle because that's the only way you make it move you plug it in to recharge the battery and finally we get to the plug-in hybrid electric vehicle phev it's an acronym it has a plug to recharge the battery it can drive some amount of distance on that battery there are basically two types of P halves and I will probably get some Flack for oversimplify buying this explanation essentially a parallel configuration is an internal combustion engine vehicle that has an electric motor and a battery added to the powertrain often it gets sandwiched somewhere between the engine and the transmission the big Advantage here is that it is not a dedicated electric vehicle platform so the OEM just modifies an existing vehicle that makes it cost effective and production flexibility aside from a badge on the side and a charging port you hardly notice a difference pretty much all new PFS today are a parallel configuration these are just two of the many p-hubs available they have enough range to commute to work without starting the engine if you plan to take a road trip just stop and get gas as needed a series plug-in hybrid is essentially a battery electric vehicle platform with a combustion engine added to extend the range it's called a range extender it's actually not a generator like shown in the picture but some people have done this the best examples of this are the Chevrolet volt which ended production in 2019 and the BMW i3 with the Rex that ended production in 2022 why did they stop production because if you're going through all the trouble of making a battery electric vehicle platform instead of adding a small engine just add more batteries to extend the range basically it doesn't make sense to gasify a battery electric vehicle plug-in hybrid electric vehicles and Battery electric vehicles are not the same they work differently here are some examples though of how they often get mixed together GM Ford and the company formerly known as Chrysler jointly announced their aspiration to sell 40 to 50 electric vehicles by 2030. they included battery electric vehicles plug-in hybrids and Fuel Cell Vehicles into that goal the forecast I've assembled with cute little Eevee icons has a US market getting to about 40 percent and some industry analysts have revised their projections higher due to passage of the inflation reduction act which contains renewed incentives for EVS California recently announced plans to ban the sale of internal combustion engine Vehicles by 2035. that was the headline but look a little deeper and you will see that it allows P halves that burn gasoline once the battery is empty to continue to be sold treating bevs and pee heaves as the same thing is making some EV purists a little angry I guess I'm not really an angry person foreign you may not believe this but social media is full of mean people trolling each other some battery electric owners don't like pee heaves and don't respect their owners they think plug-in hybrids don't go far enough to reduce CO2 they resent that they qualify for tax credits they think their owners can't tell their gas from a kilowatt hour they don't like them occupying The Limited supply of Chargers and the hatred gets worse when they don't charge their phev at all don't believe me watch this nice electric vehicle what are you doing here I'm just here to charge same as you that would be the gas cap [Music] aren't you gonna compliment it's a hybrid with a tiny plug my ex-girlfriend told me my plug was kind of big my plug is bigger if you don't have enough range I can always tow you home [Applause] [Music] let's look at what it's like to drive and own a pee have compared to a regular gas powered vehicle or a full battery electric to start with there are a lot of different plug-in models out there so I will use terms like many and some to give you a general idea many P Habs use the base engine as a starting point then add an electric motor strong enough to move the vehicle by itself when needed the two work together so yeah they can be as fast or even faster than the same vehicle with the gas engine alone they generally don't have blistering acceleration like a full battery electric vehicle but you'll be happy how the power gets delivered is just as important as how much nvh is an acronym for noise vibration harshness when you accelerate moderately in a p head it's smooth the electric motor does all the work and does so with less noise however when you accelerate hard or need more power than the electric motor alone can provide the engine automatically fires up to add more power in some Vehicles you'll notice it and others you won't especially with the radio on many P halves provide you with some basic control over how the limited amount of electricity gets used in the vehicle oems have different names for them but here are some of the basic modes if you want to prioritize using the battery first there's a mode for that Honda Clarity P Hab calls it eco mode Jeep 4 by E and BMW 530e call it electric mode if you want more balance between using the battery and the gas engine so that you don't use all your battery up right away Jeep and BMW call that hybrid mode if you want the gas engine and the electric motor to both be used at the same time to maximize performance that's called sport mode and lastly if you want to prioritize using the gas engine to save your battery for later use Jeep calls that e-save BMW calls that battery preserve mode Honda calls it HV mode the reason someone might want to save their battery for later use is to optimize the efficiency for example if you start off with your trip on an open Highway at a constant speed you can use the gas engine there to save battery for later in your trip when you know you'll run into stop lights and traffic where the gas engines are least efficient another feature you may come across is one that allows you to essentially recharge your battery using the gas engine as a generator I've not worked out the numbers on this but it seems terribly inefficient you'd be better off letting the battery just get used up and charging using a plug when you get home my advice read the owner's manual then just