I love hybrids. I own a hybrid. I think most vehicles should either be full BEVs or hybrids (including EREVs), with the exception of some trucks and lightweight sports cars. It seems to me, based on the news this week, that a majority of people agree with me. How have hybrids gone from being perceived as dorky low-T greenmobiles to ‘authentic,’ as one automotive researcher called them?
The Morning Dump has long contended that we are in The Decade of the Hybrid, as early exuberance for electric cars has given way to the reality that most people are not going to buy the EVs that car companies seem to be building. Hybrids have transformed from fuel sippers like the Prius to full rippers like the McLaren Artura and brand new Lamborgh… Audi Nuvolari. That seems to be giving them a new push and a new image. Or maybe it’s just acceptable now that it’s the best alternative to BEVs.
Honda is, it seems, going full hybrid on a lot of cars. There are somethings you should never go full, but going full hybrid for crossovers and compact cars seems to be working out just fine for Toyota. Volkswagen probably wishes it had leased a bunch of hybrids, because one of the few parts of its company that’s consistently profitable is sweating all the EVs it now owns.
Did you know you can get a PHEV version of the Śkoda Octavia? It’s one model in an amazing 30-year run for this car.
[Ed Note: I’m told the title of this article is some kind of pop culture reference, so I’ll leave it even though it’s long and clunky. -DT]
Hybrids For The Rich, BEVs For The Not-So-Rich?
When I attended The Quail a couple of weeks ago I made sure to stop by the Audi stage to see the new Audi Nuvolari. I even chatted with a press guy from the brand I’ve known forever and he asked me what I thought of it. Honestly, it looks stunning in person. While it may have the feel of an older Lamborghini, I enjoy an older Lamborghini, so I’m not complaining.
Bloomberg‘s Hannah Elliott was also there, and got into a conversation with Audi CEO Gernot Döllner, who said some interesting things:
“We find that the higher the segment is, the more the enthusiast still loves the combustion engine,” Döllner says, explaining that the hybrid engine still allows car buffs to access the same desirable analog feeling that also makes mechanical watches appealing. EVs, by contrast, are considered commodities of mobility, not status symbols of pleasure and taste. “The lower the segment is, the more battery electric is accepted.”
It’s true that hybrids are, proportionally, probably best represented in supercars and hypercars. It’s a little eat-your-cake-and-have-it-too, with something that is easy to drive in Carmel traffic, for instance, but can make all the fun sounds you want in car you’re paying $700,000 for. The idea that the wealthy want gas-powered cars and are ok with hybrids, whereas its BEVs for the poors is a bit curious, though.
Credit to Hannah, she got another fun quote:
“One of the things that people are craving these days is authenticity,” says Rebecca Lindland, head of automotive advisory at HarrisX, a global market research firm. “A hybrid communicates that even though it does have an electric component, it is somehow perceived as way more authentic. It stays truer to the internal combustion experience.”
I think this is more important at the higher end of the market than the lower end. While I’m a proponent of hybrids for a wide range of consumers, I understand that a majority of people don’t want to have to think about how their car is powered.
Its’s been a weird transition from my earlier days, when the collective car enthusiast community dissed the Toyota Prius. Everyone seems to like the new Prius and has no problem accepting a hybrid. Whereas the Prius was the poster child for hybrids 20 years ago, it’s now cars like the Ferrari F50.
As the ACEA just reported, a whopping 37.3% of the new car market in Europe is now hybrid-electric, compared to 20.7% share for BEVs, and 29.7% for gas/diesel cars.
Honda Is Probably Going Full Hybrid For The CR-V And Accord
With Toyota going full-hybrid on the Sienna, Camry, and RAV4, it’s probably only a matter of time before Honda does the same. According to Automotive News, we’ll probably have to wait until 2031 as the company still recovers from canceling most of its EV projects.
Hybrids accounted for nearly a third of the brand’s U.S. sales in the first half of the year. Honda is ramping up production and marketing to capitalize on that momentum. Several core models, including the CR-V and Accord, could go hybrid-only by 2031.
Honda sees the greatest hybrid upside in its midsize SUVs. The company is developing a more robust hybrid architecture tailored for larger North American utility vehicles, featuring a new V-6 engine, multiple electric motors and a lower-cost battery pack.
