Its time to call a spade a spade - the bulk of the PHEV category sold to date (with a few exceptions like toyota) has been an emissions scam, designed to skirt EU fleet emission laws.

In practice, most are mediocre range, low-speed only evs that effectively no one bothers to charge regularly because its impractical and annoying. The manufactures claim 80% reductions in emissions, and use those credits to allow them to sell more gas cars in the EU market. But real world emission reduction is 20%. They know this, they've known for years. Its a scam.

https://electrek.co/2026/02/19/biggest-study-yet-shows-plug-...

Some newer toyotas, newer BMWs and the coming EREVs will actually be able to be electric cars most of the time, and might live up closer to the claims. Doesnt change the fact the category has been mostly fraud until now.

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appointment 18 hours ago | parent [-]

To be fair, running electric only at slow speeds is still good, because it's slow, stop-and-go driving that benefits the most from electric.

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dalyons 18 hours ago | parent [-]

except, as the data shows, thats not enough to make much emissions difference.

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robocat 17 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Maybe blame consumers rather than manufacturers. And if a government sets up incentives incorrectly, blame the government schemes, not those using such badly designed incentives.

The buyers wanted a petrol car. And they choose to fill with petrol. You need your own garage to make plugging in worthwhile (and avoid getting charging cable nicked). Consumers perhaps prefer to avoid the hassle of plugging in?

In New Zealand there's a visible disincentive of a yearly tax on pluggable hybrids (to pay for road use). In NZ roads are paid by taxes earmarked for that.

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jemmyw 15 hours ago | parent [-]

> In NZ roads are paid by taxes earmarked for that.

It would be better to say that all of the money from road use and petrol taxes are spent on the roads. Those taxes don't actually cover the cost of maintaining the road system.

At which point it kind of becomes moot that those taxes are ring-fenced for paying for roads. Since I've lived here people keep repeating that ring-fenced fact like its some kind of special thing. General taxation and council taxes are subsiding just the road maintenance, and completely paying for new build roads.

	▲	robocat 10 hours ago \| parent [-]
		> Those taxes don't actually cover the cost of maintaining the road system Yes they almost did. Only a few years ago the National Land Transport Fund (NLTF) was almost entirely self-sustaining, funded by road users. Recently Crown funding (grants and loans) expanded significantly to ~40% of fund income. But approximately 30% of government transport spending is being spent on rail (to placate voters I think). Before the Land Transport (Rail) Legislation Act 2020, not much we spent by the NLTF on rail. Currently ~3% of driven kilometres by car use electricity - so as that number increases, BEV and PHEV vehicles will need to have increased taxation. Presumably something like $700 per annum (currently about how much a person driving a petrol car pays on excise tax). Ultimately it is almost tautological that road users pay for roads, since government spending comes from taxes, and most people use cars. How things get earmarked is just sophisticated accounting.

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bluGill 18 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

I find that strange just looking at my current PHEV the engine now is at 75,000 miles or what my previous one was at only 30,000 miles. Most trips we barely use the intent if we use it at all, but every once in a while we do go on the long road trips. Plus, they are great for Americans who normally don't do those long trips, but they don't get rained to anxiety or any other issues with charging.

	▲	dalyons 17 hours ago \| parent [-]
		1. you are you and your data and your use. I believe you, but thats not useful compared to the real world data from "981,035 vehicles across Europe". 2. i suspect but i have no way to prove... the PHEVs sold in america tended to be way better EVs - there's no similar total fleet emissions laws so no incentive to subsidize shitty/fraudulent PHEVs in the US.