Some questions are impossible to answer. Where did we come from? What’s the meaning of life? What happens after we die? Does anyone who owns a plug-in hybrid vehicle actually charge their car?
While most of those questions have baffled philosophers for centuries, that last one has really only bothered people in the past three to four years. The U.S. government has no reporting requirements when it comes to PHEV charging usage, and many automakers choose not to disclose the data. Some claim not to track it at all. So gathering any real knowledge on the subject is tough—unless you live in Europe.
A study published last year by the European Commission examined the fuel consumption of roughly 600,000 vehicles in Europe throughout 2021, which included gasoline-, diesel-, and hybrid-powered vehicles. The organization was able to do this because every car built after December 2020 has been required to have an on-board fuel consumption monitoring (OBFCM) device installed by the manufacturer. This device, as you’ve probably guessed, monitors real-world fuel consumption and relays that info back to the manufacturers, whether remotely or during routine dealership service.
The Reality Of Plug-Ins
The results painted a picture many suspected: Drivers of plug-in hybrids weren’t charging often enough to take advantage of their electric propulsion. The study found that plug-ins were consuming about 3.5 times more fuel than what was predicted via Europe’s Worldwide harmonized Light vehicles Test Procedure (WLTP) values, the European equivalent of our EPA numbers. The chart below gives you a sense of what the real-world versus WLTP numbers should be, showing the same test results for normal gas- and diesel-powered cars.
In its analysis, the European Commission calls out the obvious: People just weren’t charging as much as the WLTP numbers expected them to:
The analysis of the real-world data confirms that the real-world gap for plug-in hybrids is significantly higher than for conventional vehicles. A major reason for such a discrepancy is the mismatch between the utility factor used during type-approval and the actual vehicle charging and driving patterns.
Nailing down these figures for American plug-in fuel economy is tougher because there is no such standardized tracking method, and no government entity publishes data from manufacturers. So I reached out to every automaker that currently sells a PHEV in America in search of answers. Specifically, I wanted to know whether their buyers actually charge their vehicle via the charging port, or if they just treat it as a gas car without ever stopping to top up on electrons.
Most Automakers Didn’t Want To Share
An Audi spokesperson told me the company doesn’t track the data. Bentley told me it was “not able to support these questions,” while Land Rover said “we do not have this level of information to share.” Mitsubishi and Volvo said they’re looking into whether they can provide any data. Ford declined to comment. Stellantis told me it doesn’t share customer usage and behavior data. Ferrari did not respond to my inquiry. Not a great start.
BMW sent over some interesting data, though. While the company didn’t specify the percentage of PHEV owners who charge their cars versus those who don’t, the numbers suggest most people are actually using the charging port. From a spokesperson:
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BMW PHEV customers charge very frequently: 15% charge at least once per day, 52% at least 2-4 times per week.
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On average across all our PHEV customers we do see that they charge 0.7x per day.
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>95% of all PHEV charging sessions are non-public (=home)
Kia sent over even more data. The company recently surveyed nearly 1000 EV and PHEV owners to find out more about its customers’ charging habits. Here’s what it found:
At-Home Charging:
97% of Kia PHEV and EV, owners charge predominantly at home. A majority of Kia EV owners have Level 2 chargers, while the majority of Kia PHEV Owners use Level 1 (wall outlet) at home. On-average, PHEV owners typically charge for 6.5 hours and the EV owners typically charge for 6.6 hours.
At-Work and Public Charging:
Of the Kia EV and PHEV owners, only 5% of PHEV owners and 8% of EV owners charge their vehicles at work. Roughly 6% of PHEV owners and 16% of EV owners routinely use public chargers. Our engineers have concluded that the large majority of these owners live in areas that do not provide at-home charging, such as an apartment complex or a home that does not have Level 2 charging.
At-Home vs At-Work Charging:
When looking at the ratio of at-home vs public and at-work charging, close to 80% of EV charging is done at home, and that number is close to 90% for PHEV owners.
