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There’s a school of thought that plug-in hybrids are merely tech for ditherers. Drive one on battery power and it’s lugging a dead anvil under its bonnet. Likewise, drive it on liquid hydrocarbons and you’re hauling around a bilgeful of battery ballast. For the purist, a plug-in hybrid is a mealy-mouthed, worst of both worlds fudge. They’re right as well.
2019 EV Megatest: Introduction
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The annoying part of this – for those hooked on dogma at least – is that for a small percentage of Australians, they work. Sales of the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV have proven this fact. Yet enumerating the benefits of such cars – and the Outlander PHEV is a hefty $20K more than its solely petrol-powered counterpart – brings us back to intangibles to justify the purchase. Factor in fuel, residuals, insurance, servicing and everything else and Mitsubishi’s PHEV still can’t make the numbers.
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So why should we buy them? There’s certainly a relaxing serenity to commuting on battery power alone, knowing that should charge drop to zero, a flatbed isn’t in your immediate future. Then there’s the addictive urge of battery plus petrol in a car like the Volvo XC60 T8. The subtle differences in how the tech is leveraged make plug-in hybrids fascinating. The purists may well rail against them, but if you’re prepared to pay for the privilege, cakes can be had as well as eaten.
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