Is A Plug-In Hybrid A Good Middle Ground Before Going Full Electric?

Article by Downtown Toyota Brisbane’s Jon Wimhurst, Senior Toyota Sales Consultant

For a good majority of people, yes. A Plug-In Hybrid is a really good middle ground because it lets you try electric driving without having to go all the way to a full electric vehicle. That is where it will suit a lot of Australian drivers.

Australia is a big country one of the biggest in the world by footprint, and the way people use their cars here is not the same as the rest of the world or not always the same from one week to the next. You might have short trips through the week and then occasionally a longer drive on the weekend. You might be driving around Brisbane on the day to day, then be off to the Sunshine Coast, the Gold Coast hinterland, Toowoomba or down to Byron. For customers who like the idea of stepping into electric driving but aren’t quite ready to take the full dive into a BEV yet, your RAV4 PHEV becomes a really good option.

Some people are ready for full electric. Some people are not. That is just the reality. A lot of customers like the idea of electric driving, but they still want petrol. They still want the ability to pull into a servo, fill the car up, and off they go again. They still want the comfort of knowing they have the normal hybrid system backing them up.

That is where a Plug-In Hybrid sits nicely. It gives you the EV side of the car properly, but it does not ask you to give up everything you are used to. You can start using electric for the shorter trips, but still have petrol and hybrid there when the drive is longer or when charging is not convenient.

You can use electric when it suits

With a Plug-In Hybrid, you can use electric when it suits. If you are doing short trips, use the electric side. If you are doing longer trips, use normal hybrid. If you have charge, great. If you do not, the car still works as a hybrid.

That is why it takes away a lot of the worry people have. A lot of the hesitation around full electric comes back to charging. Where do I charge it? How long does it take? What if I am away? What if the charger is busy? What if I am doing a longer trip and do not want to plan the whole drive around charging stops?

With a full BEV, those questions become a bigger part of the ownership experience. With a Plug-In Hybrid, you still get the benefit of electric driving, but you have the petrol hybrid side there as your backup. You are not relying on one system for every type of drive.

For a lot of customers, that makes the idea of electric feel a lot more comfortable. They can use the EV side during the week for work, school runs, shops, local driving, that sort of thing. Then if they are heading further away on the weekend, they can just use normal hybrid mode and keep going.

That is the big advantage. You do not have to drive it on pure electric all the time. You choose what suits the trip.

It is not about avoiding EVs

This is not saying full electric is wrong. Full electric will suit some people perfectly. If your driving suits it, if you have the charging setup, and if you are comfortable with that style of ownership, then a full EV can be a great option.

But there are plenty of drivers who are not quite there yet. They may be interested in electric, but they still want the petrol backup. They may like the idea of using less petrol through the week, but not want to rely only on charging for longer trips. They may want to try electric driving first before making that bigger change.

That is where the Plug-In Hybrid fits nicely. You are not locked into one way of driving the car. You can use electric when it makes sense, and you can use petrol hybrid when that makes more sense.

It is a step toward electric, with the safety net of petrol and hybrid still there. For Australia’s limited EV charging infrastructure It is the best of both worlds.