Plug-in Hybrids Handle Winter Better Than EVs, Except When They Don't

Plug-in hybrids (PHEVs) theoretically give drivers the best of both worlds, in terms of propulsion, enabling local driving on electricity and the ability to use gas for longer trips. PHEVs should also ease drivers’ range concerns, in winter especially.

But when is a PHEV not a PHEV? The answer: when it’s just a hybrid. A PHEV is just a standard hybrid (HEV) when one can’t (or shouldn’t) charge it. This is exactly what the US National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) has advised in a safety recall affecting many thousands of Toyota Rav 4 Prime PHEV owners. It is also (basically) the case when your PHEV has to burn gas to provide cabin heat, which is by design for many brands and models like my Kia Sorento PHEV. It is also what happens when any PHEV uses up its battery’s charge and switches over to gas, but I digress. Just a note, Toyota originally estimated they would complete replacements of the 2021 and 2022 Rav 4 Prime’s defective DC-DC Current Rectifying Modules in the 4th quarter of 2023, but they are running behind.

Whenever PHEV drivers have to use gas, it is potentially annoying for them because, generally speaking, these drivers buy PHEVs to avoid burning gas. Before you judge and think: then those people should just get an all electric vehicle (EV), I’ll just mention that there are many reasons people don’t make that choice. They include, but are not limited to: can’t install a 240V charger at home, like to (or need to) take regular long trips into areas where charging resources are scarce, the EV they might otherwise want is too expensive or a comparable EV would come up short in some important way (maybe they regularly haul stuff that would otherwise be a challenge to do with the EV). And then there are those rare cases when it actually costs the same, or more, to drive on electricity as it does on gas (when electricity rates are high and gas is cheap)? I guess what I am really trying to say is: don’t begrudge anyone for buying a PHEV instead of an EV because 1. There are not enough EVs to go around in the first place and 2. a PHEV is capable of being as energy efficient (and nearly as low in overall emissions) as an EV. 

While the shortcomings of a PHEV may be that it still burns gas sometimes and has to lug around a gas powered engine it may only rarely use, their virtue is still that they are highly capable of greatly reducing carbon emissions, saving us money (in the long term) and offer a no compromise path for us to move toward less environmentally harmful forms of personal transportation. Oh, and can you imagine if your EV couldn’t be charged in cold weather, like those misfortunate Rav 4 Prime owners that have been waiting months for Toyota to complete their recalls? That could be the end of a brand! As the owner of both an EV and a PHEV, EVs do simplify things (never have to worry about burning gas, ever) and they handle winter just fine, too. But with a PHEV one also has that gas engine “backup”, I suppose. But that’s cold comfort, ha! Funny, not funny, I apologize. When your PHEV has to burn gas, whether just to stay warm or so it doesn’t catch on fire (no more puns I promise), are you more than disappointed? Do you question whether you made the right choice? That may depend on which situation you are in, facing a recall or just the prospect of temperatures cold enough you need to run the gas engine, but I humbly suggest that we think of it the way I started this piece: PHEVs give us the best (and the worst) of both worlds. Don’t get too hung up on that worst part, and embrace the best parts (maybe focus on and enhance them).

Back to the problem though: about half of the 60+ people I spoke to or who responded to a social media survey I did this week said Toyota still hadn’t gotten around to performing the recall work on their Rav 4 Primes yet (though about a quarter of those people did say it was scheduled to happen in the coming days or weeks). Hopefully, Toyota is also going to offer those folks a little reimbursement for the many miles they had to drive without the benefit of their all electric range, resulting in greater wear on their gas engines in addition to the generally higher cost of gasoline (and of course the additional pollution their driving caused). I mean if we are going to hold VW and other brands liable for selling diesel engine cars that polluted much worse than they claimed to, why wouldn’t we hold Toyota to an appropriate level of responsibility here too? Maybe Toyota will even do something to make up for all that extra gasoline consumption, like deploy more solar panels on their factories or more PHEV options in their model lines, too. For those of us who have to burn some gas in our PHEVs when the temperature drops, think about all those times when you don’t have to use gas at all and know that the gas engine will get much better MPGs if it is only being used for heat and not propulsion.

Do you drive an EV or PHEV? Have you had any concerns, or actual problems using either in winter? If so, how did you deal with the problem and what did you learn from the experience? Would you favor an EV or a PHEV for winter driving? Please leave any comments or questions below.

Images courtesy of Toyota and Justin Hart.

Justin Hart has owned and driven electric vehicles for over 15 years, including a first generation Nissan LEAF, second generation Chevy Volt, Tesla Model 3, an electric bicycle and most recently a Kia Sorento PHEV. He is also an avid SUP rider, poet, photographer and wine lover. He enjoys taking long EV and PHEV road trips to beautiful and serene places with the people he loves. Follow Justin on Torque News Kia or X for regular electric and hybrid news coverage.