Why do people charge a PHEV in public

At the one and only DC charger in Enniscorthy I've seen PHEV's parking in the CCS spot blocking it completely and then stringing their AC cable over to the side of the charger to plug it in…

Maybe. What's the point of PHEV?

The Outlander PHEV had DC charging from day 1, was a great addition to a PHEV

You're right there's PHEVs now that have DC charging and around 20kWh batteries. They're a great idea for 2018 😜

It definitely doesn’t make sense if you have any value on your time. In terms of cost though it’s probably about the same as petrol. As PHEV’s get bigger batteries it’s probably going to become more prevalent. Just another reason to avoid public chargers if you can.

You’re 100% correct but you’re average PHEV driver may think they are saving a few Polar Bears every time they plug in..,,

Fair point. What price points would the electricity and petrol need to be at for your theory to add up ? I know of 2 drivers that recently got PHEV’s as company cars to replace diesels. They generally plug in at work but not on the road. Price isn’t a factor as they have fuel cards.

it has a port to charge, its a public charger, its there money, go back to your nimby hole.

is the comment more about why would you public charge a phev as petrol/diesel is probably cheaper? or at least not much in it price wise..

PHEV drivers won't stop during long distance runs to charge. Where you will find them using public chargers is while shopping. I've a sibling who does this to go to the next bigger town to go shopping so they can drive there and back on electricity.

I have a PHEV. Never charged it publicly as i have solar at home and its more cost effective. PHEV is ideal for me as nearly all my runs are fairly local.

Looking at changing now and deciding between another PHEV or full electric. Interesting to hear all the comments on this forum. Some EV drivers like to give the impression that it only takes them 15 or 20 minutes of a stop in order to charge up, i.e EV is brilliant, can't understand why everyone else does not get one.

However, when any issue comes up for discussion, like the PHEV public charging, then its all about the waiting for an hour and other delays. I suspect this is more like the real world experience.

Obviously there still is a major public charging problem, even in 2024. Personally, I've now decided to opt for another PHEV as my next change. I was actually very pro EV when I started researching on line and checking these forums but between the negative talk around depreciation and the charging issues, I'm going to leave full EV for another 3 or 4 years and see if things stabilise or improve.

Just to say on this - the solid green light might be charging. I've a Skoda Enyaq and when I plug in, the light goes solid green.

There's also another 11 charging spaces in Dundrum (13 in total). Most are in the red car park though.

I have an EV & I don't get caught up on what car is charging. I go up to a space, if it's full & someone is charging, fair enough they got there before me. I don't get the massive issue. Having an EV doesn't entitle you to the charging. And maybe those people with the PHEV's don't have chargers at home & want to top up.

So you don't know why either.

Maybe the owner regrets not going for a BEV and wants to avoid putting fuel in the complex and useless engine they are dragging around…..

Yes but WHY. It's costing them more than just using the engine.

It's like driving out of your way, past petrol stations to get to the most expensive pump, the most expensive fuel. Then only holding the nozzle about 5% open and taking 3 hours to fill up the car. Blocking anyone else at the pump.

Meanwhile you can get the same fuel at your house for 10 times cheaper.

Makes no sense.

It makes sense if it's someone else paying for it. Some of the hybrids are low tax company cars. It might be a green-minded driver who wants to save the bears, as long as it's on the company's dime.

It's not to save money anyway. I did the 'real world' calculations back when I last had an Outlander, using eCars AC PAYG pricing as an example as they're amongst the 'cheapest'. Excluding free charging, roughly speaking it hasn't been cheaper to charge publicly since they charged €0.27/kWh back a long time ago. At their current price of 0.52/kWh, petrol would roughly have to be up over €2.50/l to make it cheaper.

I realise the Outlander is an 'old' technology big lump of SUV and those figures depend a lot on driving type, but I really can't see any other PHEV being different enough on either propulsion efficiency to throw off the calculations substantially. If anyone has any 'real world' examples of it being cheaper to pay for public charging than fuel, please share.

So when I see PHEVs on paid public chargers, I assume the owner doesn't have a clue or care that it's actually costing them more, the same type of people who believed Toyota's 'self-charging' HEV sales pitch meant they never had to put any fuel in the vehicle.

If the BMW is locked the light will be off, if its a newish x5 it has a 24kwh battery, newish 2 series 16 kwh, newish 3/5 series then 12 kwh, all charge at 3.6 kw.

Very optimistic to assume you'll find a free charger, 13 of them in a 3000 space car park.

If they aren't personally paying for charging, I assume they aren't paying for fuel either.

"That" is the reason for the overstay charge. No?

You've no idea if someone's rocking up with 5% charge.

Ok but how long to allow for someone to return to their car when it completes? Because you don't know when it completed - could be 2 hours ago, could have been 2 minutes earlier. Person could be making their way there. Are people meant to stay sitting in their cars so they can move the minute it finishes? Because that is unrealistic for all except the fast chargers.

Replying to witchgirl26: Fair point. Does most cars let owners know when the charging is complete? At least it will show some estimate when they plug in?

Well, in any case, these two cars were still there at 5 pm as I was leaving. They couldn't give a fcuk about anyone else.

Have an id4 solid green light means charging.. at 7kwh that id4 could be all day charging so can't be complaining

You know how approx long an EV is going to take to charge based on the battery size and the charging rate. The overstay rate is based on this.

It's not guesswork. If someone is being misled by "impressions" they've simply not done even the minimum of effort to look this up. Social media generation, unable to filter facts from fiction.

Doesn't matter how many chargers they have if someone parks in them all and blocks them. If someone parks across someone's driveway all day, it's hardly the fault of the car trapped on the drive.

This is why I expect fines and fees will only increase.

It's not cost, it's not time, but a viable answer would be to keep emissions down, although I doubt that's at the forefront of people's minds.