PHEVs - A long term solution?

It is obvious for most people that internal combustion engine cars cannot represent the future anymore because of the oil reserves that are estimated to be finished in forty or fifty years. There are a couple of choices for alternative propulsion methods, the regular hybrid cars and the Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles, each with its own advantages and disadvantages. At the recent Green Car Congress, specialists from important car producers have gathered in order to establish strategies for the future, having in mind the current technical and economical conditions. The starting point of the discussion was the unknown and unpredictable market demand and if there will be a sufficient number of persons that will buy a PHEV in order to make the effort worth trying, both financially and environmentally. Obviously, Plug-in vehicles cannot be considered a short term option because we lack the needed infrastructure and capable batteries for increasing the autonomy that is currently limited.

The general opinion was that, at least for the next seven or eight years, Plug-ins are not going to become the standard in hybrid vehicles and that regular HEVs will have the biggest proportion on the market. This is mostly because of the current battery technologies that don't have a high enough capacity and occupy a lot of space in the vehicle. In addition, their tendency to wear out in time and overheat is considered a serious issue that has to be solved. But after this, Plug-ins can become the smartest choice a person can make when buying a car. At the moment, Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles are considered to be just an intermediary step in automobile evolution and not the next step. The future belongs to fuel cells and more advanced technologies that will transform vehicles from scratch and won't need a single drop of fossil fuel, but that moment seems far away right now.