There’s really only one reason for the proliferation of plug-in hybrid vehicles – and it isn’t to “save money” via using less gas.
Plug in hybrids cost thousands more than non-hybrid versions of the same vehicle and most of them only manage about 10 MPG more in city driving – where the layout has a fuel-efficiency advantage because the gas engine is often not running at all. On the highway, most plug-in hybrids deliver pretty much the same gas mileage as the non-hybrid version of the same vehicle.
As an example: The plug-in hybrid version of the 2025 Lincoln Corsair that I am test driving this week rates 32 MPG on the highway; the non-hybrid version of the same vehicle rates 30 MPG on the highway. In stop-and-go city driving, the hybrid does much better – 34 MPG vs. 22 MPG. But it also stickers for $54,265 vs. $39,385 for essentially the same vehicle without the plug-in hybrid drivetrain.
That is a lot to spend in order to “save money” by not buying gas – especially if you do a lot of highway driving. If you do, that will burn up a lot of the putative savings.
On the other hand, you will save a lot – of time – because you will never have to plug in. You can plug it in – if you have time and just want to. The distinction – vs. an entirely electric car that has to be plugged in whether you have time or not – is important. The entirely electric car costs even more – but more to the point, it costs you that which can never be replaced.
Time.
This is the real-but-unadvertised savings you buy when you spend the extra on a plug-in hybrid.
It may also save the car companies. As you probably already know – and as this column has been trying to convey for many years – the federal regulatory apparat has been working to de facto outlaw vehicles that do not tether their owners to a cord by using regulations that only tethered vehicles are able to comply with. It is a very clever stratagem that allows the apparatchiks and politicians who are on the same page to posture as benign. No one is forcing people to buy electric cars, they say with a Glasgow smile. And that is true – for the moment. But it is becoming harder and harder for the vehicle manufacturers to not manufacturer electric vehicles, because they are the only vehicles that comport with the regs.
In this way, vehicles that the apparat wants – because the apparat wants people tethered – are gradually replacing vehicles that aren’t on the manufacturing side. In time, only tethered vehicles will be manufactured and so that is all that will be available and thus everyone will be tethered.
That’s the idea, at any rate.
Luckily for us, engineers are smarter than apparatchiks – the useless eaters of the “governing class” whose only competence is making life more difficult and expensive for the rest of us. Who do so for its own sake, because – like the scorpion that stung the frog that swam the latter across the creek on his back – it is what they do. Take away the power of the rhetorical device called “government” and you see that what afflicts us is who. A relative handful of effronterous and incompetent busybodies that have acquired the power – often unelected – to make us miserable, just because they can and only because they have the power to do so. 
Anyhow, the smart engineers figured it out. The regs require a vehicle that is tethered? Ok. Here’s one that is. But also one that isn’t. The manufacturer of the plug-in hybrid can say: Here is a vehicle that can be driven on battery power alone – just like an electric vehicle, because when it is operating as an electric vehicle it is to-the-letter exactly that. And as that, it can tout such EV-esque government-compliance stats as – in the case of the plug-in hybrid Corsair – 78 MPGe.
The “e” part being the EV part.
Of course, out in the real world, a plug-in such as the ’25 Corsair does not go 78 miles per gallon. It averages closer to 33 MPG – unless you restrict how far you drive to the roughly 27 miles it can be driven on electric drive alone. Most people will probably end up driving farther – which is beyond the electric-only range of the system. And when they do, the gas engine automatically comes on, so they don’t have to stop and waste time waiting at least 20-30 minutes to recover a partial charge, as the driver of an entirely electric vehicle must when its batteries run low.
But Lincoln – and every other vehicle manufacturer that sells vehicles that do not have to be plugged in – gets regulatory credit for the “78 MPGe,” which hugely helps the manufacturers deal with regulatory folderol such as the apparatchiks’ Corporate Average Fuel Economy regs. CAFE says – decrees – that a given vehicle manufacturer’s combined fleet must average so-and-so many miles-per-gallon else punitive fines are applied that are naturally passed on to the buyer, causing him to be less able (and wanting) to buy the offending vehicle.
A “78 MPGe” plug-in hybrid helps a lot with those averages – even if it does not actually average 78 MPG, “e” or otherwise.
You can almost picture Randy Watson – leader of the band Sexual Chocolate from Coming to America – doing the microphone drop.
Of course, the apparatchiks and politicians are more vicious than the engineers and they are already snarling angrily about how plug-in hybrids don’t have to be tethered – and that people are taking advantage of that.
