“One of biggest cons:” Plug-in hybrids pollute almost as much as petrol cars, report finds
Excerpt:
New research has shown that plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) emit just 19 per cent less CO2 per kilometre on average than petrol and diesel cars in Europe, significantly undermining the claims of carmakers.
According to a new report published by Transport & Environment (T&E), a leading European clean transport and energy advocacy group, PHEVs were shown to emit roughly the same level of emissions as conventional hybrids and combustion vehicles.
https://thedriven.io/2025/10/21/one-of-biggest-cons-plug-in-hybrids-pollute-almost-as-much-as-petrol-cars-report-finds/Open linkView original on slrpnk.net
20% efficiency gains are not the same thing as no difference. If you think a 20% change is not noticeable, I would invite you to walk into a room that's 100% nitrogen.
To further extrapolate out though, that means that if the electric cars on average, are 20% more efficient that you can run five ice cars or six electric cars for the same cost of carbon.
In other words, for the same amount of global warming problems, we can run 5 billion ice cars or 6 billion electric vehicles. Neither option is great for the planet, but one option enables a billion more people to have a car while impacting all of us the same amount.
And since I don't think we're figuring out transporters anytime soon and our entire society is built upon cars...
This also discounts that if all of these electric cars were powered with more sustainable technologies like renewables and nuclear instead of fossil fuel peaker plants, they would be even more efficient somewhere between 30 and 40%. More than an ice car.
That's a 100% change, not a 20% change. A 20% change would reduce the oxygen by 20%, to around 16%. You're confusing percentages with percentage points.
Or reduced nitrogen by 20% from the example room to an ordinary one.
Yeah, I was going to say, this headline is just a sensational way of saying plugin hybrid are more efficient than petrol only cars
I wonder if the author just can't do math or they're actually this disingenuous
The math is 4 ICE cars = 5 PHEVs. Which is even better for the environment.
Don't equate better with good.
The problem isn't education so much as simple laziness. Many users are too lazy to charge it when they can, so it has to rely on the ICE more often.
My wife's PHEV has reduced her gasoline purchases by 75%. Many of her trips are 100% electric. Must be some oddball users really messing up the average.
Some of the research/polling indicates it's lazy users. They buy a hybrid, then are too lazy to charge it when they can, just fill it up when the tank gets low.
How on earth do they come up with that. My PHEV is powered by renewable energy and I use gas for less then 20% of the miles. When using gas I have great mpg so I am using only 60% of the average vehicle. Do the math. The FUD about EVs is so thick.