use the default mode and forget about it in the phevs I've driven on my commute I get well over 60 percent of the miles on electricity even this boxy on aerodynamic Jeep Wrangler 4xe I managed to get 69 of the miles using no gas for battery electric vehicle charging is critical and it's the biggest source of confusion and dissatisfaction with our owners for a p have charging is important but not really critical and there are a lot fewer are options to know about this is the SAE j1772 plug call it the J plug this is what you use Tesla doesn't make a plug-in hybrid so you don't have to worry about their plug plug it into a 120 volt Outlet in your garage or driveway and it will recharge your P he have overnight that's Level One charging level two charging is faster it can charge a p-have in about two hours depending on the size of the battery it requires a 240 volt circuit residential homes can have a 240 volt circuit you can work with your utility company with a local nutrition or an online company to have one installed where you park your car for plug-in hybrid it's more than fast enough you can also charge your P he have away from home at work a shopping center any destination where you plan to stay for a while this is where things get a little more confusing owners of battery electric vehicles talk about DC fast charging Tesla calls it super charging I'll call it level 3 charging better than level one or level two but some people will argue that it's not the right term to use I just think it's easier for people to understand now that you understand forget about it very very very few P halves are capable of level 3 DC charging when on the go you need to find level 2 Charging they're smaller not as easy to see use an app like plug share to find them when you do you may be delightfully surprised that they are cheap or even free for a period of time I've seen grocery stores offer free charging for the first hour for a p he have that could mean half your battery gets refilled at no cost they want you to stay and shop at their store however this is where Bev and P have conflict comes from someone with a Bev who is low on energy does not want to see a plug-in hybrid hogging the last spot for the P have recharging it's a luxury and for the Bev it's more of an necessity let's pause for a moment if you're a little bit confused you're not alone battery electric vehicles are easy to understand if you don't put electricity in them they don't go gasoline vehicles are easy to understand if you don't put gasoline in them they don't go a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle can confuse some people because it has two sources of energy it's fundamentally easy to understand plug it in as often as you can and fill up the gas tank as needed whether you're interested in reducing your fuel bill or reducing your carbon footprint or both what kind of savings can we expect from a plug-in hybrid all these figures come from the EPA doe website fueleconomy.gov it's not the most modern looking site but it's got a lot of good information the Toyota RAV4 is one of the most popular vehicles in America you can get it with a gas engine a Hybrid engine that doesn't have a plug or the RAV4 Prime model which is a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle just as you would expect the hybrid saves money over the internal combustion model and the plug-in hybrid saves money over the hybrid model the EPA calculations assume you plug the p-have into an outlet to recharge the battery and you're paying for that electricity if you don't plug it in you will pay more that plug-in hybrid is less efficient when running only on gasoline less efficient than the hybrid model why because you're hauling around a larger 18 kilowatt hour battery and some other components but you've decided not to use them that extra weight contributes it to it being less efficient Ford Escape same thing Jeep Wrangler same story different numbers I like to use analogies so let's give one a try if you don't want to plug in your plug-in hybrid vehicle then don't buy a p he have you should have bought a hybrid or the most efficient gasoline-powered vehicle you can find similarly don't buy a dog if you don't want to walk it or let it do its business outside buy a cat instead I mean what were you thinking you're going to litter train your dog is a plug-in hybrid right for you let's summarize on the positive side they're easy to live with you only have to find a 120 volt Outlet at home to charge at level one you don't have to worry about range when the battery runs out it automatically switches over to the engine P heads can qualify for federal and state incentives the federal tax incentives are changing as of January 1st 2023 some PFS won't qualify anymore the ones that do qualify for up to 7 500 as a tax credit oh yeah and you can burn less gas save more money and reduce the amount of CO2 you're putting in the atmosphere on the downside plug-in hybrids can be a little bit boring they're based on internal combustion engine Vehicles so they look normal they drive normal they don't have ludicrous acceleration although Porsche Ferrari and McLaren do make plug-in hybrid models and I'll say it one more time if you don't want to plug in your vehicle then don't buy a plug-in hybrid is a plug-in hybrid an electric vehicle no in my opinion when I talk about electric vehicles I talk about battery electric vehicles and a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle is a p he have however PF owners that plug-in are part of the plug-in Community if you see a p-hub owner using a level 2 charger at a shopping center don't be mad they're reducing their CO2 output and doing what the vehicle was born for they're walking their dog and picking up the poop I should edit that out I hope you found this video informative if so like subscribe comment if you own a plug-in hybrid share your thoughts and your experiences thank you for watching

Channel: Mike the Car Geek

Views: 38,690

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Id: mhbEYaVc1PE

Length: 14min 11sec (851 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 16 2022