Does this really happen with prius PHEV owners ??

Can't access it because it doesn't like my ad-blockers.
I can tell you she's misinformed. I plug-in every chance I get too when:
Power plug is free and I'm going to be at that location for at least an hour. I know my gas to electricity breakeven point and I rarely pay for a charge; unless it's wayyy cheaper than gasoline - that's really easy to do here in California. I've seen some charger charge as high as $0.50 a Kwh plus hook-up charge and timed parking charge. You might as well pay $8 a gallon for gas without waiting for the electron top-off. Don't even get me started on those EV trucks that get less than 2-miles/Kwh. Especially now that gas is just above $2 a gallon in most states.

 

"They don't plug them in" is a sound bite condensation of the fact people aren't plugging in as much as was expected. There are at least two members here that don't have home charging for their Prime, which leads to less charging than those with home charging.
https://theicct.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/real-world-phev-us-dec22.pdf

Then incentives could skew sales to people that shouldn't be getting a PHEV. People did buy the PiP and Volt with no intention of charging cause incentives pushed the price below the hybrid's or for HOV access.

 

HOV access was/is temporary to incentivize adoption. No big deal for someone who leases. The car gets replaced/traded before the HOV sticker expires. They (government) are incorporating more cameras, sensors and plate readers to get those people out of those lanes, because they've found that drivers are not as law abiding as they think. At least in my state.

 

My understanding of this issue is that the Europeans found out that PHEVs were emitting more CO2 than expected. The data for actual emissions were transmitted from the vehicles themselves. One reason is thought to be that people are not plugging in their PHEVs. However, this article says it's because European car manufacturers are gaming the system on how expected emissions are calculated: https://insideevs.com/news/771963/phev-emissions-five-times-higher-official/. I can't say I fully understand the issue.

 

^I tend to agree. For whatever reason, some people greatly under-utilize the plug-in feature. The Euro study above, a more recent China study: Your Plug-In Hybrid Is Polluting More If You Aren't Charging It Up

It is strange. Spend more money (in general) for a feature you don't utilize.............

 

Weather and extension cords are a factor for owners who don't park in a garage.

People are too lazy to plugin a Prime when gas is under $3.

Around here my last gas purchase was Exxon at $2.13. Which was not even the cheapest gas - Sam's Club was $1.98.

Meanwhile full size trucks averaging 20 mpg continue to sell fast and are commuter vehicles in most states like Texas. No hybrid or plugin advantage, $50k-85k upfront and high yearly miles are driven.

 

IMHO; most people are just too lazy to do the math, don't have critical thinking skills, and just listen to 'sound-bites'. I've talked my sister out of buying an EV or hybrid because of where she is and how she currently uses her car. Mississippi is one of those places where gas is cheap and it would be very difficult to find a capable mechanics to fix it - neither she or her husband wrenches. There's a lot of DYI'ers out there and most of them are very bad. She's found that out the hard way, from small projects she hired out to get done. The financial side would require 15+ years to recover, so the only other benefit is being environmentally green while everyone around them drove pickup trucks spewing black smoke out of their tail pipes.
I drive a Prime because it makes more economical sense for me to do so; then again I could be driving a 10+ year old econobox, spend the depreciation cost on gasoline, and come out in about the same place - though my weekends would be spent wrenching on the econobox. I've got better things to do.....

YMMV