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Comment by celsoazevedo | Hacker News Reader

The downside of plugins is that it has both systems (more things that can go wrong, added cost, weight) and they're not amazing at being an ICE car (small fuel tank) or electric car (small battery).

In your case it seems that a pure EV would be fine? Maybe not one with a small battery, but 300-400 miles of range isn't that uncommon these days.

In any case, the important thing is that it works well for you.

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It's also not great that people sometimes buy them because of breaks on price and then keep them where they can't plug them in, which is the worst of both worlds. But a properly used plug-in hybrid can be a good thing for some yeah

Re: being a gas-powered car: they seem fine in terms of tank size, 11 litres for a prius prime vs 13 litres for a gas corolla from the 2010s. You get better fuel efficiency, too, so your effective range is likely at least as good as a regular gasoline car.

The added complexity / part count is definitely a downside, though.

Edit: er, now I'm not sure about my second statement: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42748610

Regarding the complexity, I believe Toyota has been ahead of the (hybrid) competition for many years, but a PHEV still has two different systems. Everything that can go bad on a pure EV (battery, electric motors, charging system) is there and even if the ICE part is simpler, it's still something that can break.

With this said, other reports of batteries going bad on old Prius, I haven't read much about them being unreliable, so it should be fine while the car is fairly new.

I think you meant gallons and not litres. At least the Prius prime seems to have a 10.6 gallon tank.

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