Buy an ordinary hybrid for economical, an EV for electric
Recently I had two PHEVs again for a double test. For the less initiated: that abbreviation stands for Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle. It is a hybrid with a larger, rechargeable battery pack and has become especially famous and infamous in the Netherlands for the Mitsubishi Outlander (and also the Volvo V60 with its diesel hybrid). Business drivers enjoyed zero percent addition in 2013 because policymakers actually believed that the large SUV 1 runs at 52.6 and only emits 44 grams / km of CO2. Dream on.
Because if the 121 hp two-liter has to get to work to get and keep the almost 1.8-tonne Met subsidy moving, then that can go towards 1 in 10. In 2014, the addition went to 7%. Still a bargain, so in that year the Outlander importer already recorded the 10,000th order. Great for the drivers, but the environment was none the wiser and would have been better off with a subsidy on, for example, the Toyota Prius, which in any case always achieves at least 1 in 20. When the addition became 22% for almost all cars from 2017, it was largely over and out for the PHEV, even though there is still a discount on the road tax. And now demand is rising again because the addition for an EV (which often also has a higher list price) continues to rise and the love for the climate simply goes through the wallet.
But now back to the essence: the plug-in hybrid is of course mainly an escape clause for car manufacturers and in the Netherlands a blessing for the car industry because the BPM is largely determined on the basis of C02 emissions. So you pay €6,368 in BPM for an Alfa Romeo Tonale with a 1.5-liter petrol engine and only €754 for the plug-in version. While that 1.5 mild hybrid is more economical purely on petrol than the PHEV, as it turns out in practice. And speaking of consumption: in that respect, the PHEV (especially the SUV) also offers the worst of both worlds: it is not economical on petrol and as an electric car it is not. You quickly reach values ​​between 25 and 30 kWh/100 km, where a somewhat efficient EV easily stays below 20 kWh/100 km. I often speak to PHEV drivers who proudly say that they drive almost all kilometers electrically. Or who proudly tell you how fantastic electric driving is and list the benefits: quiet, lots of torque, no fuel consumption. Which makes me think: why didn’t you buy a fully electric car? Because with a PHEV you sometimes drive electrically and at the same time you drag a complete extra powertrain with you, including a tank of fuel. Soberly considered totally illogical.
The more you think about that plug-in hybrid, the greater the resistance becomes and the greater the realization that it derives its right to exist from theoretical consumption and emission figures. Some kind of legalized cheating hardware. If you want to be economical, buy a regular hybrid. If you want electric, choose an EV and not a half-hearted intermediate solution.
– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl