Plug-in hybrid powertrains were developed to offer the best of both worlds: a combustion engine and fuel tank that can handle those longer trips exactly the same as a non-hybrid car, with an electric motor and battery large enough for most or all of a person’s daily driving range. But only if you connect it. and it is often taken as a statement of fact that plug-in hybrid owners do not plug in their plug-in hybrids.
Instead, they were seduced into buying a car with an oversized battery, no doubt as a result of generous incentivessays the theory. And if those drivers aren’t going to plug in and therefore enjoy at least all-electric driving, they should have purchased a parallel hybrid, which often offers better efficiency than a PHEV, with an empty drive battery at a significantly lower price.
But what if that interpretation is incorrect? It turns out there’s more evidence that PHEV drivers actually plug in their add-ons, and the latest data comes from one of the most prolific PHEV boosters: Toyota.
In the past, Toyota has declined to provide numbers when reporters asked him about the frequency of PHEV plug-ins. But a pair of researchers at the Toyota Research Institute of North America have now processed some dataand, after analyzing anonymous data from more than 6,000 RAV4 prime and Lexus NX 450h+ (between model years 2021-2024), the results are encouraging.
