Who is Andy Palmer and why is he saying “Hybrids are a road to hell?” Admittedly, Palmer is not a household name, but he is well known in the auto industry. He went to work for Nissan in 2002 and rose quickly to become the chief operating officer and head of global planning for the company. In 2014, he became CEO of Aston Martin, a position he held for six years.
Some call him “the godfather of the electric car” because during his time at Nissan he pushed for the development of the LEAF, the world’s first mass market electric car. He told Business Insider recently, “I wish I could say that it was driven by a motivation to better the world. But actually, it was driven by the Toyota Prius kicking our ass.” Rather than just copying Toyota’s success with its hybrid drivetrain, Palmer said he pushed Nissan to build a fully electric vehicle, a plan that resulted in the LEAF after CEO Carlos Ghosn added his support for the idea.
Palmer told Business Insider that delaying transitioning to EVs in favor of selling hybrids was a “fool’s errand” and warned that automakers doing so risked falling even further behind Chinese EV companies. “Hybrids are a road to hell. They are a transition strategy, and the longer you stay on that transition, the less quickly you ramp up into the new world. If you just delay transitioning to EVs by diluting it with hybrids then you are more uncompetitive for longer, and you allow the Chinese to continue to develop their market and their leadership. I honestly think it’s a fool’s errand.”
“I wish I could say that it was driven by a motivation to better the world. But actually, it was driven by the Toyota Prius kicking our ass.”
This might explain why they stalled on taking advantage of what they started with.
They weren’t making an EV to try and transition the world, they made it to try and compete with the prius.
Wrong mindset.
Nah a good PHEV is still pretty great for those of us in areas where chargers are rare. EV mode for short range daily driving and gas+electric for longer highway trips. But that’s the consumer perspective, not exactly what the guy’s talking about
A hybrid would likely be what I’d be able to get if I were to upgrade my ICE (which still runs fine, but is getting up there in years and miles). I don’t drive a lot, mostly around town, but every 13 weeks I have a round trip that’s about 5 hours with nowhere to charge at my destination, and EVs in the price range I’d want for my use pattern don’t have that kind of range. The leaf would need a charge on that trip, for example. Admittedly there are a ton of fully electric cars that can do more than double that range, but without doing too much looking since I can’t afford it anyway, I assume they either aren’t available in the US or are wiiiiildly expensive for how little I’d use it.
I’m getting an e-bike instead and just using my car a dozen or so times a year when the bike isn’t sufficient (the 13 week trip, picking up large items, and whatever travel for stuff not in my small town). It’s basically like having a hybrid, but a lot less convenient :)
With that kind of usage pattern, you might even want to consider just renting a car when you’re off on the rare long trips.
My biggest problem is 2 fold. 1. My apartment complex doesn’t have EV chargers. 2. I live in Texas and anything outside of the city is 3+ hours and outside of the range of most EV.
there are many EVs with 500-650km range or more, with 150kw or more charging. My BYD does 550km (that’s over 5 hours of highway driving on a charge), and they are only getting better, future generations will be quicker to charge and lighter batteries that will increase those ranges even further
Sure, but are they the ones you need? the F150 gets maybe 100 miles (200km) if you are towing a trailer. The id.buzz is rated for about 200 miles (it is new in the US so real world range is still unknown). Both are currently the only thing available in their category (other trucks are coming, but AFAIK not available yet). Sure you can charge, but that takes a lot longer than filling with gas and you have to do it more often (gas engines get more fuel efficient under load, while electric stays the same - which means you go don’t lose as much range with heavy duty use)
Note that the above is about the US. There are lots of EVs around the world that we cannot get in the US. So that they exist means nothing to this discussion.
Sure you can charge, but that takes a lot longer than filling with gas
If it takes an hour to charge, you should be resting at least that long on a 5+ hr drive. For day to day use it just changes how you use it, you plug it in at night and trickle it, or you plug it in at the shopping center and it charges while you do your groceries, the destination is never to “fill it up”
Note that the above is about the US. There are lots of EVs around the world that we cannot get in the US. So that they exist means nothing to this discussion.
You will get the technological leaps eventually when your local producers build an equivalent, or you get a sane government that allows free trade
hybrid makes sense for me because I also can’t plug in at home but as long as its the variety that runs on electric until the battery gets so low it will be like an ev anyway as we do small trips. So if I can plug in once in awhile that would seem to be preferable to me.
Hybrids had a window where they were relevant, but these days there doesn’t appear to be any real reason for them to be made—they’re just the worst of both worlds.
At this point we’re taking winter cabin trips in EVs here in Norway. They’re fine. And the new sales statistics are almost all electric now—helped by taxes that make fossil cars as expensive as EVs :)
In Norway you have enough EVs to get the needed infrastructure to charge as needed. Not everyone has that, while gas is available everywhere (this is specific to the US and Canada - the only places I personally drive). There are EV chargers in the US, you can get most places - but you sometimes need to plan your charges to make the next one.
Yes they have many of the downsides from both technologies but they also have upsides from both too. In a phev you get to drive most of your miles on electric, but can refuel in minutes and don’t have range anxiety, and have a longer range than any ev or gas vehicle. Mine gets 600+ miles (1000km) on a full tank that only gets filled maybe twice a year for the 6000 miles (10000km) I drive.
That’s an extremely smart take. EV’s are the future and as large-scale batteries and green energy continue to take off, we’ll start to see huge shifts in other markets as well.
Even the nuclear energy market is building around a green future with modern fast reactors that can ramp up energy production extremely quickly in order to account to the variability of green energy throughout the day.
The future is in green energy and sustainability.
I don’t mind an EREV (something with a substantial range extender but otherwise is a true electric with good range), but pure hybrids are just gas cars with extra steps.
Yes. That guy is right.
this annoys me because some people can choose between ice and hybrid but ev is a non starter. work on getting rid of hybrid if 100% ice are competely gone.
