Edmunds: Is it time for a plug-in hybrid vehicle?

News

Edmunds: Is it time for a plug-in hybrid vehicle?

2020-08-26 18:00 Last Updated At：18:30

Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles — typically abbreviated as PHEVs — make up a very small percentage of vehicle sales, but they can be a smart pick for a certain kind of shopper.

Consider this scenario: You want to buy a significantly more fuel-efficient vehicle than what you have now but can’t fully commit to a pure electric vehicle such as a Tesla. Perhaps you’re worried about long battery charging times or have range anxiety. What should you do? A PHEV could be the solution.

A PHEV is essentially a hybrid vehicle — think a Toyota Prius — with two key modifications: a larger-capacity battery pack and a charge port that allows you to recharge the battery with a power cord. A PHEV still has a gasoline engine but is able to go a short distance on pure electric power without ever using the engine. That distance is typically 20 to 40 miles, depending on the vehicle.

The gasoline engine takes over when the battery runs out, giving a PHEV the flexibility of any other gas-powered car to take long trips and fill up at gas stations. While plug-in hybrids aren’t as efficient as electric vehicles, they do use less gas than their traditional gas or hybrid counterparts.

Buying a PHEV isn’t without downsides. They tend to cost more than traditional hybrid vehicles, even when you take local and federal tax incentives into account. And models that are based on existing gasoline-powered cars typically lose some utility or cargo space because of the larger battery pack.

Still, PHEVs can make sense for people who typically have short daily commutes and have the ability to plug in overnight at home. The more frequently you can recharge your PHEV, the more fuel-efficient it will be.

Here are three of Edmunds editors’ favorite plug-in hybrids. Note that the prices below include destination charges but don’t factor in available federal or state tax credits or incentives, which can potentially save you thousands of dollars.

2020 CHRYSLER PACIFICA HYBRID

Starting MSRP: $41,490

EPA-estimated electric range: 32 miles

EPA gas engine estimate: 30 mpg combined

The name for the Pacifica Hybrid is a little misleading. It’s a PHEV, and there isn’t a regular hybrid version. Beyond that, it takes everything Edmunds likes about the regular Pacifica — a premium-looking and well-designed interior, a comfortable ride and great utility — and adds an estimated 32 miles of all-electric range. No other PHEV offers as much space for people and cargo as the Pacifica. The plug-in hybrid powertrain is smoother than the standard Pacifica’s and offers better fuel economy, even after the battery runs out of juice.

The top-rated Pacifica Hybrid isn’t perfect, however. It doesn’t have the regular Pacifica’s versatile Stow ‘n Go second-row seats that fold flat into the floor because Chrysler’s designers needed space for the hybrid battery. And when the gasoline engine is running, the hybrid is mildly louder than the standard model.

2021 TOYOTA RAV4 PRIME

Starting MSRP: $39,275

EPA-estimated electric range: 42 miles

EPA gas engine estimate: 38 mpg combined

The Toyota RAV4 Prime sits just below the Pacifica Hybrid in Edmunds rankings. The Prime designation means a plug-in hybrid powertrain. It offers an estimated 42 miles of electric-only range, among the best in the class. All-wheel drive is standard, which can give you extra traction on snowy or icy roads. The Prime is comfortable and practical, just like a regular RAV4. It’s also surprisingly quick to accelerate.

This electrified RAV4 does have slightly less cargo space compared to the regular RAV4 Hybrid because the battery pack takes up more room. Its brakes provide longer-than-average stopping distances too. And as with every vehicle on this list, expect to pay a premium for the efficiency.

2020 VOLVO XC60 T8

Starting MSRP: $55,590

EPA-estimated electric range: 19 miles

EPA gas engine estimate: 27 mpg combined

The Volvo XC60 is worth a look if you’re in the market for something a little more upscale. The standard XC60 is one of Edmunds’ top-ranked small luxury SUVs, and the plug-in hybrid, which Volvo calls the T8, is near the top of its respective list. It has a premium cabin, spacious seating, and long list of safety tech and driver aids. The T8 gets 19 miles of electric range and better fuel economy and better performance than the standard model.

Downsides are few. We think too many of the XC60′s controls are tied into the slick-looking but somewhat cumbersome touchscreen, and Volvo hasn’t quite sorted out how to smoothly tune the brakes, though emergency braking performance is fine for the class.

