You make a very valid point there, I guess my view is skewed by my driving style/needs. Although I'm also eating my words because the Volt/Ampera can be driven directly by the engine cutting out the HV system altogether when the car decides to do so.Not at all. A PHEV is far more economical than any REX when driven using Petrol. A PHEV has the ability to directly drive the vehicles wheels where as a REX doesn't, and only has the capability of charging the battery and the car is then driven by the electric motor only. Every time you convert energy you incur losses, as such a PHEV which converts the Petrol straight to kinetic energy of the vehicle, rather than a REX which changes it from Petrol, into a battery, and then into the motor, suffers far higher losses.
From memory the i3 REX for example only does circa 30MPG on petrol! My previous Prius PHEV when not plugged it and only propelled fully by Petrol was capable of an easy 70MPG (real world calcs) at motorway speeds.
Yes I agree, I'm not against hybrids or even mild hybrids I just don't agree with the term, the energy in a hybrid comes from the ICE, all of it. Yes it takes kinetic energy when coasting to charge the battery but that kinetic energy was created by burning fossil fuel in the first place. Undoubtedly better than a pure ICE vehicle and much more affordable than a PHEV/BEV so they have their place but when Toyota are specifically making adverts pitting their self-charging hybrids against PHEV/BEV saying 'theres no need to wait around charging our car like you do with these terrible cars' is misleading. I will note I have never seen these adverts shown in the UK but they certainly have been in the US.Erm...it doesn't need to be plugged it into the mains to charge the battery.
So factually it is self-charging.
I understand the whole process is different, reclaiming energy that is lost into the environment in a normal car to charge the battery..but the point I was making is..it's a stupid tagline.