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> PHEVs have been shown not to yield meaningful emissions savings over conventional vehicles. Can you say or link to more about this? My family borrowed a PHEV

> PHEVs have been shown not to yield meaningful emissions savings over conventional vehicles. Can you say or link to more about this? My family borrowed a PHEV Prius Prime for about six weeks. Our fuel economy over that time was ~210mpg, nearly an order of magnitude better than the sedan it temporarily replaced.

josephcsible 2y ago
That's because your family actually bothered to plug it in. A lot of people who drive PHEVs only do so for the tax credits, etc., and always just run them on gas.
- mathgradthrow 2y ago
  what are you talking about? If you are after the tax credit, you're probably after the cost savings of plugging your vehicle in. This doesnt make sense as a hypothesis.
  - josephcsible 2y ago
    Okay, the reason is a guess, but it's proven that people aren't plugging in: see, e.g., https://cars.usnews.com/cars-trucks/features/phev-owners-not-plugging-in https://cars.usnews.com/cars-trucks/features/phev-owners-not... and https://www.autoweek.com/news/a60383277/wltp-phev-data-gap-report/ https://www.autoweek.com/news/a60383277/wltp-phev-data-gap-r...
  - VBprogrammer 2y ago
    It's a thing, though perhaps a UK specific thing. Perverse incentives in the tax system mean it's cheaper to own a company PHEV than the equivalent but there is little to no allowance for charging it at home.
    - mathgradthrow 2y ago
      Ok, but the people drawing generalizations from this are being crazy then.
- jdlshore 2y ago
  Even on long trips where we didn’t have the opportunity to plug it in, we were seeing ~65mpg, which is still a notable improvement over regular cars.
- gruez 2y ago
  But non PHEVs still have higher fuel economy than conventional ICE cars? Hybrid cars are more fuel efficient not only through the fact you can plug them in. They also get efficiency gains through regenerative braking and more efficient engine cycles[1], none of which requires plugging in to work. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atkinson_cycle https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atkinson_cycle

josephcsible 2y ago

That's because your family actually bothered to plug it in. A lot of people who drive PHEVs only do so for the tax credits, etc., and always just run them on gas.

mathgradthrow 2y ago
what are you talking about? If you are after the tax credit, you're probably after the cost savings of plugging your vehicle in. This doesnt make sense as a hypothesis.
- josephcsible 2y ago
  Okay, the reason is a guess, but it's proven that people aren't plugging in: see, e.g., https://cars.usnews.com/cars-trucks/features/phev-owners-not-plugging-in https://cars.usnews.com/cars-trucks/features/phev-owners-not... and https://www.autoweek.com/news/a60383277/wltp-phev-data-gap-report/ https://www.autoweek.com/news/a60383277/wltp-phev-data-gap-r...
- VBprogrammer 2y ago
  It's a thing, though perhaps a UK specific thing. Perverse incentives in the tax system mean it's cheaper to own a company PHEV than the equivalent but there is little to no allowance for charging it at home.
  - mathgradthrow 2y ago
    Ok, but the people drawing generalizations from this are being crazy then.
jdlshore 2y ago
Even on long trips where we didn’t have the opportunity to plug it in, we were seeing ~65mpg, which is still a notable improvement over regular cars.
gruez 2y ago
But non PHEVs still have higher fuel economy than conventional ICE cars? Hybrid cars are more fuel efficient not only through the fact you can plug them in. They also get efficiency gains through regenerative braking and more efficient engine cycles[1], none of which requires plugging in to work. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atkinson_cycle https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atkinson_cycle