While most hybrids are said to use one to two litres of fuel per 100km, a study claims they need six litres on average
Plug-in hybrid electric cars (PHEVs) use much more fuel on the road than officially stated by their manufacturers, a large-scale analysis of about a million vehicles of this type has shown.
The Fraunhofer Institute carried out what is thought to be the most comprehensive study of its kind to date, using the data transmitted wirelessly by PHEVs from a variety of manufacturers while they were on the road.
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According to the study, the vehicles require on average six litres per 100km, or about 300%, more fuel to run than previously cited.
The scientists of the Fraunhofer Institute found that the main reason for the higher-than-stated fuel usage was due precisely to the fact that the PHEVs use two different modes, the electric engine and the combustion engine, switching between both. Until now it has been claimed by manufacturers that the vehicles used only a little or almost no fuel when in the electric mode. The studies showed that this was not in fact the case.
I met someone who had been given a PHEV company car. They had been driving it for 6 months, and I was the first person who informed them that their car could be plugged in to charge. They thought it just charged itself while driving.
I doubt this is an isolated incident.
Many companies and councils are trying to look more green by making the switch to EV, but don’t want the “risk” of an actual EV. I believe they are the main customers for PHEVs, and they are also the least likely to recharge them.
I’ve even heard of people deliberately refueling and not recharging because they have a company car for fuel, but would have to pay for electricity themselves.
Because the car companies were marketing them like that. They called them, “self charging”.
Idiots believe it because they have no idea how a vehicle works. They just drive until it breaks.
Sounds like the companies should also issue their PHEV’d employees a portable gas-powered generator they can fill up when they fill the car to then use at night to charge the car’s batteries. Bureaucratically the math is flawless.