Fueleconomy Dot Gov PHEV Calculator Fun!

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ALL THE FOLLOWING CALCULATIONS ASSUME YOU CAN CHARGE AT HOME EVERY NIGHT

my Volvo is on its last legs. only reason i still haven’t replaced it is because i want to move to Florida FIRST and THEN replace it.

i am posting this calculation here because that calculator is extremely flakey and i don’t know if will will be able to get it to work again so i am documenting the results i got while it was working

please note i am not suggesting that i can afford the cars in this comparison, only that these are the cars that i find interesting.

i tried the following cars in the calculator:

2021 Volvo S60 PHEV ( what i drive now )
2025 Volvo S60 PHEV ( the most efficient sporty sedan on sale right now )
2025 BMW 550E X-Drive ( basically a BMW alternative, exact same 0-60 as 2025 Volvo )
2025 AMG 53E ( essentially the same as BMW but with a sportier tune to engine and suspension )
2025 C63S E Performance ( a car that puts performance above both economy and practicality )

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so to access the calculator you go to:

Find and Compare Cars

select your PHEV and then click “plug in hybrid calculator” button.

then select “next” and “detailed driving form”

you then separately enter weekly trips, weekend trips and road trips.

and yes i have tried the “simple driving form” which just asks number of miles per day but it gives NONSENSE results like ZERO GAS USE if for example your PHEV has 40 miles of EV range and your daily miles are 35 miles.

having spent 4 years with a PHEV i know this is not how these things work. yes i get almost zero daily gas use but then every so often i drive to Florida or Boston and it’s 100% on gas ( zero electric ). so it’s really great they included the “detailed driving form” option, which actually DOES give results very similar to what i get in real life.

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so for gas and electricity costs i used $4.20 per gallon and $0.19 per KWH which according to Google AI are the costs in Orlando for Premium gas and Residential power … all the cars in the comparison require Premium gas.

this is what is great about this calculator is well - instead of using bullshit MPGE metric which essentially assumes 100% power plant efficiency and zero transmission loss this calculator uses REAL energy costs that you enter yourself ! or rather it uses default numbers first but then you can change them and recalculate, which is what i did.

i was careful to put in the same driving data for all the cars which is roughly what my driving pattern was over the past year. i can’t predict what my driving pattern will be in the future or i would have used that obviously.

here are the numbers i used:

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and here is the results i got for all the cars:

current car:

the most recent 2025 version of the same car that has 2X larger battery:

BMW 550E:

E53 AMG ( color distorted due to browser dark mode )

C63S E Performance:

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let’s discuss the results …

the contests finished in 3 clear groups.

1st place - Volvo ( both 2021 and 2025 ) at around $1,200 annual fuel cost

2nd place - 550E and E53 at around $1,500 annual fuel cost

last place - C63 at around $2,000 annual fuel cost

but why have they grouped like this ?

the reason C63 lost is easy - it only has 1 mile of electric range. that realistically means nobody will ever plug it in at all, 100% of the miles are on gas and that’s why it is the most expensive to drive.

should they have eliminated the plug completely considering how little mileage it gets ? well not really. there are still perks to having a plug like ability to run air conditioning in the car while it is inside the garage without dying from carbon monoxide poisoning from the engine running … so AMG were not retarded for adding a plug to a car with basically no range but don’t expect any kind of fuel savings from this plug.

the reason Volvo won is also easy - at 4,400 lbs it is about 900 lbs lighter than E53 despite also being a plug in hybrid. It is also a healthy 500 lbs lighter than 550E. the reason Volvo is so light is it’s a front wheel drive architecture with no drive shaft to rear wheels. it is also a cheaper car overall. the combination of those two is what makes it lighter and more fuel efficient. the elimination of a drive shaft reduces not only weight but friction as well. Volvo platform is just fundamentally more fuel efficient. please note the Volvo is still AWD like every other car in this comparison but the rear wheels are driven only by electric motor ( not connected to combustion engine ) and this does negatively impact driving feel.

