Plug-in hybrid vehicles are often touted as a bridge to battery-electric vehicles, promising to slash emissions by operating as EVs for short trips while relying on fossil fuels for longer ones.
They only deliver on that promise if they’re regularly charged. Real-world data drawn from the vehicles’ onboard computers shows that’s often not the case.
Using that data, the Fraunhofer Institute could determine how much of that energy came from charging when plugged in. It found that less than a third of 1 million PHEVs in Germany plugged in either occasionally or not at all.
U.S. automakers that are pushing future PHEV models as appealing alternatives for American drivers should take note. By blending gas with electricity, these automakers hope to boost fleet-wide efficiency without a wide rollout of EVs.
“We’re looking to make CO 2 reductions across our lineup, but we’re doing it in a very efficient way,” Ford CEO Jim Farley said this month in an earnings call.
Yet the new study shows that PHEVs seldom deliver on their efficiency promises.
At best, Toyota drivers used electricity for 44% of the energy used for driving, suggesting they plugged in the most frequently. The worst? Porsche drivers, at just 0.8%, an average of 7 kilowatt-hours over two years. In other words, the average Porsche PHEV driver charged their battery less than 50% of its capacity — once.
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