They’ve been around on the market for over a quarter of a century, so by now most people know what a hybrid car is, even if the only one they can name is the Toyota Prius. And battery electric vehicles are simple: plug them in to charge the battery, and the car can be powered for a few hundred miles.
But what happens if a plug-in hybrid is not connected?
TL, DR: Nothing.
More specifically, it continues to function as a regular hybrid. Its larger battery makes it heavier than a comparable hybrid, but in return it may also offer a little more electric assistance and faster acceleration.
Hybrid? EV? Both? Neither?
But plug-in hybrids can be confusing for shoppers. Are they common hybrids? Are they electric cars? Well, both and neither. Which pretty much guarantees that many car buyers, let alone sellers, don’t really understand them – and sometimes don’t know what they’ve bought.
The basic principle is that a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV), when plugged in to charge the battery, can operate as an electric car for 20 to 50 miles, which is often enough for your daily driving. (The average American driver covers about 31 miles per day.) But it also has an engine and a gas tank that provide a few hundred kilometers of extra range after the electric-only kilometers are used up. That means they also excel on longer road trips, where you can just keep filling the gas tank and not have to worry about stopping for the long charging stops that electric vehicles require.
A PHEV battery has a much lower capacity than that of a battery-electric vehicle (on average, about one-sixth the energy of an EV’s battery), meaning the battery is cheaper to build. Its lower energy also means that a PHEV can be charged fairly quickly, often just two or three hours from a 240-volt charging station (level 2). Even when plugged into a 120-volt outlet, many PHEVs can be charged overnight.
Many plug-in hybrids are an adaptation of regular hybrids without a plug. An example: the Toyota Prius is a conventional hybrid, but the Prius PHEV (pictured above) is a plug-in hybrid with an EPA-rated electric range of up to 45 miles.
No connection, no problem?
Unlike battery-electric cars, PHEVs do not need to be plugged in to drive. When the PHEV battery is ’empty’, or has discharged its all-electric range, part of its capacity remains in reserve to function as a regular hybrid battery. This means that the vehicle charges the battery through regenerative braking or by transferring power from the engine. Even in this mode, some PHEVs (not all) can have their batteries charged to a higher capacity than the limited energy in the conventional hybrid. For example, they can regain one to six kilometers of pure electric range while descending a long, steep slope.
But in general, the plug-in hybrid that is not connected is a regular hybrid. Fuel economy is likely to be lower than a non-hybrid, but fuel economy is almost always lower than a comparable standard hybrid.
Most owners find they enjoy the quiet operation of a PHEV in all-electric mode, not to mention the blended fuel economy of “100 MPGe” or more after extensive electric driving without gasoline.
But some may find connecting an additional burden that they simply don’t want to bear. In other cases, buyers may not even know their new car has a plug. Every automotive analyst and reporter has at least one story of a friend, associate, neighbor or colleague who bought a PHEV and had no idea it could be plugged in because it was sold as a “hybrid” and the salesman never bothered to tell him.
Are they connected?
Nearly three dozen plug-in hybrids are on sale in the U.S. market this year. Regulators expect them to drive a percentage of their miles as zero-emission electric vehicles, helping automakers meet emissions limits that are getting stricter every year.
But to provide those benefits, they need to be plugged into an electrical outlet. As of today, it’s not clear if PHEVs are on U.S. roads Are charged – or how often. Manufacturers are not required to report the plug-in behavior data they collect through telematics, and several (notably Toyota) are silent on whether their PHEVs are plugged in, or how many of their miles are driven on electricity.
The fact that you can drive a PHEV without ever charging and still get decent fuel economy is a plus for owners. But it can be seen as a negative for the environment – ​​why not just buy a regular hybrid for the same effect? ​​– and a waste of expensive technology.
Plug-in hybrids have another factor that shoppers should know: according to the reliability data of both Consumer Reports and JD Power, PHEVs have significantly more reliability issues than conventional gasoline hybrids or pure gas-powered cars. This is partly due to the added complexity of having two drivetrains. But a deeper look at the data shows that many complaints relate to buyers having trouble using the additional features of PHEVs, things like scheduled charging or cabin pre-conditioning via a mobile app.
So why do plug-in hybrids exist? Their fans love them once they understand how they work. And automakers love them because they’re often a cheaper, less challenging way to meet emissions regulations than fully battery-electric vehicles. After all, car manufacturers don’t care whether they are connected.
John Voelcker edited it Green car reports for nine years it published more than 12,000 articles about hybrids, electric cars and other low- or zero-emission vehicles and the energy ecosystem surrounding them. As a reporter and analyst, he now covers advanced automotive technologies and energy policy. His work has appeared in print, online and on radio, including Wired, Popular Science, Tech Review, IEEE Spectrumand NPR’s “All Things Considered.” He divides his time between the Catskill Mountains and New York City and still hopes to one day become an international man of mystery.
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