That bit about PHEV owners using a wall charger makes a lot of sense, and seems to line up with BMW’s data. Most plug-in hybrids have relatively small batteries, which means they don’t need Level 2 chargers to go from empty to full overnight. The point about just 6% of PHEV owners using public chargers isn’t a surprise, either. There’s no reason to stop for a juice-up on your tiny battery when you have a whole gas engine as a backup to get you home. So the people hitting public chargers just for their PHEV likely have no other place to juice up.
A Kia representative went on to tell me that 92.8% of PHEV owners do charge their vehicles, which means 7.2% do not. This is survey data, so it’s not as reliable as direct monitoring, but it’s better than nothing.
Hyundai’s PHEV owners charge even more, according to the company. It took a survey that sampled the charging habits of 311 PHEV owners, which, according to a representative, were mostly Tucson PHEV drivers. Here’s what it found:
Nearly everyone (99%) stated they charge their vehicles. A full half charge once or more per day, while nearly 40% charge several times a week. During charging sessions nearly all owners are charging their PHEVs back to full charge.
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71% of PHEV’s with longer commutes (30+ miles) stated they charge once a day or more, suggesting they are trying to take as much advantage of their time in EV mode as possible.
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PHEV owners with shorter commutes (under 20 miles) reported less frequent daily charging and more likely weekly charging.
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What Does It All Mean?
The Hyundai data, combined with those Kia figures and BMW’s statistics, mean we’re on a path to finding out whether most people actually charge their PHEVs. But without data from bigger brands like Stellantis, Volvo, Ford, and Audi, it’s impossible to give a definitive answer. Buyers of different brands have different habits, so what’s true for Hyundai might not be true for brands like Jeep or Alfa Romeo. Still, the results are telling. There’s a lot of speculation that most PHEV drivers never charge their vehicles, but that doesn’t seem to be the case for BMW, Kia, and Hyundai drivers.
Logically, you’d think people would take advantage of their car’s battery propulsion whenever possible. Why pay extra for the plug-in hybrid powertrain if you’re not going to use it? That’s doubly true if you have access to a garage or a driveway with a wall plug. All you have to do is pop in the charger when you get home every day. And if you’re buying a PHEV, that’s probably your plan from the start.
With PHEVs becoming more numerous, I hope data like this will become more readily available. From what these numbers suggest, people might actually be catching on.
[Ed Note: The important thing, here, is not how many times someone charges, or what percentage of owners charge at all — what matters is the percentage of total miles traveled that are done in electric mode vs ICE mode. Per-mileage traveled is key. One of the big challenges with PHEVs is that automakers are rewarded credits by governments based on an assumed usage, and if that usage in the real world is actually more ICE than was assumed, then PHEVs can begin to seem like a workaround for automakers who don’t want to invest in cleaner technology — a workaround that doesn’t yield the environmental benefits lawmakers deem necessary to keep Americans/the earth healthy. It’s also worth noting that European drivers are very different than American drivers, and small-car drivers are much different than pickup truck drivers (a pickup truck driver, for example, might have more of an incentive to plug in for their commute due to their poor ICE fuel economy). In addition, it’s worth noting that PHEVs in the U.S. are simply not good enough, and data suggests that if they improve (i.e. they offer more of an EV range, like EREVs should) then we’ll likely see more miles traveled using EV propulsion than ICE propulsion. Check out reporting by John Voelcker on this topic. Though he and I disagree on the environmental value of EREVs (I think they’ll be a huge boon for many reasons enumerated here), he’s sharp and has spent far too many hours looking into this very topic. -DT].
Top graphic images: Hyundai
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When I had my Fusion Energi I would charge it at home, then charge it at work for the return trip .At 160 K miles the battery capacity was about 40% of new. I was chargin at home 7 days a week and at work 4 days a week. I think the frequent charging eventually wore the battery out!
I charge every time I need to (at least 2-3 times a week, and probably 2-3 more times over the weekend). My commute is short (7mi each way) and in my Tucson PHEV, that means about 2.5 round trips… depending on my coasting down certain hills, I can go a full three days without charging.
My current lifetime mpg for the car (16k miles) is 60.3, which I’m hoping to improve.
