Electric cars vs PHEVs vs Hybrid cars
June 09, 2021 by carwow
- How electric cars differ from electrified cars
- What are the various forms of electrification?
- Advantages of each explained…
- And the disadvantages
- Which one is right for you?
- Or are you better off with a conventionally powered car?
Electric cars are here and they’re certainly going to be sticking around. The chances are, you’ve at least considered buying an electric car as your next new car, but there are a few key decisions you need to make about switching from petrol or diesel power (traditionally-powered cars) to an EV (Electric Vehicle).
Our handy guide below will give you all the information you need about switching to electric power – whether that’s going straight for an electric car, taking a stepping-stone approach with a plug-in hybrid or going for a traditional (or self-charging) hybrid. Read on to find out everything you need to know about all these kinds of electrified car.
What is an EV?
Electric cars are sometimes called EVs (Electric Vehicles) or BEVs (Battery Electric Vehicles). They’re pretty easy to understand: there’s a battery somewhere in the car, that you charge up using a cable – like you would with a smartphone – and at least one electric motor that uses the power from the battery to turn the wheels.
Of course an EV doesn’t have a petrol or diesel engine and the only fuel used is electricity. This means there are zero emissions from the car itself, unlike the exhaust gases that pollute from traditional cars. Of course the electricity has to be produced, and sometimes this produces emissions, but the car itself does not.
It also makes it cheaper to run an electric car because electricity is cheaper than petrol or diesel over the same mileage. This is especially true if you charge up at home overnight using a low-cost nighttime provider. You’ll also pay less tax to run one, too.
Plus, electric cars are often great to drive because they are quick, quiet and smooth on the road. As they’re all automatic (they use a gearbox with just one ‘gear’) they’re also great for city driving and traffic jams. Two examples of EVs that are fun to drive are the Tesla Model 3 and Jaguar i-Pace.
EVs won’t suit everyone, though, especially those who regularly cover long distances. Electric cars tend to have a shorter range – the maximum distance you can drive on a full battery or tank of fuel – than conventional cars, and because it takes much longer to charge a battery than it does to put fuel in a tank, charging mid-journey could pose numerous problems.
For instance, what if you can’t find a conveniently located charge point? Or if you can, what if it’s not powerful enough for your needs? Or when you rock up, it’s already occupied?
There are answers to these questions, though. Online maps and smartphone apps exist that track where every charging station in the UK is located, plus whether or not they’re in use. They also tell you what charging connectors are available and how fast they can charge up. It’s all about planning ahead with an EV.
It’s worth bearing in mind that, despite the lower running costs, electric vehicles generally cost a lot more to buy in the first place.
What is a PHEV?
Just like an EV, a PHEV (Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle) has an on-board battery that supplies power to an electric motor to drive the wheels, which is topped-up by plugging the car in.
That battery is usually smaller and has a lower capacity than ones found in electric cars, which means plug-in vehicles can’t drive anywhere near as far on electricity alone – around 30 miles in most cases, though this is increasing over time and the latest models are achieving over 40 miles.
Plug-in vehicles also have a combustion engine that kicks in once the battery runs out of charge. It’s used to generate more electricity to recharge the battery, or drive the wheels, or a combination of both. One popular PHEV model is the Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV but the BMW 330e is a more well-rounded, newer example.
Many drivers will be able to do their commute on electric power alone Monday to Friday, provided they plug the car in to recharge the batteries, but they’ll still have a car capable of conveniently driving much longer distances at the weekends. The average commute distance is well within the 30 miles than even older PHEVs can manage.
How much it costs you to run will depend entirely on how you use your car: if the combustion engine rarely cuts in, it’ll be super-cheap, but if you regularly need to call upon petrol power, your fuel costs will climb very steeply. Plug-in hybrids don’t cost as much like-for-like as electric cars, but they’re a good bit more expensive than regular petrol or diesel cars or other types of hybrid.
What is a self-charging hybrid?
Like a PHEV, a self-charging hybrid (or just hybrid, they mean the same thing) has both an electric motor and a combustion engine – sometimes diesel but usually petrol – to provide the drive, plus an on-board battery to store electricity. The big difference, however, is that you don’t plug the car in to charge it: the car charges itself as it goes along.
It does this by recycling energy through the braking system that would otherwise be lost as waste – this is called regenerative braking – and by charging the battery up using the engine. All this is done automatically by the software in the car.
The benefits include no electricity bills from charging your car, no range limitations and not having to find somewhere to plug in. They’re good for those who live in cities without off-street parking, for example.
This sounds great, but self-charging is only possible because the amounts of electricity being stored by the battery and used by the car are much smaller than in a PHEV. That means you’ll only get a fraction of the electric-only range that a PHEV gives you, meaning your petrol engine will be in much more regular use.
You’ll inevitably use more fossil fuel and emit more CO2, which isn’t as good for either the planet or your wallet. Your overall running costs won’t be helped by the fact that the tax benefits aren’t nearly as tempting for hybrid cars, either, although you will find that they usually cost considerably less to buy than plug-ins.
What is a mild hybrid?
A mild hybrid is similar to other hybrid cars in that it has a combustion engine, an electric motor and a battery, but both electrical elements have a much lower output than in other hybrids. As a result, the big difference is that the electrical stuff can’t power the car on its own.
It merely assists the engine by providing a little extra shove to drive the wheels when the demand for performance is high, and by providing power for the car’s ancillary functions (air-con, stereo, power steering, etc) so that the engine can shut itself off when the demand for performance is low, like when you’re in stop-start traffic.
This technology is available in many premium offerings from the likes of Audi and Land Rover, but is also found in more affordable offerings from the likes of Suzuki and Ford. The main advantage is that this is a very affordable form of hybrid technology that’s still effective in boosting fuel economy and trimming your environmental impact compared with an ICE (Internal Combustion Engine) car. However, it does neither as well as other types of hybrid, and as such, your general running costs won’t be nearly as low.
What is a hydrogen car?
Hydrogen cars are an interesting alternative to EVs and hybrids in the pursuit of eco-friendly motoring. Like EVs, they’re powered solely by electric motors, but rather than being stored in a battery, the electricity that drives the motors is produced on board by a hydrogen fuel cell.
Like with an ICE car, you fill up with fuel – in this case pressurised hydrogen gas rather than petrol or diesel – which is stored in a tank. The hydrogen then reacts with oxygen inside the fuel cell, giving two by-products: electricity – which is used to drive the motors – and water. No other emissions are produced, giving hydrogen cars an edge over ICE cars and hybrids, and they take barely any longer to fuel up than a regular car, giving them an advantage over BEVs.
There’s also the fact that hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe, so it’s not going to run out. So, the perfect solution, right?
Well, maybe not, because as ever, there are disadvantages. Finding somewhere to fill up could be difficult as there are only a handful of hydrogen filling stations in the UK, and the driving range that a hydrogen car gives you isn’t much better than many of the latest electric cars.
Hydrogen cars are very expensive due to the groundbreaking technology on board, and availability is also very limited. What’s more, the cost-per-mile of hydrogen fuel is no better than with petrol or diesel. Only Toyota and Hyundai sell hydrogen cars at the moment but as the tech and infrastructure improves that could change.
Find out more:
Electric car charging guide
How much does it cost to charge an electric car
Find your nearest electric car charging point