The 2022 car buying question: EV or PHEV?
Are EVs ready for prime time or still an expensive toy for early adopters?
A car for what purpose?
First, let me frame the discussion a little bit, because obviously, the correct answer to the question in the title is: It depends on the use case.
I have been driving a PHEV for the past five years and as I explained in the very first article about the car (see First Month of Active Touring), we only maintain one family car. Therefore, we need a universal car to fulfil variety of purposes, starting with running errands around the city, through weekend trips to visit our parents all the way to a family vacation trips to Mediterranean or Austrian Alps.
After five years of driving the Active Tourer, our conditions have changed slightly. Our boys have grown up, so we need a bigger car, both in terms of cabin space as well as boot space. Also, we find ourselves doing less city driving and more fast-paced long-distance motorway driving, where our current car does not exactly excel due to its adaptive cruiser limitations. So, we started shopping for a new car to replace our 225xe Active Tourer as our new universal soldier for all our family travel usage.
I really enjoy the comforts of EV mode driving in our Active Tourer, its steady smooth acceleration, quietness, ability to heat or cool interior very quickly and without the engine noise. That’s something I am not willing to lose, therefore I am looking for a car that’s going to be at least partially electric. But can I go full electric?
Kia EV6 and BMW i4
Over the past summer, we did a test drive of Kia EV6 (2022 European Car of the year) and BMW i4. Both cars have dimensions and properties which made them good candidates for us. We tested the rear-wheel drive version of EV6 and all-wheel drive M50 variant of BMW i4. M50 is a beast in terms of acceleration and raw power. Both cars are quite good at disguising their real weight and I enjoyed both as a driver.
However, when checking the practicality and rear passenger space, both come a little bit short. EV6 has a very low seating position on the rear seats, and it is impossible to put feet underneath the front row, because the front seats are mounted very low as well. So, while the EV6’s cabin is visually more spacious, the actual comfort is not so great in the second row. While EV6 can accommodate one or two pairs of skis, i4 is even more practical due to the rear seat folding in ratio 40–20–40, so you can put through bags with skis or snowboards for the entire family. On the other hand, the i4 cabin is negatively affected by sharing the same platform with traditional BMW cars which need to accommodate in-line-six engine under the bonnet. The front section of the car is thus quite long, negatively affecting the overall room in the cabin. i4’s rear seats are also quite low, and there is less headroom than in EV6.
If I had to pick between those two, I would end up buying EV6. I like its modern design and proportions which fully leverage its modern EV-only platform.
Why not a Tesla?
Good question. It probably comes to the matter of personal taste and preferences. Given our needs, the smallest Tesla which comes up is Tesla Model Y. I am not a big fan of Tesla Model Y design — both exterior and interior. On top of that the car is pretty expensive in Europe and we do not enjoy any EV car subsidies in the Czech Republic (which is fine with me, subsidies only deform markets). Last but not least, for someone who grew up during the communist rule, I genuinely enjoy freedom over a walled garden no matter how pretty that garden is. That’s one of the reasons I avoid Apple ecosystem and Tesla follows a similar philosophy. I got burnt once for buying a car which does not support Android Auto, I am not going to get burnt again.
Weight vs. Range
Overall, as I continued my research into EVs over the summer, a clear conclusion has eventually emerged. If you need to travel long distances, you need a big battery. Forget about WLTP ratings, these are purely theoretical. I use 20 kWh per 100 km as a rule of thumb for average consumption, which seems to be pretty consistent across most manufacturers. Only Tesla and Hyundai/Kia have more efficient powertrains which consume slightly less than that. When I was driving i4 on a motorway with cruise control set to 150 km/h, it was averaging almost 30 kWh per 100 km!
This means that in order to have a safe range of 500 km, you need 100 kWh battery! Most of the long-distance EVs on the market have between 70–80 kWh batteries. And even with those small batteries, they weigh around or above 2 tons. When you pack family and luggage, you end up driving a car which can easily weigh 2.5 tons! The extra weight negatively affects driving characteristics. Yes, you have impressive acceleration in straight line, but I want to drive a car which is fun to drive, not a locomotive.
Conclusion
If you need a car for commuting or short distances and can afford to spend extra money, it is an easy decision: EVs are fun to drive and much more comfortable than traditional gasoline cars.
If all you do is long trips on the motorway, then a car with an internal combustion engine is still probably the best choice. I see way too many EVs stuck in the slow lane on the motorway trying to “save fuel” and I rarely get taken over by an EV.
If you are like me, who needs a car for all different purposes, it looks like that as of 2022, it is still better to stick with PHEV or HEV which offer the best compromise between comfort, ecology, range and driving performance.