The role of plug-in-hybrids as bridging technology towards pure electric cars: An economic assessment

The paper gives an economic assessment of Plug-In Hybrid cars. It analyses the impact of fuel prices and battery cost on their economic competitiveness and on the optimal electric driving range. To determine the proportion of electric driven kilometers to the overall kilometrage of the PHEV, data on average driving behavior of passenger car drivers in Austria is used. In a first step the total cost of ownership of different vehicle technologies are analyzed including conventional cars, hybrids, electric cars and different two types of PHEVs. To assess the impact of battery costs, the capital cost analysis is performed on a component basis. Furthermore the role of different layouts of PHEVs in terms of electric driving range (respectively battery size) is analyzed from an economic perspective. The results point out the key role PHEVs can play as a bridging technology toward pure electric driving. They can act as a driver of battery technology by raising production scale and thereby help reducing cost. This leads to higher optimal electric ranges causing every PHEV generation to have longer electric driving range and thereby would assure an increasing percentage of trips and kilometers driven on electricity. Copyright Form of EVS25. Keywords— Plug-In Hybrids, cost assessment, electric driving range