On the surface, the road seems perfectly clear for plug-in hybrid models. Their sales, euphoric in Europe, have more than doubled in France, with 125,000 registrations since the start of 2021 (a market share of 10% in November), against 59,000 in 2020, while the proliferation of new products seems to be prolonged. this growth. Dependent on controversial standards and tax advantages, the success of these vehicles seems, in fact, to rest on increasingly fragile foundations.
Combining two motors (one thermal, the other electric) and equipped with a battery that can be recharged from an external outlet, rechargeable-hybrids, known by the acronym PHEV (plug-in hybrid electric vehicle), are criticized. While their price brings them significantly closer to 100% electric models, their actual environmental performance is well below. “This technology has no future”, says Lionel French Keogh, President of Hyundai France. “The costs of use have exploded for a simple reason: it all depends on the use made of it”, he emphasizes. The gap between the conditions of homologation of these vehicles and the way they are used in real life is becoming increasingly evident.
A plug-in hybrid can travel, at best, about fifty kilometers thanks to its only electric motor, but it will then have to place heavy demands on its heat engine because of the weight (from 100 kg to 300 kg) of the battery. In other words, if it is used as a conventional thermal vehicle, a PHEV burns much more gasoline than expected. The series of standardized tests that Automobile-Magazine published on December 19 appears edifying. Thus, the classic hybrid version (the battery is recharged on deceleration) of the Renault Captur is satisfied with 5.7 liters per 100 km, or 113 g of CO2 per kilometer. On the other hand, the hybrid-plug-in version consumes 6.3 liters, but it has been approved for only 1.4 liters on average and 32 g of CO2 every 100 km.
“Nobody changes their behavior”
Developed to meet the regulations imposed to sell cars on the then booming Chinese market, PHEV technology would respond to a windfall effect when, by the manufacturers’ own admission, a large minority of users are not playing not the recharge game.
More than three quarters of PHEV registrations are attributable to company fleets, the law requiring them to “Green” their ranges (with, as a result, exemption from the tax on company vehicles). Hitherto enthusiastic, several manufacturers are backing up. Mercedes and then Skoda have announced that they will stop developing these models, the resale value of which, eventually, is starting to cause some concern. Not to mention the threat posed by the more sustained than expected growth in sales of electric vehicles, which are barely more expensive.
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