Preserving flexibility for drivers may be the key to hastening the transportation electrification agenda.

BY JOHN HIGHAM: LEGISLATIVE DIRECTOR OF THE ELECTRIC AUTO ASSOCIATION, ELECTRIC AUTO ASSOCIATION BOARD MEMBER 

It has been said that plug-in  hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV) are a gateway drug to battery electric vehicles (BEV). If the PHEV is the gateway drug to a pure BEV, then the Strong PHEV (SPHEV) has the potential to be instantly addictive. This can only be a good thing for the electrification of transportation. Let me explain.

Two things need to happen before electric vehicles (EVs) truly go mainstream. First, sufficient infrastructure must be deployed so those drivers who do not control their parking spot at home can still charge their car; that’s a topic for another day.

Second, EVs must be engineered with enough flexibility so that the potential buyer has confidence the car can fulfill all of his or her needs. Not most. All. This is especially true if the potential buyer is purchasing a vehicle that will be their only car. This is what the SPHEV addresses.

It’s not about range anxiety; not exactly, anyway. And it’s not about just slapping in a bigger battery. The driving public will not embrace a BEV until adding energy is as thoughtlessly and effortlessly accomplished as with an old-fashioned ICE-mobile. I say this from experience. I’ve been driving a BEV for eight years now. My wife loves driving my BEV, but won’t give up her ICE Toyota RAV4. Because, you know… what if I want to… (fill in the blank).

What is an SPHEV, anyway?

The SPHEV Coalition has been encouraging  the California Air Resources Board (CARB)  and other government agencies to include these “best in class” PHEVs in transportation policy, preserving flexibility for consumers and automakers in all vehicle classes. It is hoped this will make most daily travel electric and the fall back to combustion a relatively rare event that engineers commonly refer to as “corner cases.”  

Why design a car with more than 400 miles of range when no more than 40 miles is usually needed on a day-to-day basis? Those extra 360 miles worth of range represent a lot of lithium, cobalt, and, frankly, just dead mass to haul around unused 360-odd days a year so one can make the annual pilgrimage to grandma’s house. On a wide scale, it’s not the best use of resources.

The coalition defines an SPHEV as a mid-range or long-range plug-in hybrid that logs nearly all of its average annual miles from electricity and has the following key attributes: 

• The secondary propulsion system is internal combustion engine or fuel cell

• Should be capable of using very low-carbon fuel or carbon-neutral fuels

• The engine should rarely—if ever—come on when there’s ample battery state-of-charge

• Should require minimal or no engine maintenance for the life of the vehicle

• Provide extended range and on-site auxiliary power during catastrophes

• May provide back-up power and resiliency to the electric grid

• Expand EV opportunity to rural and disadvantaged communities, particularly in colder regions

Everyone I know with a Chevrolet Volt or Prius Plug-in wishes they had more electric range and has predicted their next electric car will have more range. Nowhere is this better displayed than on voltstats.net, where it is stated that the Chevrolet Volt community drives nearly 67% of its miles all electric; one driver has managed over 30,000 miles on a single tank of gas.

Electric is almost always preferred

This simple statistic reveals a powerful fact: once experienced, people love to drive electric. The reasons are manifold, ranging from cost savings to the quiet ride to the adrenaline rush of instant torque.  

The “Kool-Aid drinkers” such as myself may naturally gravitate toward the BEV. But the public at large will not. That’s because even though the average driver does less than 40 miles a day, they also want the flexibility to take their car wherever they want, whenever they want. 

I believe that the SPHEV class of cars represents the bridge from plain ol' ICE-mobiles to pure electric that will finally allow the public to embrace EVs without looking back, with no asterisks, while reducing the planet’s carbon footprint.

While the SPHEV may not eliminate the dependence on hydrocarbons that purists demand and that environmental activists desire, it is important to remember the proverb ‘‘perfect is the enemy of good.”