Maybe We Shouldn't Buy EVs... Yet?
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What am I missing... PHEVs and BEVs are both EVs?
BTW, Toyota and Hyundai would like to have a word with you regarding the survey. They would want you to differentiate hydrogen fuel cell, petrol ICE, diesel ICE, and natural gas ICE
Isn't it great we have the choice now? IMO just buy the vehicle that makes the most sense for you that represents what you want to want to drive.
BTW, Toyota and Hyundai would like to have a word with you regarding the survey. They would want you to differentiate hydrogen fuel cell, petrol ICE, diesel ICE, and natural gas ICE
Isn't it great we have the choice now? IMO just buy the vehicle that makes the most sense for you that represents what you want to want to drive.
If it's capable of propelling itself all the way to highway speed for a reasonable number of miles on electrons only, absolutely. EREV is my preferred term for vehicles like these, such as my decade old Chevy Volt.
Any car that has to turn on it's engine to get full acceleration, or to make it to highway speed is just a hybrid in my book, no matter how big the battery is.
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Did you watch the video? He explains it very clearly.
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Like all topics, this is an 'it depends' not as definite as an answer as Alex on Autos makes it out to be, in fact several other EV channels have called out his math on numbers.
If you drive 100 miles to work? ok maybe there are better options out there for you. I've found since 2018 anything BEV is more than enough for stuff I need. Where things fall apart is > 200 miles and charging gets sketchy if you're not on an interstate. Hotels that offer charging let regular gas cars block the charging spots and shrug when you're there with four kids at midnight with no where to plug in for the night and no fast chargers for 50 miles....
Personally I'm tired of driving EVs because they're all the same similar car. I got excited about the Rivian at first, and now the Chevrolet Silverado EV because I could finally drive a truck without wasting gas the 90% of the time I don't need at truck. My first car was a 1971 Chevrolet Truck, drove it until I got out of high school and then when I had to pay for my gas I'm in a Pontiac sunbird (late 80s). I drive cars because I like cars, and have been terrible and bought a car every three or four years for some time now. Right now I'm bouncing around in a Polestar 2 and the other car in the garage is a Land Rover Defender. I hate driving the defender for only one reason, it costs $90 to fill the gas tank every 300 miles vs $8 of electricity from the wall outlet ($0.13 kWh is our electricity rate) plus I'm going to have to do oil changes, etc.
I did hybrid cars in the 2000s, had a Highlander, and a couple of Camry's. They're some of the most boring cars ever and the highlander especially never delivered on the 32 mpg, the best I got was going down the backside of the Apallachins and we got 25 MPG, rest of the time it was 15-18 with that terrible four banger dragging around an entire 4x4 system that I swear never ran.
I just wish EVs would get to market faster, and would stop being $100k cars.
If you drive 100 miles to work? ok maybe there are better options out there for you. I've found since 2018 anything BEV is more than enough for stuff I need. Where things fall apart is > 200 miles and charging gets sketchy if you're not on an interstate. Hotels that offer charging let regular gas cars block the charging spots and shrug when you're there with four kids at midnight with no where to plug in for the night and no fast chargers for 50 miles....
Personally I'm tired of driving EVs because they're all the same similar car. I got excited about the Rivian at first, and now the Chevrolet Silverado EV because I could finally drive a truck without wasting gas the 90% of the time I don't need at truck. My first car was a 1971 Chevrolet Truck, drove it until I got out of high school and then when I had to pay for my gas I'm in a Pontiac sunbird (late 80s). I drive cars because I like cars, and have been terrible and bought a car every three or four years for some time now. Right now I'm bouncing around in a Polestar 2 and the other car in the garage is a Land Rover Defender. I hate driving the defender for only one reason, it costs $90 to fill the gas tank every 300 miles vs $8 of electricity from the wall outlet ($0.13 kWh is our electricity rate) plus I'm going to have to do oil changes, etc.
I did hybrid cars in the 2000s, had a Highlander, and a couple of Camry's. They're some of the most boring cars ever and the highlander especially never delivered on the 32 mpg, the best I got was going down the backside of the Apallachins and we got 25 MPG, rest of the time it was 15-18 with that terrible four banger dragging around an entire 4x4 system that I swear never ran.
I just wish EVs would get to market faster, and would stop being $100k cars.
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I would be curious to see the responses calling out his numbers… I think his argument about marshaling present resources to make affordable hybrids for all to bring up fleet averages as a whole is convincing. You yourself have pointed out that BEVs are primarily luxury cars for the few now, I don’t think Alex would disagree with allowing this to continue, merely suggesting that for the masses hybrids make the most sense right now.
While I agree the late camry and highlander hybrid were intentionally boring vehicles and maybe not as efficient as you would have liked, It cannot be argued that the current crop of hybrids are not superior to their ICE only counterparts in almost every way. A modern hybrid highlander is very efficient compared the the ICE and more powerful than regular ICE 4 cylinder options, on par with the V6 options being phased out. In fact there are a lot of hybrid options hitting the market now that are significantly more powerful and exciting to drive while still being very efficient, my wife’s rav4 prime falls into this category with over 300 hp and getting 40 mpg real world hybrid only mileage. Your own defender comes in a mild hybrid option with significantly more power at no penalty to efficiency.
I think there is a strong argument to be made for hybridization, including plug ins of more conventional vehicles as a transitional step to a BEV future, economy BEVs leave a lot to be desired right now and the same resources would make many more hybrids and plug ins. The result of which as Alex argues is most people’s regular commutes can be significantly more efficient without the expense and use of precious battery resources. The other benefit is they will never have range anxiety when they do decide to drive further. Some people only commute in the city and they might be just fine with a light, cheap, low range BEV which wouldn’t need a whole lot of battery, but maybe they would be even more efficient on the subway or electric bicycle? If efficiency and environmental benefit are the goal…
While I agree the late camry and highlander hybrid were intentionally boring vehicles and maybe not as efficient as you would have liked, It cannot be argued that the current crop of hybrids are not superior to their ICE only counterparts in almost every way. A modern hybrid highlander is very efficient compared the the ICE and more powerful than regular ICE 4 cylinder options, on par with the V6 options being phased out. In fact there are a lot of hybrid options hitting the market now that are significantly more powerful and exciting to drive while still being very efficient, my wife’s rav4 prime falls into this category with over 300 hp and getting 40 mpg real world hybrid only mileage. Your own defender comes in a mild hybrid option with significantly more power at no penalty to efficiency.
I think there is a strong argument to be made for hybridization, including plug ins of more conventional vehicles as a transitional step to a BEV future, economy BEVs leave a lot to be desired right now and the same resources would make many more hybrids and plug ins. The result of which as Alex argues is most people’s regular commutes can be significantly more efficient without the expense and use of precious battery resources. The other benefit is they will never have range anxiety when they do decide to drive further. Some people only commute in the city and they might be just fine with a light, cheap, low range BEV which wouldn’t need a whole lot of battery, but maybe they would be even more efficient on the subway or electric bicycle? If efficiency and environmental benefit are the goal…
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