What are the pros and cons of plug-in hybrid vehicles using an external power source to charge their batteries?

The definition of a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle is a hybrid electric vehicle that can use an external power source to charge the vehicle's power battery. A plug-in hybrid electric vehicle has two power systems, the engine and the electric motor. These two power systems can not only work independently of each other, but also work together to drive the vehicle forward. At present, representative models of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles include Tang New Energy, Passat New Energy, etc.

Advantages of plug-in hybrid vehicles

In daily use, if the car is switched to pure electric mode, no fuel will be consumed during driving. However, when the battery power is low (SOC is about 15%), the on-board computer will force the engine to start as the priority driving source.

When the vehicle is driving at high speed or in high-speed cruising mode, the engine's energy consumption efficiency will be higher than that of the electric motor. Therefore, in this driving mode, the on-board computer will prioritize the use of the internal combustion engine as the first logic to drive the vehicle forward, but the driver can still choose to manually turn on the pure electric mode as the driving source.

When the two are driven together in different situations or the motor drives the vehicle alone, the overall energy efficiency is very high. Therefore, when a general plug-in hybrid vehicle is driven in full-charge mode, it will achieve a very low fuel consumption level compared to traditional fuel vehicles.

Unlike traditional fuel vehicles, the electric motor of a plug-in hybrid vehicle can quickly build up a larger torque platform when starting and accelerating, so that the vehicle can achieve better acceleration performance. For example, Tang DM can accelerate from 0 to 100 km/h in just 4.5 seconds, which is a great advantage over fuel vehicles of the same level.

Moreover, in cities such as Guangzhou and Shanghai, buyers of plug-in hybrid vehicles can enjoy local new energy license policies.

Disadvantages of plug-in hybrid vehicles

Since the power battery of a plug-in hybrid vehicle can only be charged using a slow charge method, the charging time is relatively long. And after the power battery is used up, because the mass of the vehicle is too large (compared to a fuel vehicle, the weight of the battery is increased by several hundred kilograms), the fuel consumption of the vehicle will be higher when driving in a pure fuel state.