Electric Cars Explained: Hybrid v PHEV v EV | Which is right for you?

, But the transition can be a little bit confusing.. We know from our research here at Car Sales that plenty of people have plenty of questions regarding electrified cars.. Do I need to charge my hybrid? What on earth is a plug in How long will my battery last So hopefully, this video will answer all those questions and more.. So if youre curious, stick around. Behind me, I have three SUVs.: A Kia Niro Hybrid Mitsubishi, Outlander Plug in Hybrid and Hyundai Ioniq 5 Battery Electric. Ill explain what those terms actually mean. Give you a rundown of the details of each take them for a drive and then explain which one is right for you, depending on the driving you do. Before we get into it. Give the video a like subscribe to the Carsales channel and leave us any thoughts or questions on electric cars in the comments below. First up is the Kia Niro Hybrid., The most conventional of our trio.. It has a regular 1.6 litre four under engine, but theres. Also, an electric motor that helps out the engine and a 1.3 kilowatt hour battery underneath the rear seat.. Now this is the first point just as fuel is measured in litres. Battery capacity is measured in kilowatt hours., Very basically, the bigger the number, the more energy it can store.. Now the Niros 1.3 kilowatt hour battery would be massive in a household appliance, but in car terms, its actually tiny and thats. Why you wont find a charge point on a regular, hybrid doesnt need one.

, You just put fuel in it and drive, but more on that later.. Next up our plug in hybrid model., The Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV, like the Niro. It has a regular petrol engine. In this case, a 2.4 liter four cylinder and an electric motor., But to put the Kias 1.3 kilowatt hour battery into perspective, this uses a far larger 20 kilowatt hour battery.. As such, it has acclaimed pure electric range of 84 kilometers, but take into account the 56 liter fuel tank and the range is up to 800 kilometers., But Ill go into more detail on this. When we go for a drive., PHEV stands for plug in hybrid electric vehicle and theres, a pretty big clue in the name. You can plug one of these in.. There are two ways to charge an electric car, AC or DC. – Think of it as slow or fast.. For instance, you can just plug the Outlander into a regular AC socket at home, and it will take around nine and a half hours to fully charge or basically overnight., Installing a more powerful plug cuts this to six and a half hours or an external DC fast Charger can charge it from zero to 80 in 38. Minutes., Though not all PHEVs can be fast charged.. One downside of a PHEV is that because you need somewhere to put the battery normally you lose a bit of space. In the Outlander. The battery is actually under the floor, so there is a very slight reduction in interior room and the rear electric motor means.

You sacrifice the spare wheel., Otherwise, boot space is very similar to the regular petrol version.. So Before we get to the Hyundai, a quick recap., Hybrid cars have a regular engine and a small battery and dont need to be charged.. Plug in hybrids have a regular engine and a bigger battery and can be charged, but dont need to be. Moving onto our BEV or battery electric vehicle. The Ioniq 5 has no engine whatsoever.. Instead, it uses a pair of electric motors and a 77.4 kilowatt hour. Battery pack allows it to travel up to a claimed 500 kilometers on a single charge.. With the big battery comes long charge times., You can still plug an Ioniq 5 into a standard outlet, but it will take literally days to charge.. The best solution is an AC wall box which Hyundai can supply for 1950, which cuts charge times to around six hours.. But if youre out and about youll need to find a DC fast, charger. In theory, charging is a very easy process. Pull up, put the plug in hit start and then pull the plug out when either the car is full or youre done.. I say in theory because there can be a couple of hurdles which Ill cover later on. Hyundai claims. The Ioniq 5 can charge from 10 to 80 in just 18 minutes, but for that youll need an ultra ultra fast charger, like the one we just saw. That are few and far between.

. More typically, youll need around an hour to fill up.. Now before we hit the road Ill cover a couple of very common questions.. How long will a battery last and do I need to replace it Most? Electric cars, including this Ioniq 5, offer an eight year, 160000 kilometer battery warranty, which covers it for any faults and if it degrades below 70 capacity.. Yes, like your phone or your laptop, your electric cars battery will degrade. And batteries are very fussy. Being too cold or too hot, too empty or too full will all affect their performance and degradation.. However, todays electric cars take care of all that. To use this Ioniq 5. As an example, its battery pack is temperature controlled and never actually full or empty.. The car manages all this to prolong battery life.. That said, you can do your bit by keeping the charge between 20 and 80 and only fast charging. If you really have to. An electric cars battery pack is made up of lots of little sections like a jigsaw puzzle. When you go in for a service technicians. Can plug in diagnostic equipment and check the health of all the individual sections. If theres something wrong, they just replace that bit. As for battery replacement. Think of it like this.. If something goes wrong with your cars engine, you dont throw away the whole engine. Do you You just fix that bit and carry on and its the same with battery packs, at least for full electric cars.

