Comment by ubertaco
15 days ago
I looked into PHEVs on my last vehicle shopping go-round, since few pure EVs met my cargo size requirements (stroller/baby life is a whole thing).
Ultimately, it was way more worth it to go all the way up to an F150 Lightning than to go with a good PHEV, partly due to up-front cost, but mostly due to ongoing cost: I will need to change the oil on the electric motors maybe every 150,000miles, and I never need an emissions test again. PHEVs require keeping the gas engine up, and getting it emissions-tested.
A whole category of cost just straight-up disappeared, for cheaper than I could get a RAV4 Prime too.
The cost to maintain and inspect a PHEV engine in most vehicles is so minuscule as to be a rounding error. Engine oils last a long time these days.
When you've got kids, there's no such thing as "rounding errors" in terms of time costs.
It's an entire chore I never have to do. That time savings is significant when I'm already underwater all the time.