Towards the end of plug-in hybrid vehicles in Europe ? New regulations could change everything

Les voitures hybrides rechargeables émettent beaucoup plus de CO2 dans l'air que prévu. SouthWorks/Getty Images

Une nouvelle réglementation européenne, qui sera mise en place dès 2025, pourrait avoir un impact très négatif sur les ventes de voitures hybrides rechargeables, déjà en berne. L'idée est en effet de réévaluer leurs émissions de CO2 en les ramenant au plus près de la réalité.

This regulation aims to recalculate CO2 emissions to bring them into line with reality. This will result in scores probably doubled by 2025 and even tripled in 2027, which will obviously make these cars much less attractive in the eyes of consumers.

This regulation was put in place to get closer to the reality of the road rather than purely theoretical measures. Earlier this year, the European Commission published an eye-opening report, showing the huge difference between approval data and actual CO2 emissions in the air, during use.

The rarely used electric mode

It appears that plug-in hybrid vehicles (PHEV) emit on average 139.4 g of CO2 per kilometer in real test conditions compared to only 39.6 g/km according to the WLTP reference standard, a phenomenal difference of 252%. In detail: +312% for Diesel hybrids and +238% for gasoline hybrids.

This is explained in particular by the fact that motorists have habits that are very different from the profiles envisaged by the organizations responsible for calculating these emissions. In reality, they ultimately don't use electric mode much and recharge their battery very little. In fact, they drive much more with their combustion engine and therefore consume more gasoline or diesel than expected.

Force motorists to go all-electric

With such a change in regulations, plug-in hybrid cars will no longer be considered as vehicles with "very low emissions ", i.e. emitting less than 50 g/km of CO2.

Individuals, like businesses, could therefore turn away from these machines in favor of 100% electric models, more expensive but truly more ecological. Unless manufacturers opt for larger integrated batteries, at the risk of significantly increasing the weight of the vehicle and consequently its consumption.

Ultimately, this regulation could help force motorists to switch to all-electric, without going through the hybrid box.