Expect them to alter the way compliance with the regs is established. No more “78 MPGe” – so as to close the loophole that allows the manufacturers to sell compliant vehicles that don’t tether people.
But – for the moment – enjoy the frustrated keening of the apparatchiks.
. . .
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My 2012 Ram Van w/283 hp V6 Pentastar and 98,000+ miles on the clock gives me 22 mpg locally in my hilly ups and downs, and up to 25 at a steady 70 on the interstate. I’ll keep it.
EV’s…PHEV’s…..anything with a battery….the depreciation kings…lose all your money….
On BAT right now….
2022 Rivian R1T Launch Edition Quad-Motor…….original MSRP $100,000
Current Bid: $25,000
Ends in
18:46:20
https://bringatrailer.com/listing/2022-rivian-r1t-144/
The UK GOVERNMENT sent the MacMaster a LETTER saying they LIED about ELECTRIC CARS and EVs are NOT THE FUTURE!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wX2G7_fDdo
The tech involving hybrids, plug-in hybrids, and EVs is mostly well-known and developed. For decades, the automobile evolved due mainly to market forces ONLY. Starting with that soy boy gay shitbag, Ralph Nader, and his ‘know-nothing” tome “Unsafe At Any Speed”, the Safety Cult and Karens enabled “Uncle Sugar” to intervene in automotive design, justifying it initially on reducing “smog”, then “S-a-a-a-a-a-a-f-t-e-e-e-e-e”, then fuel economy, indirectly “saving the Planet”. Like almost anything else “Uncle” meddles in, our domestic auto industry has gone to shit.
The new car market is a mess…a look at where it is going…
Asto Martin losing $1 million per day…
VW closing factories…
Mercedes and Porsche looking for cuts because of slow Chinese market…
The performance car market….
Prices too high…then huge deprecuation after 3 years…
far too much high tech…performance is lightness and simplicity…going the wrong direction…
New Ferrari F80…a V6 with a battery and too much tech…forget it…
The ice only Sports cars?….ruined with too much tech….
Electric steering is horrible…was needed for self driving tech…
Coming soon…cybersecurity tech…a nightmare…
Just buy a bike…far less tech on them…way more analog…
Depreciation…anything with a battery…EV’s 50% first year….
too much tech and surveillance tech…some enthusiasts will not buy any new car now….the end…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bs0-G2vIWiU
“Of course, out in the real world, a plug-in such as the ’25 Corsair does not go 78 miles per gallon.”
In battery power only mode it probably gets closer to 20 mpg….the average fuel economy of the average EV…..after you find out the electricity doesn’t come magically out of a wall plug….If you start with your calculations starting with the electricity already in the battery..
to get an accurate real mpg calculation you have to go back to the power plant…maybe a thousand miles away…..as soon as the fuel is burnt to boil water to turn the turbine to turn the generator…there is already a 65% energy loss…turned into heat….then after more energy losses in the transmission lines, distribution lines and the charger, etc…there is a total 75% energy loss by the time it gets into the battery….so an EV is 25% efficient….the EV pushers are liars so they ignore that reality…..
So…to get an accurate number…take their eMPG number and divide by 3 or 4…..
If the cost of the electricity wasn’t subsidized by government owned power plants…using tax slave’s money…the real cost would be more apparent…. but electricity costs are going up….when all ice cars are banned, they will blast off…stopping slave mobility….
Kia Hyundai ice engines blow up…..
their EV’s blow up because they have lithium fire bomb batteries like all EV’s….now their fuel cell cars are blowing up too…. 3 for 3….
Scotty on this…..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYbxsdqpgzs
Lithium battery fire in Missouri:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WJ9v81N8xPA
Wow! What a shit show lithium ion batteries have become.
I already have a love/hate relationship with power tools that are Lithium ion powered. Same for phones and other little consumer devices powered by them.
No way I’ll ever consider having an EV sized battery pack of them around in my garage or near my house.
“Even Some High-Income Americans Can’t Afford New Cars Anymore” – headline on Bloomberg this morning. Duh, no shit Sherlock, the agenda is proceeding apace; now that the average working stiff can’t afford a new car it ratchets up to the next level so soon only the elites will have personal transportation and everyone else will be on the bus or walking.
‘we might wind up going back to a horse and buggy but GovCo will be penalizing us for the horses “littering” on the roadways’ — Landru
Naw, they’ve got that sorted. After OSHA was formed in 1971, this cartoon made the rounds, of an OSHA cowboy complete with ‘EPA emissions control system.’
https://tinyurl.com/e8rffsnv
With remarkable foresight, the artist even specified an ‘automatic, air-filled chest protector.’
