While most hybrids are said to use one to two litres of fuel per 100km, a study claims they need six litres on average
Plug-in hybrid electric cars (PHEVs) use much more fuel on the road than officially stated by their manufacturers, a large-scale analysis of about a million vehicles of this type has shown.
The Fraunhofer Institute carried out what is thought to be the most comprehensive study of its kind to date, using the data transmitted wirelessly by PHEVs from a variety of manufacturers while they were on the road.
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According to the study, the vehicles require on average six litres per 100km, or about 300%, more fuel to run than previously cited.
The scientists of the Fraunhofer Institute found that the main reason for the higher-than-stated fuel usage was due precisely to the fact that the PHEVs use two different modes, the electric engine and the combustion engine, switching between both. Until now it has been claimed by manufacturers that the vehicles used only a little or almost no fuel when in the electric mode. The studies showed that this was not in fact the case.
Based on my interpretation of the article the Porsche plug in was so bad that it skewed the study, it used 85% more fuel than all of the other cars in the study. But it doesn’t surprise me, it’s not the first time Porsche (Volkswagen) wasn’t very trustworthy with their fuel stats in recent years. Something was that the less expensive the car, the better it was on fuel economy, seems logical once you think about it. The more sensible the car the more likely that buyer is to be concerned with those types of stats.
Nobody (expecting to win) is street racing a Volt or a Prius, to be sure.
So there’s little incentive to cheat emissions standards in order to juice performance.
There’s no way it would win a race, but I have to say, I have the latest Prius Prime and it’s actually pretty damn fast, especially for a Prius. They really shook off the underpowered rep with this latest batch.