What are plug-in hybrid electric vehicles?

Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEV) generally have a smaller internal combustion engine (ICE) and a larger battery than a hybrid electric vehicle, which means that a proportion of the car’s travels is capable of being done by battery alone.

The battery in a PHEV can be recharged in up to three ways.

1. From a power point/EVSE,
2. from the ICE directly (acting as a generator) and
3. and through regenerative braking. Therefore PHEVs can refuel either from a fuel bowser or a power point/EVSE.

Note: some PHEV variants exist with larger ICE motors and smaller batteries and offer only 15 – 30km  only range as a battery electric vehicle (BEV).

Australia has quite a number of PHEVs available, both new and second-hand.

Examples include: BMWi3 Rex (180km battery range), Holden Volt (80km battery range), Mitsubishi Outlander (50km battery range), BMWi8 (24km battery range).