Photo: BMW
I'm probably going to get a lot of flack for this, but here it goes anyway. No matter what carmakers are telling you, current plug-in hybrids are not magic bullets.
Thanks to a couple of loopholes in the way in which Europeans (NEDC cycle) and Americans (EPA) officially calculate fuel economy, pretty much everyone is now under the impression that plug-in hybrids are the greatest thing since sliced bread, and that we are not even worthy of their fantastic benefits.
Let's take a look at those benefits, though, and try to debunk them, one by one. The first nonsense that's being marketed when people talk about plug-in hybrids is that they only use tiny drops of fuel to get things going. And when I say “tiny,” I mean teeny-weeny, Lilliputian tiny.
For example, look at the Mercedes-Benz S 500 e, formerly known as the S 500 PLUG-IN HYBRID, because for some reason, Mercedes likes to shout the names of some of its cars and technologies. In the U.S., the model uses the S550e moniker now. The luxurious Leviathan on wheels makes ends meet with the help of an internal combustion engine and an electric motor.
While the twin-turbocharged, 3.0-liter V6 runs on dinosaur juice from a 70-liter fuel tank, the 114 hp electric motor munches on Watts from a high-voltage lithium-ion battery that has an energy content of 8.7 kWh.
Since the battery is much larger than on a regular hybrid, the S 500 e/S550e has an official full-electric range of 33 km (21 miles) in Europe. America's EPA somewhat disagrees, rating it between 0 and 12 miles (19 km), depending on the battery charge.
Speaking of which, while the gas engine can only be fueled at the pump, like all the other kids used to do it, the Li-ion battery can be charged either using an external socket or by the internal combustion engine acting as a range extender.
No matter how small the full-electric range is, the S 500 e still sounds amazing, some of you will probably say. There's an enormous discrepancy between theory and the hands-on approach, though. In the U.S., the model apparently achieves between 24 mpg (9.8 l/100 km) and 54 mpg (4.3 l/100 km) in city driving, with the better numbers being attained when the battery has enough juice, naturally.
EPA rates the car at 58 MPGe combined, which is one of the gimmicks employed by the organization to compare cars with alternative drives and regular ICE models. MPGe in itself sounds a bit like malarkey, especially since electric cars don't actually use gallons of electricity now, do they?
According to the EPA, one gallon of gasoline contains 115,000 BTUs of energy, which apparently translates to 33.7 kWh. The range covered by an electric or plug-in hybrid vehicle is thus used to determine its MPGe rating, but most customers are probably as confused as a hungry baby in a topless bar even after this explanation.
Especially when said customers find out that, in Europe, the S 500 e is said to use only 2.8 liters of fuel for every 100 km driven in the combined cycle. A weird combined cycle, that is, since the model can go for up to 33 km (21 miles) without using any gas whatsoever if the battery is fully charged and the perfect driving conditions are met.
In short, even large and mighty powerful plug-in hybrids can apparently sound like a panacea for the automotive world. They don't come with the range anxiety of full-electric cars and they achieve a downright miraculous fuel economy even compared to regular hybrids.
Is there a catch, then, I hear you asking? Why yes, there actually is. There's more than one. Our own test drive with the S 500 e back when the car was called the S 500 PLUG-IN HYBRID revealed a combined fuel economy of 8 l/100 km (29.4 mpg). While great for a 2,215 kg (4,883 pounds) car that can hit 100 km/h (62 mph) in just 5.2 seconds, that fuel economy rating was also almost three times worse than the official figures.
Not 20 percent worse, not 50 percent worse, but 3 (three) times higher than the official rating in the European NEDC cycle. Sure, we got mighty close to what the EPA says that the model will achieve when running only in hybrid mode, but the whole MPGe thing is still covered in poppycock from wherever you look at it.
So, to recapitulate and summarize at the same time, cars like the Mercedes-Benz S 500 e/S550e are no way near as problem-solving as they are being marketed. Don't get me wrong, Mercedes-Benz is not alone in this MPG masquerade, as all plug-in hybrids are in the same boat from this point of view.
They are not, at least with the current battery technology, to be seen as a way to please two very different camps. Apart from the extra oomph brought for a longer time by the increased batteries, they are actually worse on fuel economy than their regular hybrid counterparts. It actually comes with the territory, since most plug-in hybrid vehicles carry much larger batteries, which in turn make them much heavier than the already heavy hybrids.
With increased weight comes worse fuel economy and inferior handling, so they have that against them as well. To give you another example, a couple of weeks ago I test drove a BMW X5 4.0e while one of my colleagues spent some time with a BMW 750iL xDrive. As it turns out, we achieved somewhat similar fuel economy figures despite the fact that he was commanding a 450 hp beast, while I was behind the wheel of a 320 hp plug-in hybrid. So, a turbocharged four-cylinder helped by an electric motor but with a huge battery to carry was almost as fuel-efficient as a twin-turbocharged V8.
