The Outlander plug-in hybrid as a calculation example - when is the plug-in hybrid worth it?
This question should be asked before signing the contract of sale. At least if you do not want to feel like you've bought the wrong car or been given bad advice afterwards. Because one Plug-in hybrid fulfills very special requirements, special automobile wishes and has a clearly defined operating field. And only in this is it also economically viable.
The question of economic efficiency is one thing, environmental protection the other. Anyone who engages in the purchase of an alternative-drive automobile often has environmental protection in mind. On scooter ? Ecologically sensible and a role model for local CO2 emissions. But currently nothing for the long haul. So if you want to drive a short distance “green” with electricity, but still don't want to forego the range advantages of classic automobiles, you should opt for a plug-in hybrid. The best solution from an electric vehicle and a gasoline engine. Not or but, and!
However, the sharp optimization to an ideal case makes the needs analysis before the purchase so important. It is no longer just a question of gasoline or diesel? Frequent or infrequent drivers. This question was easy to answer. When do you drive so much that the often higher purchase price has returned due to the lower fuel consumption? That used to be a simple math problem. Annual mileage, fuel consumption, fuel price - it was easy to calculate when the higher acquisition costs for the diesel would pay off.
This is a little different with the plug-in hybrid!
Not the mileage per year, but the “how” decides.
With a plug-in hybrid, it is no longer a question of how many kilometers you drove over the year, but how far have you brought the respective trips? Or the other way, how long were the distances between the electricity service stations?
So the question is not whether you drive 10.000 or 20.000 kilometers per year, but how you drive them. If you drive 40 kilometers to work every day and at home as well as at work PHEV load, then you need to open for these routes at all no gas bill. That'll be fine anyway, but what happens if the driving lanes split up a bit? 40 times, 100 times, 500 kilometers?
This bill is not easy. Because the variables are many. How is the price of gas developing? How is the price of diesel developing? What happens to the electricity price? And there are the important variables in the use of the Outlander PHEV.
To illustrate the factors, I have made a sample calculation using Excel. The values are the data that we have collected with the Outlander PHEV over the past few months, average values for fuel prices and questions from friends about their daily driving habits.
And this shows the following number game:
Suppose you drive 40 kilometers daily to get to work, not in the easy route, but back and forth. That would be the driving habits of my wife and some of my neighbors. Then these 40 km are purely battery-electric mobile. Costs? Only electricity. Here we have set a kW / h price of 29ct.
The daily shuttle service includes excursions, visits to friends, relatives. Shopping in the next big city. Distance? Each 100 km. In this scenario, the Outlander plug-in hybrid has established a consumption of 3.9 liters on 100 km. Plus the kW / h operating costs. Assuming 50 km in the next city, 50 km back and it is also assumed that while shopping have no charging option, then remains after the battery charge only the petrol engine. No problem, but he hits the eco-balance. For the first example calculation, we have set the number of these trips over the year to 22 pieces.
Then there are journeys that extend over 500 km a day. So the classic trip on vacation, to the distant family wherever, or to friends you haven't seen in ages. We have set these journeys at 10 per year.
If you draw the line underneath, you think of a gasoline price of 1.55 liters per liter of gasoline, if the 13 kW / h per basic charge increases to 29 cents, in the end, with an annual mileage of 15.200 kilometers, a cost factor of 0.11 cents per kilometer remains. A comparable Outlander diesel would cost 10 cents and an Outlander gasoline engine 17 cents.
If you vary a few factors, the image shifts further in favor of the plug-in hybrids.
However, the entire bill also shows that the extra charge of the PHEV drive, especially against a diesel no longer drives. Stay the environmental benefits.
This list can be spiced up with CO2 values and the more one takes the natural-electricity mix as a basis, the further the PHEV takes the lead. In the overall view you must then include tax and insurance costs.
In the end, the question remains: what counts for one more? The ct per kilometer? Or the amount of CO2 saved?
We will try to make such a calculator available as an online calculator ... so stay tuned 🙂