<
https://www.technologyreview.com/2024/03/27/1090172/the-problem-with-plug-in-hybrids-their-drivers/>
"Plug-in hybrids are supposed to be the best of both worlds—the convenience of
a gas-powered car with the climate benefits of a battery electric vehicle. But
new data suggests that some official figures severely underestimate the
emissions they produce.
According to new real-world driving data from the European Commission, plug-in
hybrids produce roughly 3.5 times the emissions official estimates suggest. The
difference is largely linked to driver habits: people tend to charge plug-in
hybrids and drive them in electric mode less than expected.
“The environmental impact of these vehicles is much, much worse than what the
official numbers would indicate,” says Jan Dornoff, a research lead at the
International Council on Clean Transportation.
While conventional hybrid vehicles contain only a small battery to slightly
improve fuel economy, plug-in hybrids allow fully electric driving for short
distances. These plug-in vehicles typically have a range of roughly 30 to 50
miles (50 to 80 kilometers) in electric driving mode, with a longer additional
range when using the secondary fuel, like gasoline or diesel. But drivers
appear to be using much more fuel than was estimated.
According to the new European Commission report, drivers in plug-in hybrid
vehicles produce about 139.4 grams of carbon dioxide for every kilometer
driven, based on measurements of how much fuel vehicles use over time. On the
other hand, official estimates from manufacturers, which are determined using
laboratory tests, put emissions at 39.6 grams per kilometer driven.
Some of this gap can be explained by differences between the controlled
conditions in a lab and real-world driving. Even conventional combustion-engine
vehicles tend to have higher real-world emissions than official estimates
suggest, though the gap is roughly 20%, not 200% or more as it is for plug-in
hybrids.
The major difference comes down to how drivers tend to use plug-in hybrids.
Researchers have noticed the problem in previous studies, some of them using
crowdsourced data."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