EDMUNDS SAYS: A PHEV isn’t quite a “best of both worlds” solution to having to choose between a conventional gasoline-powered vehicle or an electric vehicle. But it’s close.

This story was provided to The Associated Press by the automotive website Edmunds.

Reese Counts is a vehicle test editor at Edmunds. Twitter: @rmcounts.

The Latest: DOJ subpoenas central bank and threatens criminal indictment, Fed Chair Powell says

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powellsaid Sunday the Department of Justice has served the central bank with subpoenas and threatened it with a criminal indictment over his testimony this summer about the Fed’s building renovations.

The move represents an unprecedented escalation in President Donald Trump’s battle with the Fed, an independent agency he's repeatedly attacked for not cutting its key interest rate as sharply as he prefers. The renewed fight will likely rattle financial markets Monday and could over time escalate borrowing costs for mortgages and other loans.

The subpoenas relate to Powell’s testimony before the Senate Banking Committee in June, the Fed chair said, regarding the Fed’s $2.5 billion renovation of two office buildings, a project Trump has criticized as excessive.

Here's the latest:

London’s murder rate fell in 2025 to its lowest level in decades, officials said Monday. Mayor Sadiq Khan said the figures disprove claims spread by President Trump and others on the political right that crime is out of control in Britain’s capital.

Police recorded 97 homicides in London in 2025, down from 109 in 2024 and the fewest since 2014. The Metropolitan Police force says the rate by population is the lowest since comparable records began in 1997, at 1.1 homicides for every 100,000 people.

That compares to 1.6 per 100,000 in Paris, 2.8 in New York and 3.2 in Berlin, the force said.

“There are some politicians and commentators who’ve been spamming social media with an endless stream of distortions and untruths, painting an image of a dystopian London,” Khan told The Associated Press. “And nothing could be further from the truth.”

▶ Read more about crime in London

The Democratic Party regained the partisanship edge when independents were asked whether they lean more toward the Democratic or Republican Party in a new Gallup poll.

Nearly half, 47%, of U.S. adults now identify as Democrats or lean toward the Democratic Party, while 42% are Republicans or lean Republican.

This is an indication of how Americans are feeling about their political affiliations, and it may not be reflected in voters’ actual registration.

Independents appear to be driven by their unhappiness with the party in power. That’s a dynamic that could be good for Democrats for now, but it doesn’t promise lasting loyalty. Attitudes toward the party haven’t gotten warmer, suggesting the Democrats’ gains are probably more related to independents’ sour views of President Trump.

That comes a day after President Trump threatened the Caribbean island in the wake of the U.S. attack on Venezuela.

Díaz-Canel posted a flurry of brief statements on X after Trump suggested Cuba “make a deal, BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE.” He did not say what kind of deal.

Díaz-Canel wrote that for “relations between the U.S. and Cuba to progress, they must be based on international law rather than hostility, threats, and economic coercion.”

The island’s communist government has said U.S. sanctions cost the country more than $7.5 billion between March 2024 and February 2025.

Díaz-Canel added: “We have always been willing to hold a serious and responsible dialogue with the various US governments, including the current one, on the basis of sovereign equality, mutual respect, principles of International Law, and mutual benefit without interference in internal affairs and with full respect for our independence.”

Cuba’s president stressed on X that “there are no talks with the U.S. government, except for technical contacts in the area of migration.”

About 8 in 10 U.S. adults said the Federal Reserve Board should be independent of political control, according to Marquette/SSRS polling from September, while roughly 2 in 10 said the president should have more influence over setting interest rates and monetary policy. There was bipartisan consensus that the Fed should remain independent. About 9 in 10 Democrats and about two-thirds of Republicans said the Fed should not be subjected to political control.

That poll found about 3 in 10 Americans said they had “a great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in The Federal Reserve Board. Nearly half — 45% — had some confidence, and roughly one-quarter had “very little” confidence or “none at all.”

Stocks are falling on Wall Street after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said the Department of Justice had served the central bank with subpoenas and threatened it with a criminal indictment over his testimony about the Fed’s building renovations.

The S&P 500 fell 0.3% in early trading Monday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 384 points, or 0.8%, and the Nasdaq composite fell 0.2%.

Powell characterized the threat of criminal charges as pretexts to undermine the Fed’s independence in setting interest rates, its main tool for fighting inflation. The threat is the latest escalation in President Trump’s feud with the Fed.

▶ Read more about the financial markets

She says she had “a very good conversation” with Trump on Monday morning about topics including “security with respect to our sovereignties.”

