GM Reverses All-In EV Strategy to Bring Back Plug-In Hybrids - Slashdot

GM Reverses All-In EV Strategy to Bring Back Plug-In Hybrids

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• I see Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles as a temporary step to allay the worries of "range anxiety" that new EV owners are experiencing. The scarcity of fast chargers on ALL long-distance routes has people worried that an example trip from Portland to Denver might be a series of short drives with plans and back up plans of where to charge, how to handle construction delays, overcrowded charging locations, and cold weather performance degradation.

  We could install superchargers every 20 miles along every interstate in the U.S., and you're still not going to overcome the fact that even "fast" charging is slow compared to filling up with gasoline. I can pull into a gas station and add another 550 miles of highway range to my Prius in five minutes, as opposed to 200 miles in 15 minutes with a supercharger and a BEV. A plug-in hybrid is truly the best of both worlds.

  • Currently I am willing to plan and wait for my car to charge, but if my plan relies on a single location being operational, the success of long distance, multi-hop trip goes down to zero, with the current state of charging station problems.
    So far I have taken only few long distance trips and have been lucky, but it was a 50-50 chance of having to user the backup level 2 charger, which would have greatly affected my trip.
    So, having superchargers every 20 miles along every interstate in the U.S. would be really nice.
    • 1 hidden comment

    • Re:

      Clearly you're not driving a Tesla.

      For anyone reading this who doesn't understand why I write that: currently the US is split between Superchargers (NACS) and third party chargers (CCS), for the most part - though the US is switching to NACS. Third party chargers in the US (and most places, but particularly the US) are famous for poor reliability, but Superchargers have very high reliability (namely, Tesla actually gives a rat's arse and sends a repair crew when they get telemetry that a charger has gone do

  • Re:

    Maybe taking a 15-minute break to stretch your legs every three or four hours isn't a bad thing.

    • Re:

      ...it's not as if you're getting nothing in return, eg. MUCH cheaper running and maintenance costs, ability to do most charging at home, etc.

  • Re:

    1) There ARE fast chargers at ~20mile (even less) spacing in like half the US. Midwest is more like 30-40mi. Out in the boonies in west it might be more like 100mi, but then again, gas stations aren't super-common there either.

    2) "I can pull into a gas station and add another 550 miles of highway range to my Prius in five minutes" - you can but you don't. Seriously, time yourself on long trips, esp. if you're travelling as part of a group, where everyone has their own needs. You spend longer stopped tha

    • Re:

      I'd also like to emphasize, re: the above, that what's being talked about there is the worst case - a long, busy road trip. But in practice:

      1) Most of your trips are just "daily driving". Gas cars need to routinely detour from their daily routine to go fill up (aka, to stand outside in whatever weather and pay out the nose to pump neurotoxic carcinogens into a tank). EVs don't.

      2) Most non-daily driving trips are short, well within the range of the EV. See #1.

      3) Most trips longer than the range aren't *t

• ...and possible viewing a rental ICE car for longer trips and driving vacations.

  I have to wonder how people think this works. There's high demand for rental vehicles around holidays when people make these long trips. Do people think that a rental company is going to keep a fleet of cars parked for something like 40 weeks out of the year so there's enough ICEVs to meet demand on holidays? No, that's not going to happen.

  Rental companies will keep a lot of cars in reserve for these peaks but for the most part they rent to people during the weekdays on business trips, and they keep inventory to meet this average demand. They will rotate out stock for maintenance on the low demand periods so as many cars as possible meet spec for renting out over holidays.

  So long as BEV ownership rates are low there's a high probability for BEV owners to get an ICEV when they want one. If they keep running into high prices for rentals (because that's how the market deals with high demand, raise prices until demand meets supply) or just nothing to rent when they want it then they will keep an ICEV or PHEV around for this.

  I know people that have BEVs and they will keep an ICEV around "just in case". A beat up 4x4 truck is a popular choice as the backup because if you are going to keep an ICEV around for driving only a few days out of the year then there isn't much concern on fuel economy. If there's furniture to move, deep snow impeding travel, or any of a number of situations where a truck is preferable to an all-electric car, then it's nice having a big old truck "in your back pocket" to avoid needing to rent one. The local hardware stores offer truck rentals by the hour, and I suspect that they do well with that for people doing home repairs. They'll haul in stuff they buy at the store, then haul their old stuff out to the landfill, recycling, or whatever, then have the truck back before the store closes that night. But for those with a place to park a pickup truck then it's real cheap to just keep it parked until needed, then it's available when needed for long trips and there's nothing better available to rent.

  • Re:

    This seems to run counter to the first half of your post. That beat-up truck isn't addressing any range anxiety, and almost certainly is a bad choice for any long trips.

    I think my strategy would be the opposite. With a truck, I'm almost certainly just toodling around my local area... so a Ford Lightning F-150 or Silverado EV makes perfect sense to be the first EV I buy, since I'd only ever need to charge it at home.

    If I felt a backup ICE vehicle was necessary, I'd hang onto the Camry - it seats 4 comfortabl

    • Re:

      Big trucks have bigger fuel tanks because when towing something the fuel economy takes a huge dive, often cut in half. For people that take long trips with the spouse, and kids in the "jump seats" in back of a "king cab" (or whatever they are called), there can be something like 1000 miles on a full tank. That kind of range can be very convenient and comforting if traveling on long empty highways through the USA or Canada.

      Sure, that works, two things about that though. First is that when the BEV owners I

• Re:

  But the entire article is based on a nonsensical premise:

  Now that automakers are running up against the current limits of EV demand though

  Except that US EV demand ISN'T plateauing. 2023 EV sales were 7,3% of the total, vs. 5,9% in 2022.

  In absolute numbers (not percentages) the growth has slowed, but overall auto demand growth slowed as well, and in particular, demand for more expensive vehicles. For the simple reason that most people don't decide "I'm going to buy whatever particular vehicle that suits me

• Can't buy gasoline?

  "can't buy gasoline in the city unless you find a fleet station or a long-haul truck stop"

  Where do you think all the pure ICE cars never mind PHEVs being sold today are going to disappear to? Here in europe ICE will still be sold until 2035 which means there'll be a lot of them around until at least the 2050s so you'll be waiting a long time for those service stations to disappear.