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PHEVs really seem like the best of both worlds. What's the downside?
by tomjakubowski 4y ago
PHEVs really seem like the best of both worlds. What's the downside?
- nottorp 4y agoCosts. Complexity. You have a large battery, a gasoline engine with a transmission and 2+ electric engines in a PHEV. And they all need maintenance in the long run. This will be hopefully mitigated when all PHEVs only run the gas engine as a generator and get rid of the transmission, but I don't think we're there yet.
- Dylan16807 4y ago> This will be hopefully mitigated when all PHEVs only run the gas engine as a generator and get rid of the transmission, but I don't think we're there yet. If it's cheaper then they'll do it. More generally, you can remove a chunk of the transmission in a hybrid and use a simpler engine even if it's not a generator. The complexity isn't a big deal. And the moderate cost gets offset by significant fuel savings.