Featured Toyota Says You’ve Been Misled—Most “Hybrids” Aren’t Really Hybrids

I'm not a fan of the plug in pacifica, since its range is so short, and it is still a chrysler at the end of the day. But if they could make the minivan go the same EV miles as the truck, then I'd seriously consider the pacifica if I were in the market for a 7 seater minivan. I think that, at some point, the range of a PHEV can be so low that its not really worth the price premium, IMO. The Gen 4 prius prime was on the bubble of that, and the gen 5 was a great jump in range. I think, personally, the sweet spot probably is something closer to 150km (not even miles), before the gas kicks in for a full tank of range. At that point, even in winter you can expect 100km of usage, and that's a huge boon. The gen 5 reliably gets close to 90km in summer for us, well above the EPA estimate, since we do mixed highway and city driving. I just wish it had that range in winter given our local climate.

Maybe Chrysler thinks that calling it an EREV with only 35 miles of EV range would be setting expectations too high and leave a bad taste in people's mouth when they realize they charge overnight and get really short EV distance driving. Especially if they're actually filling the thing full of people, I can't imagine the EPA rating is being done with a fully loaded vehicle.

 

By your logic, the Gen 1 Prius was not a hybrid either. It used an existing gar powered vehicle platform.

 

Be careful what you wish for. A few years ago, Virginia removed the EV fee that also applied to hybrids. They replaced it with something that rewards inefficient vehicles. Ant vehicle rated at more than 25 mpg pays a "Highway Use Fee", a tax by a different name. It is actually calculated using 23 mpg though. My 2025 Camry is over $60 per year. If ther were going to do that, they SHOULD have raised the fuel tax to pay at the CAFE level of mpg, currently almost 50. They then could have the fee for those getting more than that.

Currently, Virginia citizens are subsidizing the road wear caused by people driving though Virginia. To avoid the fee, you must drive a federally defined clunker.

 

ALL Prius have a gas powered engine AND battery powered electric motors, matching your definition of a hybrid!

 

It seems some people's "hybrid" definition more narrowly requires each source of energy to be able to run independent of the other. A vehicle that depends on gasoline to ultimately provide for battery use does not fit that narrower definition.

 

Some governments call EVs as anything using more than 12V electricity, including the Prius that gets all its energy from gasoline.

 

The hybrid term refers to power source in vehicles, not energy(fuel). The latter are dual-fuel, bi-fuel, or flexfuel. Plug in hybrids are also bi-fuel vehicles.

With an extra $131 available, you can get the SAE's standard definitions for these things.
SAE International | Advancing mobility knowledge and solutions

Maybe it is different in Canada, but Chrysler doesn't call it a plug in. It is just hybrid, as in the term others use for no plug cars. The customer base seems to have more EV skeptics, and they didn't want to scare any off with plug in the name. Same reasoning behind their not calling the 48 volt systems hybrid at all.

 

Here Toyota calls their non-plugins "self-charging hybrids". Which winds some people up...

 

Is there a hybris that is NOT self-charging??

 

For one thing - traction pack per kwh price has dropped well over 200% since the early days of the rav4ev & Chevy S-10ev .... & prices continue to plummet to this day. Some States along with the fed incentives in those earlier start up years could offset - using price premiums.

Next - many aren't aware of how many miles the average commute is;

How Far Do Americans Drive to Work on Average? | It Still Runs

Commute averages will vary a few miles - year to year - but as for Chrysler's decision to provide 33 EV miles? How about that. They fit the average. That "small" range gets many people all the way up & back, to & from work. Plus - many major companies have installed dozens of chargers nowadays - effectively increasing the all-EV commute range by a factor of 2.

Side note regarding heavy loads. Sure range decreases when we carry 6 adults, & four 50lb suitcases plus carry-ons - then add in -10°f winters - and snow. Our airport is may be 10 or 11 miles away & we still get back with charge to spare. Mainly because in wintet the ICE turns on to warm up liquid cooling as well as passengers. Heat pumps don't work once temperatures get below 15°f unless equipped with resistance heat backups.

End of the day it's still a Chrysler ;


According to sales over the past yr? Hmmmm - Seems great minds don't necessarily think alike

Driven lots & lots of different plug-in models over more than ¼ a century & none of them (Other than our Tesla's) have been in the shop more than the others.

 

Incorrect.... All hybrids by their very nature have to have an existing gas powered vehicle platform.

But EV auto makers spent tens of billions retooling their factories for an entirely different vehicle platform based on battery design needs and lowering the space the powertrain uses so there's more storage space.

However Toyota was too greedy and too arrogant to give up on their existing platform and used their PR team to lie to everyone about how no one wants EVs while using existing tooling to make EVs out of existing gas engine platforms.

This is the same kind of stupid when Elon used Lotus vehicle frames to build the first Tesla prototypes, which turned into a total failure just like Toyota is finally realizing as EV design for other manufactures is close to a decade ahead of them now.

 

Toyota has said few want to pay the price of BEVs and the battery technology could be used more efficiently, reaching a wider market, with PHEV and end up with potentially the same climate impact, for lower cost using less battery resources.

 

And clearly because BYD is selling the brand new Dolphin EV in China for under $10K you're believing the lies of Toyota about how they aren't affordable and trillions in dollars in fossil fool industry subsidies that are destroying the planet are what makes hybrid cars more "affordable" right? Lol... the level of nonsense ya'll are engage in is absurd and baseless.

 

I truly doubt the BYD will be as reliable as Toyota HEVs and PHEVs. Has the BYD even been certified for US public roadways? If not, you cannot compare directly.

 

That's what the fossil fool industry said about Tesla... And based on the quality, reliability and price: Automakers all over the world are desperate to keep BYD out of their markets because they have zero ability to compete.