The plug turning point

So say. Two point six liters per 100 kilometers. That is 1 in 38 and some for a week and 529 kilometers. I don’t see combustion-engined cars fighting for each other every day. Especially not with more than 1800 kilos of mass.

The cool piggy bank is the 3008 HYbrid4 from Peugeot. That stuffed a sturdy 1.6 turbo engine plus two electric motors into the popular crossover box, hung a plug and tuned the components so well that the thing can drive up to sixty kilometers electrically with a 13.2 kWh battery. I’ve tried, he really can. Incidentally, the Opel GrandlandX is also available with this testosterone package, now that PSA has become a kind of branded grabbelton.

We’re not going to talk about that. We need to talk about the state of the plugin. The market is currently inundated with plug-in hybrids. I estimate that one in three cars offered to me as a car tester is a plugin. The European CO2 emission of 95 grams per kilometer forces manufacturers with an innovation disorder to take swift action. And the plug-in technology simply requires a little less ingenuity than the rigging of a full-fledged European Tesla competitor. That catch-up, see the model ranges, is clearly not about roses.

Until now I had three major objections to plugins. A: The electric range was marginal. Two: As a result, those with batteries and engines fully charged, much too heavy bitches, unabashedly put the battery in a gushing way on an environmental gain. Three: Each plugin was an ecological compromise towards the completely clean car, delaying the transition to electric with false promises. I was devastated by the insanely unrealistic consumption specifications of the manufacturers. Figures of 1.5 or 2 liters per hundred kilometers were commonplace.

In the meantime, I have embraced the plugin as an interesting and increasingly efficient transition model from petrol to electric. In the first place, this has to do with the rapid development of technology.

Indeed, the first plugins were no big deal. If you came twenty kilometers with the Outlander PHEV or Volvo V60 Hybrid, you could already squeeze your hands. Over time, the real action ranges have more than doubled. With the last three test plugins on my agenda – Skoda Superb iV, Kia Xceed PHEV and Peugeot – I easily reached fifty kilometers and more. At that tipping point, the balance turns to the positive. The cars remain heavy, but so are EVs. In

During the week, the average lease customer will be able to drive their PHEV completely electrically from Monday to Friday, provided the driver takes his responsibility by charging as often as possible.

I did that consistently with the Peugeot. An additional advantage of a small battery: with such a small battery that goes quite quickly even without a quick charger. For example, I was able to drive around happily in the Drenthe-Groningen region for a week without using a drop of petrol. So you no longer need a Tesla for that. The petrol engine only had to assist on the way to and from the importer. After 529 kilometers, I only had to refuel a little more than 13 liters.

Unimaginable actually. The fact that the plugin is now mainly used by manufacturers with EV development disorders to keep Europe quiet and to gain evolutionary reserve time is no longer such a problem. The ugly duck is starting to look terribly like a swan.

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