Many users ignore electrical charging, concludes an analysis of the behavior of 500 drivers over three months.
Plug-in hybrid cars (PHEV) can be even more polluting than traditional combustion models. Conducted in Shanghai, China, a new investigation monitored the behavior of 500 drivers for three months and concluded that, in practice, many users ignore electrical charging.
The analysis at Science Direct considered use in different scenarios, such as fully recharging before each journey and completely not charging. The most efficient scenario was one in which cars emitted 124 tons of carbon dioxide; in the least efficient, without any recharging, emissions reached 285 tons.
The difference in oxidation number was even more impressive: emissions went from 0.161 tonnes in the ideal scenario to almost three tonnes in the worst case scenario. The results have several causes: one of them is that the additional weight of the batteries and electric motor makes the vehicle heavier than a gasoline model.
When the battery is discharged, the combustion engine has to make more effort to move the assembly and, on top of that, try to recharge the system. In the end, this process drastically increases the consumption and emission of gases such as CO2 and nitrogen oxides (NOx).
Furthermore, researchers have also identified factors in profile of buyers of these cars: many drivers purchase them not out of concerns about sustainability, but to benefit from subsidies — in the United States, for example, PHEVs have already received tax incentives similar to those given to 100% electric vehicles.
