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The all electric range is not a big deal in a PHEV. That’s what the gas engine is for!


But the whole point is to be more environmental. There is no point in getting a whole new car just to mostly use gas.


There is certainly a point for most people to use a plug-in hybrid if the price is not too high. Most trips are short. You only take long trips a few times a year. (or maybe a few times a month if you drive a lot, but that still equals most trips being short). Thus you have "infinite range" via the petrol engine and the vast majority of trips are all electric. This makes total sense.


If you're already getting a new car, it makes sense to get a hybrid. But it doesn't make sense to replace a working car to get a hybrid. It barely makes sense to replace a working car to get an all electric, but it makes sense if you have solar.


A lot of plug in hybrids have an incredibly short range. It’s not a bad idea, but many of the implications are due to fleet requirements not customer demand so they end up with sub 20 mile ranges when new and that drops quickly due the large number of charge / discharge cycles.




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