Plug-in Hybrid Problems: What You Need to Know
- Plug-in hybrids can theoretically serve as stepping stones to all-electric vehicles, providing enough electric range for short trips while still offering the flexibility of a gasoline engine.
- Last week, Stellantis abruptly confirmed that it would discontinue three popular plug-in hybrid models.
- The rise of plug-in cars in the early 2010s was a technological revolution not seen as the dawn of the automobile itself.And like the early days of automobiledom,...
EVs aren’t the only cars that plug in. Plug-in hybrids can theoretically serve as stepping stones to all-electric vehicles, providing enough electric range for short trips while still offering the flexibility of a gasoline engine. For those who can’t charge at home, or just don’t want to deal with the uncertainty of public charging infrastructure on road trips, they seem like a decent option. But the news cycle just delivered two reminders of the limits of plug-in hybrids.
Last week, Stellantis abruptly confirmed that it would discontinue three popular plug-in hybrid models. And at the Automotive Press Association conference in Detroit on Monday, General Motors CEO Mary Barra admitted an inconvenient truth - that many plug-in hybrid owners don’t actually plug their cars in. The auto industry as a whole isn’t giving up on plug-in hybrids, but they’re certainly in a rough patch.
Plug-in hybrid promise
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The rise of plug-in cars in the early 2010s was a technological revolution not seen as the dawn of the automobile itself.And like the early days of automobiledom, there was a bit of a Wild West feel as competing technologies tried to stake a claim. In this case, all-electric vehicles, plug-in hybrids and, to a lesser extent, hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles were all promoted as the cars of the future.
While GM is bearish on plug-in hybrids today (outside of China, that is), it kicked things off with arguably the most famous plug-in hybrid of all. The Chevrolet volt was inspired by a crude-yet-effective solution from GM’s EV1 project. In the absence of charging stations, engineers used trailers with generators to keep the batteries of those all-electric vehicles topped up. And that remains the main appeal of plug-in hybrids: enough electric range for the short trips that make up the vast majority of vehicle usage,while keeping a way to top u
The Achilles’ Heel of plug-in hybrids is that owners don’t have to plug them in. If they don’t, that leaves a regular hybrid lugging around hundreds of pounds of extra weight in the form of a bigger battery pack that isn’t being used. And that’s how most plug-in hybrids are being driven, GM CEO Mary Barra told Reuters reporter Kalea Hall in a video interview.
“What we also know today with plug-in hybrids is that most people don’t plug them in,” Barra said. “So that’s why we’re trying to be very thoughtful about what we do from a hybrid and plug-in hybrid outlook.”
Barra said what many of her fellow executives may be unwilling to admit.In 2024, InsideEVs investigated whether owners were actually plugging in regularly,reaching out to several automakers for usage data.Though, most automakers either could not provide that data or would not say specifically how frequently enough their plug-in hybrids were being used as intended.
Multiple studies have concluded that owners often don’t plug in. In 2022, the International Council on Clean Transportation said that real-world electric miles driven could be 25%-65% lower than the range ratings on plug-in hybrid window stickers,resulting in fuel consumption 42%-67% higher. Looking at the European market, a 2025 study by Transport & Surroundings found that the gap between real-world emissions and officially-rated emissions for plug-in hybrids has widened in recent years. In 2023, plug-in hybrids averaged five times higher real-world emissions than officially rated, according to the study.
And do buyers want them?
