Until about two months ago there was a sort of half-baked argument for some people as to why they supposedly had to purchase a hybrid car instead of an EV. The argument ran sort of like this:
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- The only way to live my life (says the person making the argument) is that I need to purchase a single car that will cover all of my driving needs including the small number of cross-country trips that I might occasionally drive.
- I don’t want to purchase a Tesla or I can’t afford a Tesla.
- There is no non-Tesla car for which there are decent reliable car chargers absolutely everywhere I might ever go in a cross-country trip.
- There are gas stations everywhere.
- I want to at least sort of pretend to be environmentally conscious.
- Considering the previous points, the only choice left is a hybrid car.
- Okay, maybe a pluggable hybrid car. But it has to be a hybrid, not an EV. I have range anxiety.
But as of now (see blog page) it is all set that by next year, some 80% of newly built EVs will have the charging port in the same left rear corner of the car as a Tesla car and it will be the same kind of charging port as a Tesla car, and so it will fit perfectly into a parking spot at a Tesla charging station, and the charging plug will fit the charging port, and there will be no fussing about how to pay, and Tesla charging stations are everywhere, and Tesla charging stations always work. So all of a sudden, starting next year, point number 3 will be false.
So all of a sudden, starting next year, point number 4 will become irrelevant, and points 6 and 7 will evaporate.
An ICE car has maybe 20,000 moving parts in the drive train and requires oil changes. An EV has maybe 20 moving parts in the drive train. The hybrid car has all of the moving parts of the ICE car plus all of the moving parts of the EV. It requires oil changes. The person who purchases the hybrid car gets all of the drawbacks of the ICE car like oil changes and 20,000 moving parts that might break, plus 20 more moving parts that might break.
Starting next year, I suggest there will be no reason to purchase a hybrid car. Meanwhile if one feels the need to get a hybrid car now, perhaps the least bad approach would be to lease it.
Update: a colleague reminds me that not everybody has a way to charge at home. Some people do not have a garage or private parking space for their car. For a car owner who does not have a way to charge at home, the hybrid car might be the most fuel-efficient way to go.