This should delight the climate-denying, anti-EV brigade. Although will they believe a left-wing source?

Plug-in hybrids pollute almost as much as petrol cars, report finds
Analysis of 800,000 European cars found real-world pollution from plug-in hybrids nearly five times greater than lab tests.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/oct/16/plug-in-hybrids-pollute-almost-as-much-as-petrol-cars-report-finds

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FreddieUK · 70-79, M

A very interesting article and I suppose, as you hint, it does put certain people in a very difficult position: either to believe a paper they don't trust which confirms their suspicions or to actually accept it because it confirms their view and perhaps cause them not to dismiss the next thing that that newspaper prints because it challenges other ideas they hold..

For me, I'm disappointed that it's come to that conclusion, but since I don't have any other evidence I accept it. For a fact I know that my hybrid (not plug-in) save me a lot of money on petrol (gas) so I must be burning less.

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wildland

@jackjjackson it’s already IN - in pretty much every country except the US, which has also missed the boat regarding solar. This is why the EU and china own you

jackjjackson · M

@wildland

swirlie · 31-35

@jackjjackson

Pure EV will never be on the way IN.

Pure EV is in Sweden for cars and light trucks and I got a tour of a mini solar generating station used for public EV charging when I was last there visiting relatives. Sweden did it right when it came to the inception of EV's into the marketplace, whereas North America including Canada, did it backwards which is why EV has pretty much tanked in both the US and Canada.

In Sweden, the recharging infrastructure was constructed first across the country, the EV's were introduced to the marketplace.

In the US and Canada, EV's were introduced to the marketplace BEFORE the recharging infrastructure was put in place, which is why the marketing of EV's has essentially failed in North America.

PicturesOfABetterTomorrow · 41-45, M

I would be curious to see the actual study and methodology.

Last time something like this came up it turned out it was based on extrapolating from figures in the US that still use coal fire plants.

The problem with that is not all countries have an 18th century power grid anymore like WV.

Also it seems a bit irrelevant since hybrids are already a dying market and were only ever intended as a stop gap solution till battery tech improved.

wishforthenight · M

@PicturesOfABetterTomorrow https://www.transportenvironment.org/articles/smoke-screen-the-growing-phev-emissions-scandal

PicturesOfABetterTomorrow · 41-45, M

@wishforthenight A couple of issues I see right from the very beginning. Their classifications of vehicles don't even make sense.

It talks about plug in hybrid electric vehicles consuming the same amount of fuel as "conventional hybrids." That makes no sense. A dual propulsion electric/ICE is literally what hybrid means. So they have two categories for exactly the same vehicle type.

This is a mess.

swirlie · 31-35

I have done a lot of research on the issue of hybrid pollution. Turns out, a standard gasoline-driven engine is about 5 times more efficient than the type of gas engine that used in all hybrid cars, which means the hybrid cars that use gas engines have about as much fuel efficiency a common gasoline powered lawnmower by comparison.

The whole concept of hybrid cars was to strike a balance between partial fuel and partial EV, aimed at a target audience who were paranoid about running out of fuel with no charging station in sight.

The bottom line is, either go FULL Petrol with no hybrid, or go FULL EV with no gas engine, because the hybrid gas engine by it's very design is highly inefficient when it is operating and is the sole source powering your car.

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