While hybrids are slightly more expensive, there’s a cost savings that comes with only making a single powertrain.
When A One Percentage Point Error Costs $70 Million
Volkswagen continues to be in a bad way, and the one part of the company that consistently makes money is the arm that, well, makes money. Or at least makes money available for people to buy cars. Specifically, it’s Volkswagen Financials Services, headed up by this guy, Anthony Bandmann.
VWFS has continued to be a profit center for the automaker. Will it be for the future? There’s a little bit of an issue as Manager Magazin reports:
At first glance, VWFS appears to be in a solid position. In the first half of 2026, the division delivered nearly €1.7 billion in operating profit, more than any other vehicle brand. However, despite increases in key performance indicators such as the number of contracts and new contracts, operating profit fell by 7.6 percent. “This is due to increased costs associated with residual value risks,” the company explained.
Since new cars are increasingly being leased rather than purchased, the number of vehicles on Volkswagen’s finance division’s books is rising – and with it, the residual value risk. According to the annual report, this risk climbed by over one billion euros to almost 5.9 billion euros between 2024 and 2025. If VW’s residual value experts are too optimistic in their calculations, it becomes costly. An average error of one percentage point results in losses of almost 60 million euros. In its report for the first half of 2026, the company points out that residual value risks have increased again since the beginning of the second quarter.
This is the challenge of leasing (and, also, renting cars). If you are the entity responsible for leasing a bunch of vehicles, you have to calculate a value for that vehicle at the end of the lease term. If the vehicle is worth more–as has generally been the case due to a shortage of good used cars–as the leasing entity you do better. If the opposite happens then you lose money.
VW pushed EVs, and they pushed EVs via leases, and residual values for older EVs haven’t been great. Manager Magazin gets one of its patented juicy insider quotes, who says “We’re sitting on a time bomb.”
At least in the United States, EVs have done a little better lately on the used market, so maybe it won’t be so bad after all.
Happy 30th Birthday, Octavia
I have driven a Śkoda Octavia vRS, so I can say with authority that these are great cars. Amazingly, I’ve never considered why the car was called that. It turns out that it’s derived from the latin word for eight (also used in the word “octave”), because it was the eighth vehicle from the company way back when.
What we’re celebrating today is the 30th birthday of the reborn model, according to a press release:
The decision to revive the historic Octavia name – originally used for a model produced between 1959 and 1971 – was taken during the development of a new vehicle. Work began in 1992, one year after Škoda Auto had joined the Volkswagen Group. Access to the Group’s technology supported the development of a practical car styled by Dirk van Braeckel, then Škoda’s Head of Design. Meanwhile, a new production facility in Mladá Boleslav raised annual capacity from 90,000 to 350,000 vehicles.
The first-generation Škoda Octavia liftback, with a 528-litre boot, was unveiled on 4 April 1996; series production began on 3 September that year. The Octavia Combi followed in March 1998 and was joined by an all-wheel-drive version in 1999, further expanding the model’s versatility. The year 2000 saw the debut of the very first Octavia RS. It proved a true success story: in total, 1.44 million units were produced, and selected variants remained in production until 2010, even though the second modern Octavia generation had already been unveiled in 2004.
Absolutely the best.
What I’m Listening To While Writing TMD
The hits keep coming. I know the “rule of threes” thing is sort of nonsense, but losing Dolly, Yayoi Kusama, and Tim Curry within a couple of days feels wrong and also connected. Kusama never got a single, I think, so here’s Tim Curry doing “Sweet Transvestite” from Rocky Horror Picture Show.
The Big Question
Has your view of hybrids changed over there years?
Top Image: Columbia Pictures; Toyota
“Has your view of hybrids changed over there years?”
Not really. In my view, hybrids should have replaced all regular automatic vehicles years ago. It would have been a better tech path than all these 8+ speed automatics and all these expensive automated manuals.
In my view, cars should have a base version with a regular manual transmission, then the hybrid as the ‘automatic’ option, then have plug-in capability as an option above that and then at the top, BEVs on dedicated uncompromised BEV platforms
TBQ: Yes because manufacturers finally started putting them in applications that aren’t just boring, ugly appliances. The current gen Prius looks great, the F150 Powerboost makes a ton of sense capability wise. I am hopeful Ford puts that powertrain in the Expedition sooner than later. Toyota has it in the Sequoia but it isn’t as beneficial to fuel economy as I would have hoped, and is a packaging disaster. My opinion on EVs has changed as equally drastically. IMO they’re now the prefect commuting device if you have charging at home.
