Presented as an excellent compromise for the environmentin consciousness however, for the on-road driver, plug-in hybrids (or PHEVs) have a few concerns.
First of all, people don't connect them.
Study after study show that these cars, which boast an electric motor for emission-free driving and a gasoline engine for long-range driving, are actually more used in gas mode. This means that they pollute much more than the buyer might think.
Critics argue that this discrepancy allows manufacturers to obtain attractive fuel economy ratings based on ideal conditions that many drivers do not meet.
And as Canada considers the future of its electric vehicle regulations, questions are being raised about how plug-ins should be accounted for.
Laboratory versus the real world
PHEVs range from one to three percent registration of new cars in Canada over the past five years. Even though this is the smallest share of EV sales, it still accounts for hundreds of thousands of such vehicles.on Canadian roads.
Most recent criticism PHEV belongs to an umbrella group of environmental NGOs that have used real-world fuel consumption data from hundreds of thousands of plug-in hybrids in Europe. The data is collected in the EU as part of regulation to prevent misrepresentation and fraud, collected over-the-air or during maintenance on any new vehicles after 2021.
The analysis showed that electric mode was used only about 30 percent of the time, despite official assumptions that it would be used more than 80 percent of the time. Carbon dioxide emissions were nearly five times higher than predicted, and Dr.Liver behavior was part of the problem.
“The first generation of plug-in hybrids saw little use in electric mode,” said Colin McKerracher, head of the transportation and energy storage group at Bloomberg NEF.
They typically have a range of between 50 and 80 kilometers and cannot charge quickly, making it inconvenient for drivers to keep them charged. In Europe, he said, many of them were company cars, further disincentivizing drivers who didn't have to pay for gas anyway.
Cars matching
According to experts, the incentive for manufacturers to produce these cars was obvious. As governments pushed to decarbonize transport, PHEVs helped meet these new standards, McKerracher said.
“Many of the first plug-in hybrids that were on the market were really compliance vehicles,” he told CBC News from Oslo. “They had to either satisfy [environmentally stricter] “California regulations or European regulations on vehicle CO2 emissions to try to allow automakers to comply with increasingly stringent targets.”
At the same time, adding an electric motor can provide cost savings through the same manufacturing process as non-electric models.
In Canada, PHEVs have helped manufacturers meet the Trudeau government's roadmap for all new vehicle sales to be electric by 2035. mandate currently suspended by the Carney government.
Under this plan, both fully electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles count to the manufacturer's zero emissions targeteet, while traditional hybrids will not. Until 2026, PHEVs could make up up to 45 percent of automakers' offerings, with that share eventually dropping to 20 percent in a few years.
By 2035, every new car sold in Canada must be electric or hybrid. But how exactly would the federal government's electric vehicle mandate work? CBC's David Turton explains.
In a statement, Environment and Climate Change Canada said suspending the EV mandate “will help reduce economic pressures from tariffs” and that its review “will take into account how PHEVs are treated under the regulations, among all other relevant considerations.”
David Adams, president and CEO of trade association Global Automakers of Canada, said some flexibility will likely be needed in applying emissions credits to plug-in hybrids.
At the same time, he cautions against treating PHEVs too equally as automakers have invested heavily in full EV platforms.
“You don't necessarily want your commitment in this regard to be undermined by governments providing nearly equivalent credit for something that doesn't have the same value,” Adams explained.
The promise of compromise
For consumers, PHEVs could be a stepping stone between traditional hybrid cars and all-electric vehicles, solving both the range problem and the lack of charging stations.
As McKerracher says, “So you can still go on a long trip, but still get some of the benefits of electric driving.”
This is the reality for Marcia Scrimgeour, an elderly retiree living in Ottawa.
Scrimgeour's city driving is well served by the 55km electric range of her 2024 Kia Niro, which she charges in her apartment. But when she goes to the country in the summer, “there’s no electrical equipment, period,” she said.
Canada's power charging infrastructure has improved over the years, but forecasts suggest An all-electric future will require hundreds of thousands of additional charging stations.
On a fixed income, Scrimgeour says her plug-in hybrid helps her save money, and she only filled it up with gas twice last winter. But Scrimgeour confirmed other criticisms of PHEVs and their higher-than-claimed fuel consumption: sudden switch from electric motor to engine.
“The only time it does this unexpectedly is if I accelerate unexpectedly. Like at a traffic light, if I pull away too fast even though I still have a lot of electrical charge,” Scrimgeour said, adding that it shifts back after braking.
Scrimgeour is an ideal use case. But unlike in Europe, there is no widely available data on the charging habits of Canadian drivers. Adam Thorne, director of the Pembina Institute's transportation program, says it represents an “educational opportunity.”
“To really make sure that those who are buying these vehicles are aware of the ability to charge the vehicles, for example, at night,” Thorne explained, “[and] realize that they won't actually get the full fuel savings if they don't do this.”
In recent EuropeanIn the analysis, the authors also found that actual consumption meant paying about $800 more at the pump than expected.
After speed bumps
Thorne sees a future for PHEVs in Canada that doesn't involve abandoning the mandate entirely. as automakers call.
“We really think this is a key policy to reduce emissions,” Thorne told CBC News from Oakville, Ont. Pembina position recommends allowing PHEV models to make up 45 percent of a manufacturer's fleet through 2030.
Despite tariff uncertainty and dismantling of electric vehicle supports in the USAThere is still a lot of promise in this category.
McKerracher expects about eight million PHEVs to be sold worldwide this year, compared with 14 million battery electric vehicles. Moreover, even with loss of consumer discounts earlier this year, PHEV sales appear to have remained stagnant year-on-year, especially compared to all-electric vehicles, which saw registrations fall by 28,000 year-on-year.
“They now appear to represent a potentially growing segment of the zero-emission vehicle portfolio,” Adams said.
