Plug-in Hybrids Pollute Almost As Much As Petrol Cars, Report Finds
- Reference: 0179816790
- News link: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/25/10/17/1948248/plug-in-hybrids-pollute-almost-as-much-as-petrol-cars-report-finds
- Source link:
> The cars, which can run on electric batteries as well as combustion engines, have been promoted by European carmakers as a way to cover long distances in a single drive -- unlike fully electric cars -- while still reducing emissions.
>
> Data shows PHEVs emit just 19% less CO2 than petrol and diesel cars, an analysis by the non-profit advocacy group Transport and Environment found on Thursday. Under laboratory tests, they were assumed to be 75% less polluting.
>
> The researchers analyzed data from the onboard fuel consumption meters of 800,000 cars registered in Europe between 2021 and 2023. They found real-world carbon dioxide emissions from PHEVs in 2023 were 4.9 times greater than those from standardized laboratory tests, having risen from being 3.5 times greater in 2021.
[1] https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/oct/16/plug-in-hybrids-pollute-almost-as-much-as-petrol-cars-report-finds
This is news? (Score:2)
That was well-known decades ago.
Lab tests (Score:1)
Lab tests are utterly meaningless as no one drives "optimally".
Maybe no one thought to calculate the extra half tone of battery and electric motor??
Re: (Score:2)
It's a spin on Dieselgate except without the fines. Basically, the testing is assuming people are able to easily charge and can be bothered to do it. After all, why buy such a vehicle if not planning on using the feature?
Reality is quite different. A large number of purchases are corporate. A: The user didn't care for the feature in the first place. B: There is no convenient setup for charging at work, not to mention they are using the vehicle then anyway. C: The user doesn't intend on using home e
Some People Will Never Be Happy (Score:2)
There are valid applications for gasoline and diesel but some people will not be happy until they are completely eliminated, benefits ignored. I consider a 19% improvement significant - that's nearly 1/5th fewer emissions than pure petroleum.
It's just like recycling (Score:1)
Worrying about the environmental impact of your personal multi-ton high performance vehicle is like worrying about whether the plastic your strawberries came in gets recycled. It's all kind of a moot point because you've already driven off the deep end.
Just like we need to be moving away from plastics and we can't because the plastic industry won't let us we need to be moving away from cars and we can't because the automobile industry won't let us.
There is no world where every single human being hav
One thing I don't get about hybrids (Score:1)
Some of them I've seen have single digit ranges on their batteries. Does anyone know what use that is? Is it just a scam to get the tax benefits from having a plug-in hybrid?
Anything less than 20 or 30 miles seems kind of useless to me. I get that you want to run the battery down and switch to gasoline cuz you can't just leave the gasoline in the tank forever. But commutes around here are pretty long.
Useless Studies (Score:2)
If we had a carbon tax we wouldn't need these studies because the option with the most GHG emissions would be the most expensive. (or it would at lest correlate) It would be one less thing to think about when buying a car.
Hybrids still better than ICE (Score:2)
Hybrids use generators rather than ICE. As such, they are more efficient burners of gasoline, reducing pollution per mile.
Here is an anysis of the Toyata RAV ICE vs Hybrid vs EV (done in 2023)
[1]https://medium.com/the-new-cli... [medium.com]
[1] https://medium.com/the-new-climate/the-true-cost-and-emissions-of-plug-in-hybrid-vehicles-7adb1771b0f0
only use less gasoline if you actually charge them (Score:2)
Yeah, they only use less gasoline if you actually plug them in and recharge them.
Apparently a lot of people don't bother.
Re: (Score:2)
We always plug ours in the garage and usually get all the errands done without the gas engine running.
I remember looking at the engine hours vs driving hours and it was always half or less.
Re:only use less gasoline if you actually charge t (Score:4, Interesting)
fta
> finding that 27% of driving was done in electric mode even though official estimates assumed 84%.
That probably should've been in the submission