Also, Hopefully Honda can figure out a new Hybrid 4 cylinder since the 2.Blow they currently have sucks reliability wise. Makes sense to axe the 1.5T though since that motor is a wet dog fart.
TBQ, my view of hybrids hasn’t changed much in 20 years, I still see it as just an incremental improvement to pure ICE. More specifically,
mild hybrid- why bother, will anyone really notice a difference in the real world?
strong hybrid- the incremental increase in efficiency is nice, but still can’t externally recharge the battery, travel any distance without firing the engine, or take full advantage of regen down mountain passes, so they really only see a fraction of the available benefits from electrification.
PHEV- a complicated, compromised mess compared to an EREV
EREV- now something more interesting, something that can take full advantage of electric drive, and maintain the ICE advantage of long distance travel for specific use purposes.
Me 20 years ago in college- Why would I buy a hybrid when it only offers ~20% fuel savings over a stick shift pure ICE that is way more fun to drive, and the fuel economy benefit is biggest around town, where I’m on a bike anyway?
Me now- Why would I buy a hybrid when I can entirely eliminate the liquid fuel with an EV, refuel at home, have almost no maintenance, and have the minor inconvenience of waiting to charge on maybe 1 road trip a month?
Mostly, I found the hybrid arc not unlike the Jobs-era Apple product arc, or like the Tesla arc just passed not very long ago.
An interesting consumer good that had a cult of….something….attached to it that became a marker of personal identity far out of proportion to its real meaning. Once the ‘consumer cult’ moved onto the next thing, it became just another consumer product.
The post-Jobs era was nice that Apple devices became ‘just another device’ and nobody cared, and the post-“green” hybrid is just a transportation appliance that is somewhat more efficient with fuel, not a statement that one is Mother Teresa for the environment (Be honest: Driving any car is not great for the environment).
It’s the whole cult around material goods that’s really appalling. I enjoy things, certainly, but they don’t really register as unshakeable markers of personal identity and it’s gross and weird that some small-minded people are very obsessed with that concept.
When the first Prius and insight came out I was fascinated. The insight seemed more like someones engineering project then a car especially with the 120 “d cells” under the floor in the back. The first gen Prius was a strange car to drive it felt like the cheapest thing they had just chocked full of tech with weird brakes. But the gen ii they knocked out of the park and people noticed.
I’ve enjoyed hybrids, they are better then pure ice in most situations. I think they are great but pure EVs are better. I don’t think my opinion has changed its just EVs are now practical enough for just about everyone. Hybrids were a stop gap we needed. Trucks of all sizes towing anything will likely need to be hybrids for most use cases for a while now. But everyone else the bev is probably a better deal.
I’ve had a few generations of hybrids. But now I mainly stick the gen ii Toyota system. Because they are cheap, bulletproof, and fit my purpose. The part that made them good was the electric part. In my older hybrids I’m not worried about the electrical system I’m worried about the engines. I think that’s telling. I have some older EVs and you don’t think about anything failing or maintenance as much as long as the range is there. And you know the range of the specific car it doesn’t typically fall off a cliff unless someone goes seriously wrong.
This hybrid craze is just people that are late to things. Hybrids have been good since 04. Alot of these people didn’t want to touch them until 24. I know people that were so afraid of hybrids calling them junk cars now are driving hybrids and calling EVs junk cars.
Prius was in part so revolutionary because it was affordable for most and ticked many boxes. EVs weren’t practical for most until several years in. In the US it was either model 3 or gen 2 leaf with the bolt not long after and still maybe not super practical for most. It’s only really recently we got $35k and under practical for most new EVs. But hybrids and ice cars are only going to get more expensive, bevs can and will get cheaper. So it might not be 15 to 20 years to get someone into a bev to a hybrid like it was pure ice to hybrid.
My car buying style has always been to buy older vehicles with low mileage. In 2016, I bought an ’08 Prius with 88k. It did what it said on the label, but the only engagement I ever felt with it was akin to playing Tetris – just trying to beat my own high score. Then the entire instrument cluster failed (a known issue due to below-spec capacitors). Then the battery started showing signs of impending doom. I sold it at a big loss, went back to ICE vehicles, and never looked back.
