🔗 Share this article

PHEVs release almost five times greater global warming emissions than official figures indicate, according to a new report.

Growing Discrepancy Between Official and Actual Emissions

Statistics reveals that PHEVs emit just one-fifth lower CO₂ than conventional gas and diesel vehicles, based on analysis carried out by a non-profit organization. This contrasts sharply with laboratory tests, which assumed a three-quarters decrease in emissions.

Researchers examined information from onboard fuel consumption monitors of eight hundred thousand cars sold in Europe between 2021 and 2023. The team found that actual CO₂ output from PHEVs in 2023 were nearly five times greater than official estimates, up from 3.5 times in 2021.

“Actual emissions are rising, while official figures are falling,” stated a lead researcher involved in the report. “That gap is widening and poses a serious issue. As a result, PHEVs pollute almost as heavily as gasoline cars.”

Primary Factors Driving the Discrepancy

Researchers linked the majority of the difference to overestimates of the “electric driving share” – the ratio of kilometers travelled in electric power compared to total distance. The team determined that just a quarter of travel was completed in electric mode, whereas lab estimates suggested over four-fifths.

Even, when operating in electric mode, emission amounts were significantly higher than lab projections. This occurred because EV motors were insufficiently powerful enough to operate independently, resulting to engines burning gasoline for almost a third of the travel covered in electric mode.

Regulatory and Financial Consequences

According to estimates, the lowballing of PHEV emissions allowed several large carmaker companies to escape more than €5bn in fines from 2021 and 2023, by falsely easing compliance with EU average fleet CO₂ targets.

Furthermore, drivers of PHEVs could spend about €500 extra annually in running expenses than is estimated under lab conditions.

“The strong claims that automakers often promote about their plug-in hybrid cars are obviously way off the mark,” stated a automotive expert. “Consumers are being duped into believing that by buying a PHEV, they are helping the planet and saving costs. Actually, PHEVs are only slightly better than standard gas and diesel cars in terms of energy consumption, CO₂ production, and running expenses.”

Political Debate and Automotive Pressure

Hybrid vehicles have lately been brought back into policy discussions as carmakers have pressed the EU to weaken CO₂ standards. A proposed ban on sales of new internal combustion cars in 2035 has faced heavy lobbying from the car sector and resistance from member states with significant automotive industries.

Several high-level officials have proposed PHEVs as a potential “flexibility” option to introduce in the legislation.

One independent energy economics expert, who was not involved with the study, called the analysis a “very useful contribution” after a long period in which segments of the automotive sector argued there was too little data to properly evaluate real-world emissions.

“The results demonstrate, beyond any doubt, that the gap between official and real-world PHEV energy use and CO₂ output is significantly greater than for petrol or diesel cars,” they stated. “All policy adjustments regarding PHEVs should be made with utmost care and in the light of this data.”