I can’t imagine not charging or not trying to max the benefits.
I’m amazed I didn’t see this article back on the day it was current. I plug in my RAV4 Prime every single day. It has just enough range to get me to work and back. If I take a trip out during the weekend, as soon as I get home I plug it back in – and if I take another trip out, I’ll plug it in again.
My longest tank so far is about 1600 miles, and that’s on a tank that the fuel gauge reports is good for about 525 miles – so clearly I’m doing over two-thirds of my driving on watt-hours, not gallons. If we had a way to plug it in to charge while at work, tanks would easily go beyond 2000 miles, maybe even 2500.
My Volt is almost always plugged in.
I can’t imagine owning a PHEV and then just…not charging it.
I have a Fusion plug in and with charging every day, I get 1200 miles on a tank. Why would people just throw money away?
My car is parked in a shared garage, with no provision for a charger. So I’m tempted by a PHEV (because a battery only would be a non-starter), but if I buy one, it’ll only get charged when I’m away from home and within range of a plug.
If I was in your use case, I’d strongly consider how easy/difficult it would be to charge up at a near by DC Fast charger – is there a charger near a grocery store that you shop at and spend at least 30min at?
Either a full EV or a trad hybrid. PHEV probably doesn’t make sense for your case.
Same. I’d bet something like 95% of my around-town miles in the Volt are on electric. Gas is basically for roadtrips. Especially once I installed an L2 charger so the 3KW could add a few miles between morning errands and afternoon/evening errands on really busy days.
I’m lucky enough to own a Volvo V60 Recharge and I do charge it regularly. I agree with David that PHEVs need to have more electric only range, but the 40+ miles in the Volvo is enough for most of my driving. My current long term fuel consumption is sitting at 62 mpg and I get around 1000 miles per tank.
If you can make the most of the benefits of a PHEV, they’re a fantastic option. But I think some people either don’t properly evaluate their ability to use those benefits before buying, or don’t fully understand the difference between a PHEV and normal hybrid while a salesperson is happy to take more of their money.
do V60s come in standard ICE package? if ,yes how much difference would be in price?
It’s a bit weird for the V60 compared to other models that offer ICE and PHEV drivetrains since the ICE trim was the Cross Country and the PHEV trim was the Polestar Engineered (may have been years with more, but trim options were typically limited on the V60 in the US at least). That meant the PHEV V60 commanded about a $20K premium over the ICE version, but that’s the equivalent to a 4 trim level difference on Volvo’s other models. For example, if you look at the XC60, that’s offered in ICE and PHEV across multiple trim levels with the PHEV being about $11K more expensive.
I see. Thank you
It seems to me that the EU with the WLTP standard was being overly optimistic… assuming perfection when it came to charging.
And that’s par for the course since the WLTP standard seems to be overly optimistic in general.
Of course people aren’t perfect and either forget or are not able to plug in all the time.
Personally I plug in my PHEV every day… and on weekends, I might recharge it as much as 3 times on a given day.
But yeah… plug in hybrids should be given a higher rating than regular hybrids, but nowhere near actual BEVs.
Based on my own experience, I would rate something like my C-Max Energi as half way between a regular hybrid and a full BEV.
Plug it in all the time and drive it in the city in EV mode and it’s almost as efficient as a modern BEV.
But drive it fast on the highway on a long road trip and it gets mileage that is similar to a regular, relatively efficient ICE vehicle.
For my use case, that’s fine… I get great mileage that beats my old 2008 Honda Fit 99% of the time except for a once-a-year road trip… where in that one instance, it gets mileage that is about the same or only slightly worse than my old manual Fit.
I was really hoping you’d have data from Toyota. I’d be very interested in seeing how such a broadly popular brand looks on this front. Given that the Primes are in lower supply and high demand, I suspect they’d be charged pretty consistently, but Toyota does have a lot of buyers like my parents, who have no interest in learning how hybrids work or changing their fueling habits. So they might actually skew to a lower percentage if those customers are buying Primes, too.