I think hybrids are great for most people, but I’m not one of them.
I want to like hybrids. I really do. But the focus of them has been sort of all over the place. A lot of the hybrid talk where I am revolved around being super conscious of the environment and carbon footprint on everything, with a huge problem of backlash against that to the point of violence against nature. It didn’t help that my first taste of a CVT, aside from an old go-kart, was in a Leaf in the late 00’s. It was barely okay for stoplight traffic but a screaming pile of sadness when needing to take the freeway to work every day. Thankfully it was just a loaner I had to use for a month and I was overjoyed to get my BMW back from the shop. Thusly, I would have been driving a RAV4 right now but I learned it had a CVT so I found BEV instead.
I never had a negative view of hybrids, I just had a “eh” feeling about them, like ok, they exist.
Now? If someone’s not a car enthusiast, I point them to hybrids. Not even PHEV’s, just straight hybrids.
If I had a longer commute, I’d consider getting one myself. But I’m pro-EV as a gas-vehicle is turning into something with extremely little benefit when I struggle to get 200 miles on a tank, and I don’t have any hobbies outside video games and car shows.
My view of hybrids, and by extension, all alternative fuel automobiles, has improved dramatically over the last two decades, for one simple reason: Automakers apparently finally took my advice, and they stopped DELIBERATELY MAKING THEM STUPID-LOOKING ON PURPOSE.
From all the way back in the halcyon days of the GM EV1 until about a decade ago, I had the same complaint about every last one of them: Americans will have no problem buying one if only you’ll a) stop trying to make them look weird on purpose and just make normal cars with a different drivetrain; and b) make them haul ass. Then Tesla nailed both. Then everyone else said, “Wait, you mean we don’t HAVE to make them look ‘different’, and we can make them, you know, attractive? Or at least normal looking?” Well, yeah. Thanks for finally noticing.
I have no problem whatsoever driving a hybrid version of another wise normal car. I just don’t want to look like a nerdy science experiment rolling down the street. I’d rather look like a guy driving a cool car, or at least, an inoffensive looking car. Now you finally can.
First, fix the typo. I pay zero money and this is what I have to read??
We bought the tiny Lexus hybrid (a nicer-looking Prius, basically) to replace our 1997 Avalon, which got 17 mpg or so, after 18 years of service. The Avalon was great when 4 or more people needed transportation (it sat six, due to the front bench seat), but driving lots of people around is no longer a need for us.
Lexus gets 40mpg on a good run (when I’m driving and make it a priority). It is now my daily (well, twice-weekly). It is a boring car, but I accept it as part of life, as retirement is in eyesight and dollars have to be spent more wisely (not on gas, which who the f knows what the price will be). Sound system is alright for my iPod (yes, it still works) and it has a CD player, so I might put that to use — one last listen of each one. That might take a few months. Might even do a sound test — iPod vs CD. Cuz, as I said, the car is boring.
Bought my first hybrid, used gen II Prius, when I was in college in 2006. Got it just before gas first hit $3 a gallon and always appreciated that I cut my gas bill by about 1/4. It was definitely very uncool to be driving a Prius at the time. Replaced it with another Prius from my parents about 5 years later. Now I drive a 2023 accord hybrid.
Almost always had long commutes so the gas savings has been a large part of my decision making process from the beginning. I guess I’ve never been too concerned about hybrid technology and they’ve all proven to be very reliable cars. I love fun cars, but haven’t been able to justify any with a long commute. Maybe one day…
I think the biggest change in the general public’s opinion of hybrids comes from experience. By now pretty much every hybrid skeptic that believed al the FUD about hybrids 20 years ago personally knows someone that has owned a hybrid so they can see all the FUD wasn’t true. It helped that the best selling hybrid by far have been Toyota’s which are rock solid for reliability.
Like it or not most people will not change their mind on something based on facts or data from someone they don’t personally know. It takes someone that they know and trust saying the same thing for opinions to change.
The frustrating thing is that all the same FUD that was said about hybrids 20 years ago is being said about EVs today. We are only starting to see enough EVs sold that lots of people personally know somebody that owns one.