Instead of a conclusion, I only urge you to think thrice before being blinded by marketing and buying a plug-in hybrid instead of a regular hybrid. They probably don't suck, but they certainly don't sip fuel either. That tiny all-electric range is their only advantage, in fact, but the disadvantages probably weigh more in the end. Quite literally, that is.
Let's take a look at those benefits, though, and try to debunk them, one by one. The first nonsense that's being marketed when people talk about plug-in hybrids is that they only use tiny drops of fuel to get things going. And when I say “tiny,” I mean teeny-weeny, Lilliputian tiny.
For example, look at the Mercedes-Benz S 500 e, formerly known as the S 500 PLUG-IN HYBRID, because for some reason, Mercedes likes to shout the names of some of its cars and technologies. In the U.S., the model uses the S550e moniker now. The luxurious Leviathan on wheels makes ends meet with the help of an internal combustion engine and an electric motor.
While the twin-turbocharged, 3.0-liter V6 runs on dinosaur juice from a 70-liter fuel tank, the 114 hp electric motor munches on Watts from a high-voltage lithium-ion battery that has an energy content of 8.7 kWh.
Since the battery is much larger than on a regular hybrid, the S 500 e/S550e has an official full-electric range of 33 km (21 miles) in Europe. America's EPA somewhat disagrees, rating it between 0 and 12 miles (19 km), depending on the battery charge.
Speaking of which, while the gas engine can only be fueled at the pump, like all the other kids used to do it, the Li-ion battery can be charged either using an external socket or by the internal combustion engine acting as a range extender.
No matter how small the full-electric range is, the S 500 e still sounds amazing, some of you will probably say. There's an enormous discrepancy between theory and the hands-on approach, though. In the U.S., the model apparently achieves between 24 mpg (9.8 l/100 km) and 54 mpg (4.3 l/100 km) in city driving, with the better numbers being attained when the battery has enough juice, naturally.
EPA rates the car at 58 MPGe combined, which is one of the gimmicks employed by the organization to compare cars with alternative drives and regular ICE models. MPGe in itself sounds a bit like malarkey, especially since electric cars don't actually use gallons of electricity now, do they?
According to the EPA, one gallon of gasoline contains 115,000 BTUs of energy, which apparently translates to 33.7 kWh. The range covered by an electric or plug-in hybrid vehicle is thus used to determine its MPGe rating, but most customers are probably as confused as a hungry baby in a topless bar even after this explanation.
Especially when said customers find out that, in Europe, the S 500 e is said to use only 2.8 liters of fuel for every 100 km driven in the combined cycle. A weird combined cycle, that is, since the model can go for up to 33 km (21 miles) without using any gas whatsoever if the battery is fully charged and the perfect driving conditions are met.
In short, even large and mighty powerful plug-in hybrids can apparently sound like a panacea for the automotive world. They don't come with the range anxiety of full-electric cars and they achieve a downright miraculous fuel economy even compared to regular hybrids.
Is there a catch, then, I hear you asking? Why yes, there actually is. There's more than one. Our own test drive with the S 500 e back when the car was called the S 500 PLUG-IN HYBRID revealed a combined fuel economy of 8 l/100 km (29.4 mpg). While great for a 2,215 kg (4,883 pounds) car that can hit 100 km/h (62 mph) in just 5.2 seconds, that fuel economy rating was also almost three times worse than the official figures.
Not 20 percent worse, not 50 percent worse, but 3 (three) times higher than the official rating in the European NEDC cycle. Sure, we got mighty close to what the EPA says that the model will achieve when running only in hybrid mode, but the whole MPGe thing is still covered in poppycock from wherever you look at it.
So, to recapitulate and summarize at the same time, cars like the Mercedes-Benz S 500 e/S550e are no way near as problem-solving as they are being marketed. Don't get me wrong, Mercedes-Benz is not alone in this MPG masquerade, as all plug-in hybrids are in the same boat from this point of view.
They are not, at least with the current battery technology, to be seen as a way to please two very different camps. Apart from the extra oomph brought for a longer time by the increased batteries, they are actually worse on fuel economy than their regular hybrid counterparts. It actually comes with the territory, since most plug-in hybrid vehicles carry much larger batteries, which in turn make them much heavier than the already heavy hybrids.
With increased weight comes worse fuel economy and inferior handling, so they have that against them as well. To give you another example, a couple of weeks ago I test drove a BMW X5 4.0e while one of my colleagues spent some time with a BMW 750iL xDrive. As it turns out, we achieved somewhat similar fuel economy figures despite the fact that he was commanding a 450 hp beast, while I was behind the wheel of a 320 hp plug-in hybrid. So, a turbocharged four-cylinder helped by an electric motor but with a huge battery to carry was almost as fuel-efficient as a twin-turbocharged V8.
Instead of a conclusion, I only urge you to think thrice before being blinded by marketing and buying a plug-in hybrid instead of a regular hybrid. They probably don't suck, but they certainly don't sip fuel either. That tiny all-electric range is their only advantage, in fact, but the disadvantages probably weigh more in the end. Quite literally, that is.
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