Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEV)

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Funkworks said:
One way to look at a hybrid is as a gas car that takes back braking energy (and uses it). So the second drivetrain is just something they add to store and use braking energy (not a complete picture, but the basis of "my" philosophy). If one were to say "why don't I take back some of that wasted brake heat to drive the car?", they'd end up with a hybrid.

A PHEV is the same but it can additionally take energy from a plug (so the battery is bigger).
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Of course the intricacies of how all that is actually accomplished is what makes hybrids with or without a plug interesting — but at the same time makes me as a vehicle owner who prefers something that “just works” as much as possible a little skeptical. How the power is shared, what is involved in getting regenerative energy back into the battery (which means the electric motor or motors are in the chain of power to the wheels at all times) and how that is all controlled are all things that are extra/more complex than either pure EV or pure ICE vehicles.

The Ford dealers claim that their system in the Maverick and Escape hybrids is based on the same patents as Toyota uses for the Prius, and that system has certainly proven to be quite dependable. As I say, we shall see, if I actually ever get the thing. Ordering was open for only a week and they apparently got more orders than they can build, especially for the hybrid power train version — or so says the all-knowing internet.
 
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BEC said:
as a vehicle owner who prefers something that “just works” as much as possible
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In some ways we have gone past that a long time ago, but I still prefer a vehicle with the least amount of things that can break. I have a lot of experience with cars, and cars breaking- my father owned a garage for over 60 years. I never minded repairing cars owned by other people but I really do not like to work on my own cars.
 
BEC said:
Of course the intricacies of how all that is actually accomplished is what makes hybrids with or without a plug interesting — but at the same time makes me as a vehicle owner who prefers something that “just works” as much as possible a little skeptical. How the power is shared, what is involved in getting regenerative energy back into the battery (which means the electric motor or motors are in the chain of power to the wheels at all times) and how that is all controlled are all things that are extra/more complex than either pure EV or pure ICE Vehicles.

The Ford dealers claim that their system in the Maverick and Escape hybrids is based on the same patents as Toyota uses for the Prius, and that system has certainly proven to be quite dependable. As I say, we shall see, if I actually ever get the thing. Ordering was open for only a week and they apparently got more orders than they can build, especially for the hybrid power train version — or so says the all-knowing internet.
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Yes I think Toyota's Prius being reliable for more than a decade and being used as taxis has been critical in reassuring hybrid buyers, including me. (I test drove a Prius before choosing a second-hand Ioniq, and I got the best available waranty for that Ioniq, and that waranty has served me in my first year of ownership).
 
MANY taxis, probably most of them, in the Seattle area are Priuses (Prii?) as well, and one of my best rocket flying friends has been driving them for a long time (he recently got his second one). My sister and her husband also have one and I’ve heard no complaints from them. So that does bode well.
 
bjphoenix said:
In some ways we have gone past that a long time ago, but I still prefer a vehicle with the least amount of things that can break. I have a lot of experience with cars, and cars breaking- my father owned a garage for over 60 years. I never minded repairing cars owned by other people but I really do not like to work on my own cars.
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I used to do oil changes, tune ups and even brake work in my driveway (I don’t have a garage) but those years are long past. We’re talking 1970’s Mazda rotaries here, which were easy to do that sort of work on. But now, not so much.

Cars of today haven’t quite got that “No user serviceable components inside” label on them yet, but they are headed that way it seems.

But this is kind of off-topic here….sorry @Funkworks.

To cycle back to closer to topic: there is much speculation in internet-land about a PHEV version of the Maverick in 2024, so even if we never see the 2023 we ordered, that (or something like that from another maker?) would be well worth a look.

I can see that my vehicle mix in the next decade might settle on a pure EV and a PHEV with enough EV-only range to do basic around town stuff, but maybe pull a small travel trailer/and or be used for road trips like the one my wife and I are on right now in the Mazda3. Of course if the EV infrastructure outside of Tesla gets good enough (and where we usually go it’s abysmal now — even taking a Tesla on this trip would be dicey and would not allow us to go home the way we plan to starting Saturday) then the PHEV might not be needed. But that’s some time away for sure.
 

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