I’m not sure if people have actually changed their minds about hybrids, or if it is just that today we have a lot of younger people who have grown up with hybrids being common. I still regularly meet older people (50+, so not even necessarily “old”, at least from my point of view) who remain very skeptical of hybrids. I always point out that hybrids have been around for 30+ years and mainstream for 20, but they still view hybrids as new and unproven.
Whatever the reason, though, it is clear that the public overall is accepting of hybrids but maybe not there yet for EVs. I suspect there will be far less EV skeptics in 20 years when entire generations of drivers have grown up in an era where EVs are everywhere.
Just one example. My parents purchased their first hybrid based on my experience with mine. 4 people in their small church purchased a RAV4 hybrids based on my parent’s experience with their Prius. All of those hybrid buyers are in their late 60’s to 80.
“The frustrating thing is that all the same FUD that was said about hybrids 20 years ago is being said about EVs today”
Yeah with those people, I would point out that hybrids have been around a long time… just look at any modern locomotive… it’s usually diesel-electric.
It reminds me of when I was young and how I’d hear some people spreading FUD about these newfangled cars with FWD or Fuel Injection… or the WORST CARS… the ones with FWD AND FUEL INJECTION.
Also these are the same people that would also say that modern OHC/DOHC engines with 4 valves per cylinder “could never work in trucks”
On a loosely related note, when I was shopping for my first car in the mid 1990s, a retired-mechanic-family-friend was trying to convince me I should buy an early to mid 1970s Chevy Caprice with the 350 V8 because it was easy/cheap to fix.
Of course this was a guy who didn’t drive much. And I knew enough to know that an old boat like that would have cost me thousands extra in fuel every year compared to a modern FWD/Fuel Injected car that I was actually interested in.
In every generation, you have some people that fear change and also fear those who don’t make the same choices they made.
“On a loosely related note, when I was shopping for my first car in the mid 1990s, a retired-mechanic-family-friend was trying to convince me I should buy an early to mid 1970s Chevy Caprice with the 350 V8 because it was easy/cheap to fix.”
I did something like that in the early 00’s after fighting to get an 80’s Ranger with EFI to run right. I bought a 60’s Skylark because it would be easy to fix. Well it had a carb, drum brakes, and an electrical system with about 12 wire so it was simple. It could also be worked on with simple tools. However, it ALWAYS needed work. Lasted a year.
“However, it ALWAYS needed work.”
Yep. That’s the thing that people don’t remember about old cars. I remember my dad having to regularly futz with one thing or another on the 1972 Ford LTD and 1976 Gran Torino we had.
And the shitbox Chevettes my sister and brother had were like that too.
But that stuff was hugely better than the stuff from the 1950s.
And the stuff from the 1950s was hugely better than the stuff from the 1920s and 1930s.
And that stuff was hugely better than the motorized carriages and/or horses that were in common use 20-30 years prior to that.
Sidenote: I once looked into what was involved in owning and using horses. After that bit of homework, it was easy to see why many people preferred the motorized-wagon cars in the very early 1900s
They also forget engine overhauls before 100K miles were pretty common.
We were going through my aunts things after she passed and she kept everything, including the sales paperwork for every car she owned. The first was a 60’s Ford Falcon she bought used from a dealer and my dad comment on what a heap of junk it was and that he had to rebuild the engine at 30K miles.
I wonder if that Falcon had the Mileage Maker Inline 6 or the Challenger V8
It was a base model with the 6 and a 3 on the tree.
I remember how space age and new the insite and prius seemed 20+ years ago and now they are just cars and hybrid suvs mean less cargo space.
I have been a fan of hybrids for a long time, and I think they are a good fit for most people. I recently took the plunge into the BEV space when replacing my hybrid, and while part of me loves the BEV, a recent 2,000 mile road trip has me missing my hybrid’s 500 mile range and ease of refueling (especially in southern Idaho where DC fast chargers are not very common). But at the same time, the hybrid was a gateway vehicle to lead me to consider a BEV, and when it comes time to replace our three-row family hauler, we will only be considering vehicles that offer a hybrid option.
Nope, I’ve always thought hybrids were a great middle ground solution for lots of cars. Years ago my wife bought a 2007 Highlander Hybrid which she loved, sold to a friend, and it currently has close to 300K miles on it.
