OT: does anyone here have a PHEV?

nothing and no

There is a listing of "tanks" here.

These should definitely be on the used market, as the article claims production has ceased. But there aren't a lot of these in circulation. Happy golfing!

And it all boils down to air resistance and rolling friction. One of the reasons a PHEV won't have the range on battery, is the height of the vehicle increases the air resistance. The PHEV would need a lowered roof to help it along.

The REX uses a motorcycle engine for the petrol part. And it is a serial hybrid, so the motorcycle engine charges the battery, rather than driving the wheels. This would allow an opportunity for the engine to use the Atkinson cycle (steady loads means engine designs have more options). The petrol tank is tiny, to discourage LR driving on petrol only. Your current PHEV is likely equipped with a decent-sized petrol reserve.

Paul

Dunno. when I last looked, all PHEVs tended to have a very limited EV-only range - otherwise with an ICE and electric motor *and* large battery, both the weight and cost would make them unviable.

the worst of both worlds

Quite the opposite. Given the average journey is 7 miles or so the EV aspect will be sufficient for the majority of journeys. The petrol power means there is no range insecurity.

Personally, I just feel that electric car drivers need to be more aware of the pedestrian, who cannot hear you coming in an EV. It starting to become a serious problem especially for us blindies and no doubt those with a hearing loss. All too late are the mandatory sounds below a certain speed, since most seem not to have it. Brian

I thought there was a new rule that EV's have to make some sort of sound to make their presence obvious to those with limited vision ?.

It would be nice if an EV owner could select whatever noise that they preferred. How about the noise of a trotting horse on a hard surface that changed to the sound of a furious gallop when the speed increased to a predefined value ? :-)

Andrew

Irreverent IT magazine The Register did a survey on this very thing a little while ago. The winner was unsurprisingly the TIE Fighter noise...

Annoyingly, if you hire a car that is a PHEV, the hire company do not supply the charging cable. That was the experience of my neighbour when he had a courtesy car for about a week.

Quite. I don't understand the hostility towards PHEV - strikes me they cover most bases, even with a say <20 mile EV range.

They're designed to meet a problem for the company making them.

They're not designed with a customer in mind.

Their fuel economy is variable, and the real world usage of PHEV is more heavily on petrol than on electric. The car company is meeting government fleet requirements with fuel consumption numbers that emphasize the electric aspect, whereas real world usage finds them running on petrol more often.

If any car company bucks the trend and installs a larger battery, it just drives up the sticker price. Maybe from a regulatory standpoint, they don't get enough benefit from fitting a bigger battery. The test cycle used, already gives them a very high fuel economy rating. The test cycle does not give an incentive to "do more".

Whereas with BEVs, the range is part of the marketing story, and then there is a range of BEV designs to choose from. (Pay a lot for it, recharge less often.)

BEVs stimulate battery research. PHEVs just say "me too!" and ride the coattails.

If a different test cycle was used for rating PHEVs (one closer to the current real world average behavior), then the design of them would change.

This is more of an honest design effort. It's a bit uggo, but at least some of the design seems to be interested in fuel economy. Smaller wheels. Put a bit of a big ass on it, for cargo volume and to shield the back wheels.

This one seems to be beating some law of physics.

The van has a 61-mile pure-electric range, which is boosted to 300 miles by the 1.5-litre petrol engine acting as a range extender."

"The starting price for the VN5 is £46,500 (plus VAT but before any grants)"

According to official WLTP standards, the 31kWh battery pack gives the VN5 a 61-mile pure electric range."

"top speed limited to 80mph and 0-62mph taking 13.2 seconds (in reality it feels quicker)."

"LEVC is owned by Chinese automotive giant Geely"

Hard to believe you can get 61 miles driving a brick like that.

Paul

Certainly for the interim. When there are more charging points than petrol stations then perhaps reassess. Same if petrol rose in price in comparison with electricity.

I recall a similar argument against catalytic converters. Most journeys wouldn't be long enough for the cat to get to operating temperature, and when they they do get hot, you'll probably already be on a motorway or on an out of town dual carriageway. So dirty towns and clean motorways. A near pointless cat, plus the increased fuel consumption.

I would have liked a PHEV, but my commute is 12 miles each way, at motrway speeds. Then I often need more miles in the evening for shopping, ferrying the kids arounds, etc. and the battery capacities are just too low. We have ended up going for a full EV, which will cover our day to day needs completely - but we also have a petrol car available for longer journeys or suddenn, unexpected ones, plus towing.

It should have been legislated to be an engine sound - as we have all been brought up to hear an engine and make sure that we are in a safe place, without even thinking about it. Other sounds may be ignored or require someone to turn around and look to establish what it is before checking the situation and taking action if needed.

I have an FHEV - it is amazing how much time it actually spends in EV mode - even on a dual carriageway!

I assume that doesn't stand for "f'ing hopeless' :-)

Trouble is the kids would keep resetting it the noise little kids make when playing with their toy cars.

or the sound of an idiot being pated from his money

Is that the noise of a ?Stucker dive bomber ?.