Plug-in hybrid vehicles are better than their reputation

Hybrid vehicles are often considered the fig leaf of electric mobility. However, plug-in hybrids with a real electric range of about 60 km drive the same number of kilometers electrically as battery electric vehicles. Hence, their carbon dioxide reduction potential also is the same. This is the result of a comparison of battery and plug-in hybrid vehicles in Germany and the US by scientists of Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and Fraunhofer ISI (Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research), which is now reported in Nature Scientific Reports.