Anyone and everyone are announcing their respective electric cars and from the headlines it would seem that the demise of the gasoline car is finally upon us. And I mean EVERYONE. There are the big guys like Tesla and potentially Rivian, solely focused on electrics. We have seen entrants and announcements from Toyota, who has lagged the full battery electric wave a bit, Audi, VW, Polestar, Cadillac, GMC/Hummer, Ford, Hyundai, Kia…. true startups like Canoo, Lucid, VinFast, Fisker. You get the picture? It’s the electric revolution and everyone is now fully on board.
Problem is, going electric, at least with the technology and infrastructure available today and for the short to mid term future, makes giving up the dino-juice cold turkey a bit of an adjustment in life and driving style. I’m not here to knock the merits of electric. We love electric, especially when it comes to our day to day needs. Our fully electric Audi e-tron is wonderfully smooth and quiet. One key benefit we have is a garage at home that we’ve connected with a full level 2 charger from ClipperCreek.
With that, we could theoretically start each morning with a “full” tank of electrons to maximize our 204 mile range. Of course Audi, along with every automaker, doesn’t recommend charging to 100% on a daily basis. At 80%, that would put our starting range at about 160 miles. Other potential charging practices also recommend not charging up every night, but to let it come below an indicated 50%. Even at 50%, that should give us 100 or so miles of range. Normally that’s still fine. But if we happened to start the day with something 50% or less and then spontaneously wanted to take a longer trek out of the metro area or if an emergency happened, we’d potentially have to find a place to charge, wait for the fast charge to fill up and then go.
Long distance driving, yes even in something like a Tesla, also requires a pretty big change from our current long haul treks. With gas, you can fill up, have a bio break, stretch the legs and be on your way in about 10-15 minutes. Not so with an electric charge. Most electrics need 40 minutes or more for a DC fast charge to go from 15% to about 80%. And that’s given that you find an open charger immediately. Yes, it can be done, but it’s still an adjustment and really needs some thought and planning to do efficiently. Not always the easiest with little ones along for the ride as well.
In comes our Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid. It’s actually a plug-in hybrid, so it has 32 miles of estimated electric range, after that it drives as a gasoline/electric hybrid powered by a V6 engine and a fuel efficiency of 30 miles per gallon when operating as such. Using our level 2 charger, we can typically go from empty to fully charged in just about 2 hours. So we start each morning round of errands with a full set of charge. We could even recharge during the middle of the day to do the afternoon round with another full range set. Over 90% of our day to day driving with the Pacifica Hybrid we are in electric mode. I do wish that the Pacifica Hybrid mode had selectable EV driving so you could pick and choose when you wanted to use EV for maximum efficiency. Stellantis offers this on the new Jeep 4XE plug-ins, so hopefully the next Pacifica will too. As it stands, the Pacifica plows through EV mode first and then flips to gas hybrid power.
32 miles doesn’t seem long, especially if you do have lengthier treks. But that’s where the ease of use and absolutely lack of range anxiety comes in. Long distance treks start in electric, but then uses gas efficiently for those hauls, and quick and plentiful gas refills make quick work of any trip. Total estimated range is 520 miles for one tank and one battery. Same as the recently confirmed 520 mile range Lucid EV, but at a much lower price and with much more people and cargo hauling capability.
Again, our case is still somewhat unique with having a dedicated garage with a level 2 charger at the ready. Not all plug in owners will be able to be as diligent with charging. But the Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid gave us nearly all the things we love about EV driving with the simplicity and ease to venture further out on a whim and on long hauls when needed.
While the first wave of plug-ins had pretty middling electric range, almost all were sub 20 miles. We’re starting to see more crest that 30 mile mark, where perhaps many people could cover their daily commute/errands with EV power. The Toyota RAV4 Prime is one the PHEV (Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle) range leaders with 42 miles of electric range. Its corporate cousin, the Lexus NX just launched its new NX450h+ on the same bones with 36 miles of range. The new BMW X5 xDrive45e has 31 miles of range, up from just 14 miles in the previous generation.
Kia’s new Sorento PHEV also promises 32 miles of range to go with its 3 rows of seats, still something fairly unique along with the Aviator Grand Touring (21 miles only), XC90 Recharge (18 miles), and of course the Pacifica. Great to see more electrified 3-row options available.
Yes, full EVs are great and can make the most sense in theory, but for many, the introduction of more and better plug-in hybrids brings a great bridge for electrification to more people without having to demand large changes in usage and/or planning.