? Basically, if you are buying a new electric car chances are itll, be working pretty much the same in a decades time all be it with a slight loss of range.. If youre buying a secondhand one now or in the future, make sure you get the battery health scanned. Now lets hit the road. First up the Kia, Niro Hybrid. And well in laymans terms, theres, nothing really to talk about as it drives exactly like a regular car.. You fill it up with petrol, put it in drive and off you go. A hybrid works by using the electric motor to give the regular engine a helping hand.. It gathers up energy as you slow down and then uses it again when you speed up.. This assistance means the regular engine, doesnt have to work as hard and therefore uses less fuel.. Imagine youre on a swing.. If youre by yourself, you have to use quite a lot of energy to keep going, whereas, if someones giving you a push, it takes a lot. Less effort., However, because of this process hybrids work most effectively in slow speed. Stop start traffic. At constant highway speeds the efficiency improvement isnt as dramatic. As an example. This Kia, Niro Hybrid, is claimed to use four liters per 100 k in all scenarios, whereas if it just had a petrol engine, it would probably use around eight liters per 100 k in the city and around six liters on the highway. Now onto the Mitsubishi Outlander.

Where things get a little bit more complicated., If I could sum up plug in hybrids in a sentence, Id say Think of it as an electric car that can never run outta charge. Youre, never gon na be stranded in a plug in because, if you do empty, The battery the petrol engines gon na fire up to A keep you driving and B start recharging the battery. One important point to make though. If youre never gon na charge your plug in hybrid then just buy a regular, hybrid and save a heap of money.. After all, this Outlander plug in is 16000 more than the equivalent petrol model. To explain how to get the best out of a plug in hybrid. Let me give you a real world example.. I live about 30 ks from the Car Sales office. So, therefore, I could drive to and from work each day using just electricity plug in at home each night, and I could do my weeks commute using zero fuel none at all. Now my wifes family lives in rural Victoria about three hours: outta Melbourne. Its a round Trip of about 450 ks. Couple of EVs might be able to do that in a single go, but it would be very, very tight., No such worries in a plug in., Because you have that backup of a petrol engine. We could drive there and keep going all the way to Darwin if we wanted to. If the battery runs out the engine fires up and if the fuel runs out, we just put more in easy.

. At this point, let me clear up a bit of a myth. Plug in hybrid detractors, say theyre a waste of time, because if the batterys empty then youre just lugging around all this extra weight for nothing. Thats, just not true. At the very worst youre, then driving An Outlander hybrid and if the engines running then its also charging the battery so youre, always getting that efficiency benefit.. In summary, a plug in hybrid is perfect for someone who wants an electric car, but for whatever reason, doesnt wan na deal with any compromises.. You can still drive wherever you want whenever you want, but used correctly, itll slash your fuel bills. Ive, heard numerous stories of plug in hybrid owners having their cars for six months or more and still being on their second or third tank of fuel.. Now we get to the pure electric side of things with the Hyundai Ioniq 5.. There are plenty of reasons why you might be considering an electric car., Obviously theres, the environmental aspect, but even that aside, theyre, just really good to drive., Quick and quiet and tend to be very practical., Because you dont need to package an engine and a gearbox and Everything there tends to be a lot more space.. However, an electric car wont be for everyone. To make the most of an EV. You really need to be able to charge at home for a few reasons.. One of them is cost. To fully charge an Ioniq 5 at home off peak youre, probably looking at a round 15 give or take.

, Whereas at a DC fast charger its about 30, still not that expensive, but double what you actually need to pay.. The other point is convenience.. There are enough chargers around now that its not that difficult to find one, but it might be out of order or someones already using it or not operating at full capacity. And suddenly your 20 minutes stop turns into 45 minutes or an hour. And actually getting the charging apps to talk to the car and the charger can be a bit hit and miss.. None of these things are a huge deal, but it pays to be aware of it.. Your best bet is to just treat it like your phone. Get home plug it in no dramas.. You do wan na be doing the vast majority of your driving in the city. Though. Its not that you cant drive an EV long distances, you can even with Australias charge network., But there are complications for all the reasons I just mentioned.. If youre relying on the charger on a long distance trip – and there are issues you could be in trouble., The other reason is that EVs arent particularly efficient on the highway., As mentioned before the claimed maximum range of this Ioniq 5 is 480. Kilometers. Sounds good, but at 110 ks on the highway with the air con on probably brings that down to sub 400 and then you dont wan na run out completely so then youre at 350, ks or so and thats okay.

. You see comments from people online saying. Oh EVs are hopeless.. I cant tow my boat to Queensland., Well, theyre, not hopeless, theyre, just not appropriate for you.. In the same way, you wouldnt take a Land Cruiser to a track day or a Porsche 911 off roading.. Again, it all comes down to how you use it.. If youve got a second car for long distance trips or simply never do them and the ability to charge at home, then an EV is absolutely perfect.. So if youve been confused by the whole electric car thing, hopefully its now a bit clearer. To answer the big question, its really really unlikely youre gon na have to worry about battery replacement. If you buy an electric car. But as to which one is right. For you well, if youre still nervous about EVs or youre on a budget, but you still want to cut your fuel costs, then a hybrid is the way to go.. You can get a brand new Toyota Hybrid for a bit over 30 grand.. If youre keen on an EV but still need driving flexibility, then the plug in hybrid is a good solution.. The majority of the time youll be running on pure electricity, with the backup of petrol power if you need it.. Finally, if you drive mainly short distances and have the ability to charge at home, then theres absolutely, no reason why you shouldnt investigate buying an electric car. Thanks for watching.