A PHEVs only makes sense if your daily mileage is within its electric range limit and you have the capability to charge it at home every day, preferably with your home at least partially powered by solar energy. If you fail to meet these requirements, regular HEVs will make far more economic sense.

This post has been edited by dev/numb: Oct 12 2023, 11:56 PM

Yes, you can treat a PHEV as an EV for short distances and fall back on the ICE on a road trip, but most PHEVs have a range of under 100km in EV mode, afaik. If you do very little mileage daily and have landed housing to charge it at home, then it can make some sense, but in terms of pure economics you’re not really making up for the premium price you’re paying for a PHEV over an ICE car in the same segment if you’re not driving it enough. If you’re doing a lot of driving (eg: 1000km/week) a regular HEV is still a lot more pragmatic than a PHEV even if RON95 prices go up by 30%.

As for the second part, a PHEV has a much bigger battery than a regular HEV. On a HEV, the small battery is meant to augment the ICE unit. ICE will shut off at lower speeds or during stop/start driving. Most HEVs also have an EV mode where you can run purely on battery power up to 70 or 80km/h, but it only lasts a few km at most. On a PHEV, your thinking should be to separate EV and ICE duties (basically 2 cars in 1). For some people it’s the best of both worlds because their daily mileage and charging setup (landed + solar) allows them to truly maximize this in terms of economics, but for others it’s too much of a compromise because the battery range isn’t enough for their daily commute in EV mode and ICE mode gives poorer mileage compared to regular non-hybrid ICE models because the car is carrying more weight thanks to the battery.

This post has been edited by dev/numb: Oct 13 2023, 02:57 AM