Last week, Sheinbaum had said she was seeking a conversation with Trump or U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio after the U.S. president made comments in an interview that he was ready to confront drug cartels on the ground and repeated the accusation that cartels were running Mexico.

Trump’s offers of using U.S. forces against Mexican cartels took on a new weight after the Trump administration deposed Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. Sheinbaum was expected to share more about their conversation later Monday.

A leader of the Canadian government is visiting China this week for the first time in nearly a decade, a bid to rebuild his country’s fractured relations with the world’s second-largest economy — and reduce Canada’s dependence on the United States, its neighbor and until recently one of its most supportive and unswerving allies.

The push by Prime Minster Mark Carney, who arrives Wednesday, is part of a major rethink as ties sour with the United States — the world’s No. 1 economy and long the largest trading partner for Canada by far.

Carney aims to double Canada’s non-U.S. exports in the next decade in the face of President Trump’s tariffs and the American leader’s musing that Canada could become “the 51st state.”

▶ Read more about relations between Canada and China

The comment by a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson came in response to a question at a regular daily briefing. President Trump has said he would like to make a deal to acquire Greenland, a semiautonomous region of NATO ally Denmark, to prevent Russia or China from taking it over.

Tensions have grown between Washington, Denmark and Greenland this month as Trump and his administration push the issue and the White House considers a range of options, including military force, to acquire the vast Arctic island.

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has warned that an American takeover of Greenland would mark the end of NATO.

▶ Read more about the U.S. and Greenland

Trump said Sunday that he is “inclined” to keep ExxonMobil out of Venezuela after its top executive was skeptical about oil investment efforts in the country after the toppling of former President Nicolás Maduro.

“I didn’t like Exxon’s response,” Trump said to reporters on Air Force One as he departed West Palm Beach, Florida. “They’re playing too cute.”

During a meeting Friday with oil executives, Trump tried to assuage the concerns of the companies and said they would be dealing directly with the U.S., rather than the Venezuelan government.

Some, however, weren’t convinced.

“If we look at the commercial constructs and frameworks in place today in Venezuela, today it’s uninvestable,” said Darren Woods, CEO of ExxonMobil, the largest U.S. oil company.

An ExxonMobil spokesperson did not immediately respond Sunday to a request for comment.

▶ Read more about Trump’s comments on ExxonMobil

Trump’s motorcade took a different route than usual to the airport as he was departing Florida on Sunday due to a “suspicious object,” according to the White House.

The object, which the White House did not describe, was discovered during security sweeps in advance of Trump’s arrival at Palm Beach International Airport.

“A further investigation was warranted and the presidential motorcade route was adjusted accordingly,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement Sunday.

The president, when asked about the package by reporters, said, “I know nothing about it.”

Anthony Guglielmi, the spokesman for U.S. Secret Service, said the secondary route was taken just as a precaution and that “that is standard protocol.”

▶ Read more about the “suspicious object”

Trump said Iran wants to negotiate with Washington after his threat to strike the Islamic Republic over its bloody crackdown on protesters, a move coming as activists said Monday the death toll in the nationwide demonstrations rose to at least 544.

Iran had no direct reaction to Trump’s comments, which came after the foreign minister of Oman — long an interlocutor between Washington and Tehran — traveled to Iran this weekend. It also remains unclear just what Iran could promise, particularly as Trump has set strict demands over its nuclear program and its ballistic missile arsenal, which Tehran insists is crucial for its national defense.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, speaking to foreign diplomats in Tehran, insisted “the situation has come under total control” in fiery remarks that blamed Israel and the U.S. for the violence, without offering evidence.

▶ Read more about the possible negotiations and follow live updates

Fed Chair Powell said Sunday the DOJ has served the central bank with subpoenas and threatened it with a criminal indictment over his testimony this summer about the Fed’s building renovations.

The move represents an unprecedented escalation in Trump’s battle with the Fed, an independent agency he has repeatedly attacked for not cutting its key interest rate as sharply as he prefers. The renewed fight will likely rattle financial markets Monday and could over time escalate borrowing costs for mortgages and other loans.

Powell on Sunday cast off what has up to this point been a restrained approach to Trump’s criticisms and personal insults, which he has mostly ignored. Instead, Powell issued a video statement in which he bluntly characterized the threat of criminal charges as simple “pretexts” to undermine the Fed’s independence when it comes to setting interest rates.

▶ Read more about the subpoenas