And, as you mentioned, Stellantis data would be nice to see. The Wrangler 4xe seemed like it was selling based on discounts more than people looking for a PHEV specifically, so it seems likely to have a lower frequency of charging than other models. I’d love to see how much lower.
We had a brief stint with a BMW X1 XDRIVE30E. At 326 hp, it is fast in a straight line when sportmode engaged. Otherwise…
It’s 14,2 kwh net battery gives a real world highway range of about 45km. So double the consumption compared to our current eNiro.
On empty battery, consumption goes to around 9 l/100km. So double the consumption compared to the prius we had before.
I hear similar experience from other plugin owners. It seems like these things are often designed to save nothing at all.
In reviews and tests, it is often assumed that electricity is free and abundant. It is neither. If it costs a lot of money and hassle to charge up a phev for 45 km, why bother.
This seems more in line with my expectations. We charge our 330e daily. We did the same with the Volt we had before. I had the Volt up at above 250 miles per gallon combined when I sold it, so I know I was somewhere above 80 percent electric. I’m at around 90 combined mpg with the 330e but the battery range is about half of the Volt and we use it on long trips more. But we still go 5-6 weeks between gas fill-ups.
From what I’ve noticed it’s mainly about where people park and if they have a evse. Some people won’t take out the evse included in the car and don’t seem to buy one even though they can be bought for cheap.
I drove a outlander phev for a while if I had a place to charge it I would if I didn’t I wouldn’t look to hard. Where when you have a small Bev like a compliance bev or older leaf you are always looking for a place to charge.
The free chargers are often full of phev. Where you used to see Bev it seems like they are slow and people aren’t parked long enough for people to to feel it’s worth while to get a level 2 charge. It’s rare I see anything other then a phev maybe a leaf or 500e at any around. I used to see Teslas and other big battery bevs use them. Especially back with 40 and 60 kwh Teslas were a thing you regularly saw in the wild. The big battery stuff you stop for an hour for dinner you might only get 7% increase in battery it seems it’s not worth the effort for people. Where the PHEV can get full or close to full so it’s worth it to them. The leafs and other smaller Bev can get a 20% increase per hour so free charging so it’s works for them. It’s one of those things where the self regulation works to everyones benefit. But also probably why leafs and bolts have a reputation as charger lice.
I would say that due to their small range, the cars you mention have to be continually charging, while cars with bigger batteries can wait longer between charges.
I charge my Escape PHEV once a day for a 30-40 mile boost in range, but it’s pretty pointless to charge it elsewhere. I’m a delivery driver so I don’t have a long period near a charger when I can add charge during my shift. Even if I could, at 240V my max charging speed only nets 8-10 miles per hour, and 2-3 if it’s 120V.
That could be part of it especially for the older vehicles with alot of degradation but also use case comes into play big time with Bev. Some people don’t need a big battery or much range.
I used to see a lot of solora and b4x at dcfc most of those people did rideshare and delivery and weren’t happy with the range and charging speed. They would have been better off with at least something that charged faster or probably a phev.
The free level 2 chargers now are mainly people just looking for a little top up or what a small battery person would consider a charge. 7kw doesn’t look like much for a 100kwh battery and it seems for most people now not worh plugging in but does for a 40 kwh battery. Or the even smaller batteries in phev. It can seem significant on their charge indicator.
The leaf is a great car for older people and I’ve seen where older people will go into a place for a few hours take their time and get half their battery filled for free. There are a few place I go by often that has free level 2 with a movie theater and restaurants and other shops. During the middle of the day it looks like leaf city at those evse. Where late evening and night it’s almost all phev.
I live in France where gas is tres cher. So I plug in my Outlander PHEV everynight. Having 220 current is helpful and the car is programmed to start charging at 3am when my electricity rates are cut in half. I get about 45k on just electric, more than enough for my toodling around town everyday. Some days I drive to another city and that’s no big deal. Overall I am averaging about 60 mpg with the combined energy sources. Yes, I converted the liters and kilometers etc…
Electricity is cheap in france, but not free.
Do you know how much kwh goes through your meter for 45 km of range? And how much is this costing you?
