What is a PHEV?

A PHEV, or plug-in hybrid electric vehicle, is a plug-in battery electric vehicle that also has a gasoline engine to improve range, performance or both. A PHEV offers most of the environmental benefits of clean battery electric vehicle operation without giving up the advantages of a gasoline vehicle, such as the ability to refuel if necessary.

The PHEV under study is a modified Toyota Prius gasoline hybrid electric vehicle (HEV). It has additional battery storage capacity allowing net electric range of 50 km which can be used either in pure electric operation under 55 km/h for the first 50 km or in higher speed operation with much lower than normal gasoline consumption for more than 50 km. After using up the battery capacity, it then operates as a conventional hybrid automobile with better fuel economy than a conventional non-hybrid automobile.

A PHEV can also be modified from a pure battery electric powered vehicle, by adding a small gasoline engine-powered generator.

Differences between PHEV and HEV

A PHEV may be very similar to a conventional HEV physically, but there are some important differences from an environmental perspective.

• A PHEV can get over half of its energy from electricity. Most electricity in Manitoba (about 98 per cent) is renewable.
• A HEV gets all of its energy from gasoline.

When a PHEV battery eventually runs down, the driver does not need to worry because the engine will start up and continue to power the electric drive of the car.

The average North American only drives about 50 km in any given day, so a PHEV only needs a small 50 km battery range to substitute for half of the total annual gasoline consumption of a HEV. This avoids the extra expense of a longer range battery pack.

The PHEV abbreviation often includes a number indicating all-electric or net-electric battery range in miles. A PHEV-30 would have 30 mile range.

Differences between PHEV and conventional vehicles

• PHEV ownership is convenient. Imagine recharging a cell phone with gasoline every few days at a service station that you have no other reason to visit, instead of simply plugging it in every night. A PHEV can typically be charged overnight by plugging into a standard 120 Volt outlet, such as found in most garages. But unlike a cell phone, if you forget to plug in a PHEV it will still work the next day. The typical owner of a PHEV will be able to plug their car in every night in exchange for avoiding trips to the gasoline station to refuel, lowering their fuel costs. Electricity is much lower cost than gasoline as a vehicle fuel.
• A PHEV owner might expect to buy gasoline only five to ten times a year rather than visiting a gas station once every week or two. Under normal driving, a PHEV such as the one under study in this research project may be able to travel 1,200 to 1,400 km without visiting a gasoline station, and may expect gasoline mileage exceeding 44 km per litre. Greater battery capacity would delay gasoline purchases even further, but there is a diminishing return for each kWh of battery capacity added because not every daily trip will need to use it.
• PHEV vehicles provide better personal energy security because they operate on two independent fuels. For example, if PHEVs had been prevalent during the oil crises of the 1970s, their owners could have avoided shortages at the gas pumps by operating on electricity. They could also drive during a prolonged electrical outage by operating on gasoline. A PHEV has the potential to be used as an emergency back-up generator if it is designed appropriately.

The PHEV in this project already routinely logs 57 to 64 km per litre in blended gasoline-electric mode. Information on performance will be updated on this website from time-to-time.