My view of hybrids changed in the mid-00s when I rented a 2006 Civic Hybrid.
At the time I was a full TDI manual fan and were were loving our 2003 Jetta Wagon TDI that got low 50s mpg cruising at 70 mph. I read online that hybrids didn’t get anywhere near their rated fuel economy. That changed when I rented the Civic and got 50 mpg in mixed driving which was spot on the EPA rating (before they reduced it to 42 mpg.
So I started researching hybrids to see what else I had been told wasn’t true and I found that they weren’t actually that complicated either. I shopped for a Civic Hybrid but couldn’t find many and the ones for sale were on the pricey side. We ended up with a 2005 Prius that we bought in 2006 when it came off a 2 year lease. That car was the most reliable gas car I have ever owned. We drove it for 10 more years and it required almost nothing but scheduled maintenance. (The 3 way valve for the coolant thermos failed. It cost $100 to fix and took 2 hours)
When it came time to replace the TDI we didn’t even consider another diesel because the maintenance and repairs were so much and diesel went from being cheaper than regular to the price of premium. At that time I looked at the Insight but ended up with 2009 Prius because the Insight did not have an electric A/C compressor and the AC turning off at a stoplight in Alabama is not an option. Ironically the 2009 Prius was replaced with another Jetta TDI wagon – which was a lemon with low fuel economy and high fuel costs. No more diesels for us.
Today we have moved on to EVs for our primary car but something like a CR-V or RAV4 hybrid would be about ideal to replace my wife’s Acura wagon when the time comes.
For a long time I worried about all the things that could go wrong with a hybrid. Things I don’t know how to fix. It’s an EV plus ICE vs. EV or ICE. But I’ve seen them go high miles in cabs and other service vehicles without any issues.
We finally just bought a 2020 RAV-4 hybrid for my wife. I’m still pissed it took so long for hybrids to get into larger vehicles. We could have really used a hybrid Sienna back in 2010…
“Has your view of hybrids changed over there years?”
Not fundamentally. I always thought it was a very clever way of recovering wasted energy and reducing fuel use. I also liked the 2nd gen Prius that people love to ridicule because it was roomy 5-door hatchback that returned 45mpg.
Hybridization is genuinely appealing to me now that they have become rather quick in smaller cars and can make minivans and 3-row crossovers get 35-40 mpg.
TBQ:
In the hierarchy of enthusiast propulsion priority, I would rank transmission higher than energy source. ICE can make great noises, but when the link between driver input and output at the road is intersected by a slurry of oil and a computer selecting the ratio of input to output through that slurry, I am unenthused.
While all of the inputs in an EV go through the filter of an algorithm, at least there is predictable response between inputs and outputs. Waiting for a computer to decided what gear is optimal based on inputs, intercepting control to pause things while it picks a gear, then providing a result that is not always consistent is not better than the responsiveness of a BEV.
In a manual ICE car, the response based on input is pretty predictable. Same for a BEV in good driving and charge conditions. In an auto ICE, there’s always a little guess and check going on, and even more when there’s a trade off of battery and gas adding to the math as batteries deplete and engines warm.
Also, DT doesn’t know what Strangelove is? woof. Somebody check this guy’s precious bodily fluid levels.
Hey, an engineer spent a lot of time trying get you the right gear at the right time because you (the general “you”), the average driver, just don’t know any better. YOU’RE WELCOME!
Agreed.
DT, put it in your queue. It is not streaming anywhere, though. It’s about a madman with the nuclear launch codes. No, it is not set in the present day. Why you ask?
Ed Note: I’m told the title of this article is some kind of pop culture reference, so I’ll leave it even though it’s long and clunky. -DT
David, the reference is a 1964 movie and is less “pop culture” and more “Classic”. Like a CJ-5 Jeep.
The full title is: Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
It is black and white, hilarious, directed by the great Stanley Kubrick, features a young James Earl Jones, and has exactly nothing to do with cars. I highly recommend it.
My favorite line: “Gentlemen, you can’t fight in here! This is the War Room!”
I swear he’s playing up his ignorance of these things as it’s become part of his persona at this point.
How can you be older than 15 and not know this movie?!?
