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Small-Scale Question Sunday for July 13, 2025

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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Personally, I've been shopping for a car recently and the aspect that I found was useful was to model all usage modes. I've been looking for BEV at start, mostly because of the way they handle, and because we have reasonably priced options in the used market now. Lots of people are afraid of used BEV, PHEV or hybrids because of battery degradation, but all the info I find from people with experience with it say that if the car was designed with a buffer, it's not really an issue for many years. I was interested in a BEV with a pretty high battery range but pretty low charging speed (Chevy Bolt) and when I calculated a trip to the town I'm from (a roughly 500km trip), I found that the car would force me into two charging sessions, over 30 minutes (probably more around an hour each), one of which would be a "make it or run out of gas" stop at the single waystation in a giant provincial park, where everyone stops to charge so I might have to wait for a charging spot to open, and where last time I went there was a power outage. So I decided against a BEV. Then I calculated my expected daily commutes and I find that they would pretty much all fit within or almost entirely fit within a PHEV's electric range.

So basically, BEV is superior for frequent medium distance driving (within your metro area), infrequent long distance travel in well-served areas. PHEV is superior for frequent short distance trips, semi-frequent long distance travel. Standard hybrid is superior for frequent long distance travel.