I think you should ad this to your 60 mpg.
I’ve never had an EV or plug-in/any kind of hybrid yet, but I probably will if I don’t drop dead in the next few years. Since I’ve had solar PV panels on my roof for almost 30 years now, which have been providing over 100% of my electrical needs since they were installed, I’d love/look forward to being able to plug in when parked at home. I also don’t drive at all for days at a time, so it’d be a no-brainer to leave it plugged-in (I assume the car’s electronics don’t overcharge the batteries).
Hope I get a chance to experience this at some point.
An ev will not overcharge the batteries if you leave it plugged in. Even 1st gen leafs, and oddball compliance cars won’t overcharge. Maybe some early project car type ev might, but nothing the YouTuber aging wheels has owned has that problem, and he’s owned some weird old EVs.
Thanks… that was my assumption, but now and then you (I) read something suggesting that it’s safer to let electronics with rechargable/internal batteries discharge completely if they’re not going to be used rather than leave them plugged in/topped off/trickle charging. Of course, even if only used once a week, an EV probably wouldn’t lose too much charge just sitting unplugged (again, I assume… I’ve never owned one yet).
NO!!!
You should never have your lithium ion battery discharge completely.
Early teslas were bricked. As in, their batteries were unrepairable after a complete discharge.
Most modern EVs I assume are less prone to this effect. But still.
Read the manual.
If you want to store an EV for months, probably best to do it with a low, but not completely discharged battery and check the charge state regularly.
I understand you, but there’s a LOT of conflicting info on the subject. I used to keep everything (lots of old laptops) plugged in to stay topped off, but I’ve seen a LOT of stuff that posits that w/energy in them, they do significantly more damage if they catch fire and they might also be more prone to catching fire in the first place. I presume the same holds true for bigger batteries in EVs.
I’ve never had a battery catch fire (yet) but I HAVE had four of them swell up, breaking the device they were in (two Lenovo laptops, and two Samsung phones). I don’t know if swelling batteries are more likely to catch fire, but assume the swelling is from gas accumulation, which probably isn’t good.
Again: I don’t have one (an EV) but probably will at some point, unless 3I/Atlas turns out to be full of angry aliens or something like that.
Agree on not storing them fully charged.
But the energy from a battery fire comes mainly from the materials actually burning.
And fully discharging a lithium battery leads to extreme degradation, which may just be the cause of a fire. Especially when attempting to charge afterward. This is exactly why early Teslas were bricked with an empty battery. Their BMS (computer) did not allow these to charge anymore after reaching a certain low charge threshold.
And don’t worry about 3I/Atlas. I hear it is full of adorable puppies and the long awaited sequel to Pulp Fiction.
The whole thing (storing charged vs. discharged) seems a damned if you do damned if you don’t thing. I should probably just get rid of all the old laptops and other vintage electronica that I almost never use.
Lithium wants to be stored at about 50% state of charge – slightly less than 50% is better than slightly over 50.
Pretty much every other battery chemistry wants to be stored at 100% SOC.
Li typically has very low self discharge (unless there is a BMS sucking the batteries dry during storage, which some do have). Most Li (those without the previously mention poorly designed BMS) can easily store for a year with no noticeable loss of charge. Check the SOC every moth or two at first, but if the SOC is constant just let them sit in a cool, dark place. Constantly topping up Lithium is about the worst thing you can do to them.
Discharging? Bad.
Topping up? Bad.
You see the quandry? 😉
It’s fine… it’d just be nice if there were some universally-agreed-upon consensus.
Some cars offer adjustable SOC windows – you can choose to limit where you have the max charge set at (ex. 50-80%) and leave it plugged in. This is best case for long term storage.
Sure, I’ve seen/read plenty of stuff about how to charge EV batteries: some say full is fine, others say no, only go to about 80%, etc…
There are also differences of opinion based on battery chemistry LFP different that LION, etc… i.e.: LFP more tolerant of charge-to-full than LION, etc…
Of course, if I had an EV I’d do my best to figure out the best sensible consensus and use that strategy for my own personal vehicle.