I just bought my first hybrid (albeit a mild interpretation in a 2022 Mercedes E450) and I think at least part of the difference in broader acceptance has been:
The bummer about hybrids is that you almost always lose the spare tire. If this is a car that you drive locally it is perhaps not a big deal but if this is your roadtrip vehicle, losing a tire 300 miles from home in an area with limited towing services is a huge inconvenience.
Heck, paying for the tow might cost a year’s worth of hybrid savings.
We always take my Sportwagen on trips, even though my partner can’t drive a stick. But the Sportwagen has a full size spare, and his Mazda only has a donut. When we are 300 miles from home, it’s nice to know I can just mount the spare and carry on as usual. With a donut, you’d still have to go get your tire fixed before driving home.
Nissan Altima has entered the chat. What you talking ’bout Willis? Donut spares are perfectly acceptable for spirited driving.
I only have a donut but it’s enough to safely get me to a place where I can have the damaged tire patched or replaced and it’s a lot more convenient than a 50 mile tow.
Teach your partner to drive stick! Share the fun!
We’ve been together nine years, I keep offering to teach him but no luck so far! I’ve had manuals as daily drivers the whole time as well.
Manufacturer’s are dropping spare tires all over the place. The current generation Prius has the space, but Toyota doesn’t include it. You can buy all the parts including the tire from the parts department or source your own spare from somewhere else. The PHEV version doesn’t have room due to the larger battery pack.
I waffled on which one to buy as I really wanted a spare, even if I have to buy all the bits myself. In the end, the PHEV won out for “Porn Star” parking right by the front door at work. The front door is at one corner of the rectangular parking lot and getting stuck in gen pop kept pushing me closer and closer to the road. We have 5 chargers with two cables each and in the 4.5 years in this building, no more than 2 cables have ever been in use at the same time. Right now it’s my Prius and a Tesla Model 3.
My C-Max Energi didn’t come with a spare or a jack. I simply bought a used spare from a ford Escape. And I already had a jack.
My hybrid Highlander still has a spare.
Excellent song choice for today, I was listening to the soundtrack yesterday.
I highly recommend looking up one of Tim Curry’s original songs, I Do the Rock.
tbq: Hybrids initially seemed like a half-assed solution to the problem to me. Why carry around two complete powertrains all the time? That can’t be anything but a stopgap solution to the electrification problem, and it seemed like a really poor compromise. Then it got worse– hybrids kept getting saddled with CVTs, which everyone knows are flimsy and unreliable.
…then I started learning.
Turns out the eCVTs they often have are basically just robust, proven planetary gearsets with electric motors placed strategically. They’re not the torque-limited cones-and-bands setup that keep falling apart at inopportune moments. They’re built using basically the same technology as every three-speed automatic ever.
…and from there, what felt like a whole mess starts to look elegant. Robust.
There’s still some complexity. There’s a lot of software engineering that has to go into ensuring you switch back and forth seamlessly, but that’s a problem they’ve been working for decades now. It’s largely solved.
So what did I do once I decided hybrids could be good? I bought a PHEV Grand Cherokee.
Hybrids _can_ be great, but yeah, some of them still are not.
It’s worth pointing out for folks who don’t know… what we’ve started calling “eCVTs” aren’t transmissions in the traditional sense. A “normal” CVT changes gear ratios, but it doesn’t have fixed “steps” to choose from. An “eCVT” is just fixed planetary gearing with three inputs. There are no gear-ratio changes, ever. That’s why the design is durable as hell… it doesn’t have to do most of the things that make a normal transmission complicated and failure-prone.
I think calling them eCVTs has done the design a huge disservice. The result may feel similar when driving, but they’re fundamentally different things… but people mentally lump them together because of the name.
“They’re not the torque-limited cones-and-bands setup that keep falling apart at inopportune moments.”
Is this reality for all CVTs or just Nissan Jatco junk?
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For a long time i also desired a Stellantis PHEV. Unlike you, however, i never pulled the trigger.
It’s depressing how late this is. But if the only way to convince people that it really is pretty straightforward to live with an EV is to sell them a PHEV and then have them spend eight years discovering that they buy almost no gas even with a very limited EV range, I guess backwards-to-go-forwards it is.
Shame we couldn’t have had the hybrid party 20 years ago when it would have made more sense, but better late than never.