Add side and rear airbags, and this setup would still pass regulatory muster today. 🙂
Hi Jim, that OSHA thing definitely goes further than the horse diaper I was thinking of.
Eric — in para 2, line 2, shouldn’t it be ’10 MPG more?
‘Lincoln gets regulatory credit for the “78 MPGe.”’
Not for long, my friend. “Utility factor” (UF) gauges the fraction of total annual distance traveled by a PHEV in charge depletion (CD) mode, in which battery power is the propulsion mode.
But frivolous little citizens who don’t care about greenhouse gases have been failing to plug in every night (and not brushing their teeth either). Americans are the worst sloths in the world about nocturnal plugging in, compared to their peers in Europe and East Asia. Behold the awful truth:
https://tinyurl.com/3j4x56d5
So Mommy Gov — meaning Red Guard Regan’s EPA — is going to punish us by lowering the UF curve still farther. If saving money don’t motivate y’all, maybe the sting of the whip will.
In other news, the beatings will continue until morale improves. 🙂
Thanks, Jim – really appreciate the catch!
This stuff happens at 4 in the morning…
My morale improvement might require 75 grain hollow-point response.
It appears to be a job requirement to obtain and keep a job in the mighty bureaucracy. You must hate people. All people. Be willing to make their lives as painful as possible. For no reason whatsoever.
The hilarious thing is there is nothing new about hybrids. The Prius hybrid has been around since 1997. In the US since 2001.
The main difference being that a Prius is tiny (and ahem . . . Relatively light) compared to the Lincoln Corsair.
As Eric has written about extensively, if it were about saving the environment, they would be regulating us toward smaller, lighter cars not clunky SUVs and two or theee ton EVs.
Yikes! I just thought of something.
The first Priuses will qualify for antique tags in a little over a year.
First you pay an extra $15,000 for the vehicle, which costs are applied every month to the payment. Then add the cost of financing the extra $15,000. Over a 100,000 mile car ownership (say 7 years), the financing costs (or loss of interest income if you pay cash) at 5% are more than $5,000, while the “savings” due to the 5 mpg average effective “higher” mpg of the plug-in is only about $2,000. Then you’ll have to pay to replace the battery of the plug-in, which will be another estimated $5,000.
Net, you’ll pay at least $22,000 extra for the plug-in not including the time waiting to recharge.
Economically, no sane person would do this, so I expect more than half the women to sign up and burden their husbands with more stupidity.
Pardon my typo, that should have been $23,000 extra.
Don’t forget the fat ‘property’ tax bill many states have the audacity to impose on us every single year of ownership. 😉
Good point, thank you.
That’s one less annual tax where I live.
We pay the sales tax at purchase, and that does add another $1,000 extra tax for the higher priced vehicle.
“Plug in hybrids cost thousands more than non-hybrid versions of the same vehicle”
That alone should be the instant disqualifier in a free market. Thousands of deflated federal reserve notes still buys a considerable amount gas.
Ford should be putting that AC distribution panel that’s in the bed of the F-150 hybrid into every hybrid they have. OK maybe a Lincoln Corsair driver doesn’t need 220 split phase in the back seat, but having a really good source of power could help differentiate them from the others. Imagine having cold storage from a compressor, not a Peltier effect “cooler” designed to keep drinks slightly less warm. No, a real freezer compartment to keep the ice cream solid on the way home. Or if you’re pulling an RV, not needing a genset if you’re just taking a nap at a rest stop for a few hours. Or you need to charge high current electronic devices? How about tailgating at the kid’s soccer game? Lots of uses for high voltage.
Agree RK, the only positive reason I can see for a hybrid is their powerboost thing.
They offer 3 different setups, with the largest a 7.2Kw unit, wow.
But, if I were a contractor, which is how they are marketing it (dumb, I like your benefits better, tailgate, RV, etc….) I’m guessing that running your very expensive truck engine all day as a generator is not the best idea.
And in their features, it did show being able to use a 240v welder, but can’t find any spec’s on such.
Why the kids are happy with 5Vdc.
Totally agree. My neighbor has one of the F150s and is often on remote job sites. It’s amazing. Not saying I’d buy one, but it certainly provides utility.
Of course the madness will never end. I saw something about a South Korean hydrogen powered tank, words can’t begin to cover my bafflement over that idea.
At the rate we’re going we might wind up going back to a horse and buggy but GovCo will be penalizing us for the horses “littering” on the roadways.
[clutching pearls] Dear God, we must close the plug-in loop hole now! Otherwise, our plant will continue to boil.
By the way, Lincoln still exists? Huh.