QOTD: Gas Pump Workaround?

by Steph Willems

Published: April 10th, 2020

If you’re as paranoid as this writer, chances are your formerly daily driver has long since sailed past its last regularly scheduled fill-up date. The last time any fresh gasoline hit the innards of your author’s high-end motorcar was three and a half weeks ago. The needle’s now resting just north of a quarter tank.

*Gulp*

Frankly, it’s cause for concern, as adding useless miles to the odometer has typically served as a mental tonic for yours truly. At the same time, who wants to encounter people or things they’ve touched? That friendly neighborhood gas pump is no longer the welcoming monument it once was (with Doritos, no less). Wouldn’t it be great to drive past it without a care?

“Just give me 20 miles,” I keep thinking, hypermiling my sumptuous Cruze to my favorite running spot roughly 2 miles from home. “20 miles of range I can add at home, keeping that 1.4-liter BEAST in reserve. Why, oh why, did I purchase such a gas pig?!?”

The solution to my problem would be the sudden appearance of a plug-in hybrid in my parking spot. Sure, an electric vehicle would do the trick, and we’ve talked about that before, but a PHEV offers the best of both worlds. I could tool around the Omega Man-like streets of my deserted city, keeping my ICE and gas tank offline until called upon for some sort of emergency (or carefree road trips when borders eventually reopen).

People enjoy choice, but in North America the additional expense, weight, and trade-off in cargo volume (a less common concern nowadays) of PHEVs turns many consumers off. Why not flip the automaker an extra couple of grand for a conventional hybrid, or go all-in with an EV? How else to explain the decline and demise of the Chevrolet Volt?

A vehicle like the Volt (yes, it’s technically a series hybrid, but it works out just the same) would suit me just fine right now. Plenty of plug-in range and a gas generator waiting to fire up should I push it too far. Chances are I wouldn’t have to fill up till summer.

Plug-in hybrids probably aren’t your bag… and that’s okay! But no one likes pumping gas while wearing a t-shirt over their face and plastic bags on their hands, then watching their gas gauge like a cheating spouse. Just for today, put yourself in my mindset. Which PHEV currently on the market (or scheduled to land this year) would get your buy?

[Image: General Motors]

#PHEV #Plug-inHybrid #QOTD #QuestionOfTheDay

Steph Willems

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9 of 79 comments

Rudiger on Apr 11, 2020

There are lots of terrific PHEV choices. For a CUV, the Mitsubishi Outlander doesn't have much of an EV range but it 'does' have one ace-in-the-hole: DCFC capability. No other PHEV has that (yet). Now, if the upcoming RAV4 PHEV includes DCFC, it would easily trump the Mitsu. For max hauling capacity, though, it's the Pacifica Hybrid. You can stuff a lot of humans/cargo in one of those without burning any gas for ~34 miles. If a sedan will do, the Honda Clarity has an EV range of 47 miles. And if you don't mind buying used, a second generation Volt, although smaller than the Clarity, has the same range and, unlike the Clarity, is a hatchback. Just make sure to get the top-tier version with the 7.2kWh charger. Charge times of lesser Volts aren't so great.

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- HotPotato on Apr 11, 2020
  
  The OEM consensus seems to be that a) Level 2 charge time doesn't matter on a PHEV and b) DCFC on a PHEV is unnecessary. Annoying as it is to me, as a Volt owner with a 3.3 kW Level 2 onboard charger, they're probably right. The batteries on these things aren't huge: you charge it overnight from your regular garage outlet and you're full by morning. If you run out of juice, that's what the ICE is for. DCFC makes no financial sense on the Mitsu; you spend 15 minutes and several gallons worth of gas to get less than a gallon worth of range. My next car will be all-electric. Unless my income takes a dump, of course, in which case my next car will be "getting my ass out of bed an hour earlier and riding my damn bicycle to work." Probably be a lot better for my health and hey, that's still one less exhaust pipe on the road. If you don't count the emissions from my ill-advised cheese intake, anyway.
  
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- -Nate on Apr 12, 2020
  
  @HotPotato Hey now HotPotato ~ let's not go crazy, O.K. ? . Life with out cheese would be like, well, like _death_ . We have some here who actually enjoy riding their bicycles to work around Los Angeles, to me it's a death wish , think : you'd be sharing the crowded road with _ME_ . -Nate
  
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- Rudiger on Apr 13, 2020
  
  @HotPotato The catch on charge times not mattering is whether or not an EV owner has the ability to charge at home and overnight. Without that capacity, charge times are, indeed, a significant factor. In fact, I see more than a few Teslas (usually Model 3's) regularly camped-out at free public Level 2 chargers for >six hours. I just don't get how someone can pay Tesla money and not have figured out how to keep the damn thing charged without seeming to have to rely on free public chargers. I can only surmise that they hadn't done their research before buying to figure out how far and expensive it would actually be to regularly use the Supercharger network to keep their hotrod luxury EV going, and it's irritating that everyone else with EVs that have much shorter charge times have to suffer for it.
  
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- -Nate on Apr 14, 2020
  
  @rudiger *THIS* . I know a few 'free' (means _I_ pay not you) charging stations and they're almost always full up, the young folks inside (never anyone over 30) reading, napping, smoking and so on... I even know of one recently added by the City Of Los Angeles in South Central, L.A., needless to say there's never been a Tesla within five miles of it =8-) . REALLY good fried chicken and clams right across the boulevard tho' . -Nate
  
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- Rudiger on Apr 15, 2020
  
  @-Nate There are different types of 'free' charging stations. Yeah, the most common ones are at places with public funding like public parks, local government agencies, etc. But there are also those where a business has installed one in a 'value-added' situation where they're hoping on the more well-heeled to stop and patronize their business. The business, not taxes, pay for those. Either way, I'm surprised to find any free stations not monopolized by Teslas. The problem isn't a Tesla using a free station; rather, the problem is there are Tesla owners who take advantage of using a free station by using it for extended periods. The more progressive locations will try and avoid this by posting a time-limit with an appropriate penalty (i.e., ticket and/or towed). In fact, the really enlightened free charge station owner can set up the station in such a way that limits the time to charge and will assess someone who goes over that time with a 'parking' fee.
  
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- -Nate on Apr 16, 2020
  
  @-Nate Yes, the 'free' charging station I was thinking of is always full of Teslas and nothing else . I got a post card in the mail yesterday saying the largest free charging station in the U.S.A. just opened, up on the roof of some building, I dropped that card into the shredder with all my junk, old bills etc. . -Nate
  
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Arthur Dailey on Apr 12, 2020

@SaulTigh: Another grocery store shut down due to COVID. A store in Vaughan Ontario (Northwest suburb of Toronto) closed after 8 more of its workers test positive. This despite the store being closed and sanitized a couple of weeks prior. So much for your assumption/prediction.

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- JimZ on Apr 12, 2020
  
  that's what happens when we let people believe that reality is just a matter of opinion. if he doesn't believe any grocery store workers caught it, then no grocery store worker has caught it.
  
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