It’s just all a bit confusing.
When I had a Chevy Volt, if the car was home and not being driven, it was plugged in. helps provide the power needed to keep the battery warm/cold in the winter/summer and always kept it topped off. Pretty much the only times I used gas was when the car forced the engine on to keep fluids flowing.
Now that I have a Bolt, I charge maybe once a week at home on just Level 1. I typically just leave it charging on the weekends since it takes about 36 hours to go from very low to full on Level 1. I’d like to get a Level 2 installed in the garage, but I’m still using that garage spot to work on the Saab and also I’m cheap.
I’d probably do this too, if and when I get an EV: just plug it in when home and let the car decide how to charge, to what level, trickle charging, etc… if the mfgr wants to modify that strategy, they’ll send an update. I’d also just use level one (110VAC household current) since I don’t drive every day (thus, have time for slow recharge) and one of the few consensuses I’ve gathered is that slow charging is gentler on the battery than fast charging, so level one is ideal if time permits.
I still think about getting a $5K used EV (probably an early i3) just to dip my toe in the water, but I gotta get rid of one or two of my current cars/bike first.
When I had my Gen 1 Volt, only about 30 miles of electric range, I plugged in every night religiously, used so little gas that realized I could go full electric on the next car and I did. PHEVs are a good ‘dip your toe in’ kind of car, if you end up not using gas can consider an EV next, if you end up using mostly gas, stick with a hybrid.
I use a level one charger for my BEV. It’s been a year, and I’ve only charged once at a work charger and twice at a DC fast charger.
It is an extra step to check of the car is plugged in before driving off.
Is there not a warning light/chime to remind you that the car is still plugged in when you start it, or wouldn’t the car not let you start it at all (to drive away, not for accessories) while still plugged in? I’d assume they’d do this just for safety.
My Escape PHEV does this. Won’t shift into drive if it’s plugged in, and gives you a warning if the charge door is open but not plugged in. Of course, the door is right in front of the driver’s door, so it’s pretty hard to miss.
Thanks Jumbo! 🙂 I’d assume this was the case for most any vehicle that can be plugged in (a PHEV or EV) since driving away with it still plugged in is likely to cause some expensive trauma.
Plus, car designers have surely seen some of the zillions of videos online of people driving down the road with gas pump hoses dangling from their cars.
My mum charges her CX60 at home, whenever it’s running low on charge. Uses maybe 4 or 5 tanks of petrol throughout the year.
Works perfectly for her.
The core issue is that there isn’t much incentive to plug in when the price of gas is so low. If the goal is to encourage less burning of fossil fuels (which it absolutely and unequivocally should be), then the only way to do it is to make the price of fossil fuels reflect their true cost, including the damage that they do to our collective resources. That would likely make the price of gas about twice what it is currently.
Increasing the delta between the cost per mile of plugging in and filling up would likely change the way PHEVs are used fairly quickly. It would also encourage efficiency across the board. All while reflecting the data-backed reality of the true cost of gas rather than the current heavily subsidized price.
Not in the USA for the next 3.5 years.
If it were only around 3 years, I wouldn’t be too worried. I think that issues around the environment are going to be way down the list of priorities the closer we get to that time frame.
This is why PHEV’s are popular in Europe, where I live. Energy is not cheap here.
A fair price for the true cost of things?
What are you, a communist?
A gallon of unleaded gas is the equivalent of 33.6 kWh of energy.
In Detroit, off peak charging is ~$0.15 per kwh
That turns out to be $5.04/gal, and mind you, most packs are <100kWh.
Not the whole story, but the efficiency of a PHEV is usually greater than 2 miles per kWh. (67mpge) compared to the US average gas fuel economy of 27.4 mpg.
Do the back calc and you get $0.075/mile for EV, $0.115/mile for gas. Still a decent delta in cost savings.
Perhaps, but is your valve closing?
It has a life all its own…
More hot dogs…
Oh, Fortuna, blind, heedless goddess, I am strapped to your wheel. Do not crush me beneath your spokes. Raise me on high, divinity. Or at least give me a hot dog.