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the surprising finding here ( well not to me, but perhaps to you ) is that the new Volvo with DOUBLE the electric range is only $6 per month cheaper to fuel than the older Volvo.

going from 20 mile electric range to 40 miles electric range in this example only saves you $6 per month.

and the reason for that is simple - my daily commute is 20 miles in this example.

so the doubling of EV range has no effect on my daily commute and it also has no effect for my 1,000 mile long road trips ( like to Boston or Florida ).

only the intermediate trips ( like from NJ to NYC or Philly ) are actually affected by the increase in EV range, but those trips represent a small overall portion of my driving, thus percentage of EV miles only grows from 29% to 35% from doubling of EV battery range.

this is why this calculator is so useful - because it actually reflects reality.

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so does this mean that the newer generation of cars with 2X the range ( both E53, 550E and 2025 Volvo have 40 miles of EV range, versus 20 miles i have ) is useless ?

NOT AT ALL ! ! !

what you may not realize is that one of the reasons my daily drive is 20 miles is BECAUSE that’s my EV range.

before the PHEV i used to train at LifeTime Atheltic in Princeton which is a 50 mile round trip … but after getting a PHEV i switched to another facility that is within my 20 mile EV range …

or as Nietzsche said when you stare into the abyss the abyss also stares into you … basically the Heisenberg uncertainty principle …

in other words not only does your PHEV have to fit into your driving patterns … but your driving patterns also end up fitting into your PHEVs electric range as well …

in other words if my PHEV had 40 mile EV range like the new PHEVs have maybe i would still be training in Princeton …

never the less, the calculator is still the most useful tool for estimating real world energy costs for a PHEV - far more accurate than simply going by MPG and MPGE.

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the C63 here is the clear loser … it is also a clear loser in both cabin and trunk space … but a clear winner in performance.

the issue here is that if you can accept a cramped gas guzzler you should just get a Toyota Supra which actually gets much better fuel economy, is cheaper and about as fast and you only lose the rear seats which i have no use for anyway. the Supra actually has bigger trunk than C63.

in other words it makes no sense to accept the cost and weight of the PHEV system if you’re not going to get any fuel economy benefit.

the Supra with 6 cylinders get 26 mpg combined while the 4 cylinder Hybrid C63 only gets 20 mpg combined. what is the fucking point ? if you need rear seats sure, but i don’t.

now if you look at Volvo then you get significantly lower fuel costs than Supra, and also significantly more spacious interior up front, and almost the same power to weight ratio with the added benefit of AWD and rear seats.

the downside with Volvo is of course it won’t have the same driving feel as the BMW based Supra. you DO feel the front wheel drive bias in the Volvo and to some this may be a deal breaker. the Supra being light weight will also corner and brake better.

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as for 550E and E53 really it is hard to make the case for them …

the weight is as follows:

Supra - 3,300 lbs
Volvo - 4,400 lbs
C63 - 4,800 lbs
550E - 4,900 lbs
E53 - 5,300 lbs

that’s a 2,000 lbs delta from Supra to E53 - that’s the weight of an entire Lada.

i suppose 550E isn’t really that heavy, at only 100 lbs more than C63 but remember C63 has 670 hp while 550E only has 490 … so it’s heavy for the amount of power it has … although it has the same power to weight ratio as as Volvo and Supra but it is more expensive than both of those options … but worst of all i drove this generation 5 series and the 50e drivetrain and both were inferior to the Volvo. the new 5 series is too floaty and the 50e drivetrain lurches between gears.

and the problem with Supra is that it’s ugly.

and the problem with Volvo is that i am tired of it.

basically i am fucked.

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i also wonder how 550E managed to be 400 lbs lighter than E53 when 550E has the same size engine, same size battery and larger exterior dimensions …

i think BMW has focused on keeping the weight down on this platform because it’s the platform shared with i5 so they knew it would be heavy …

whereas the E53 is on an ICE platform which had no weight issues and thus perhaps didn’t receive lightweighting treatment

the BMW also has lower center of gravity with battery under the floor but AMG has better weight distribution with battery in the trunk …

only the Porsche Panamera gets both center of gravity and weight distribution right but it’s in entirely different price range … not saying that Panamera is overpriced - it is not - but the fact is even if you buy used it will still cost more to own in the long run and Panamera only got Android Auto in 2022 so you won’t even save that much by going used … basically Panamera is a non starter despite obviously being the best engineered car on the market …

Panamera also has wider track, wider tires and better lateral grip than BMW and AMG but you can literally buy the Volvo AND the Supra for the price of Panamera and i am not a baller …

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the other observation i had is that for all PHEVs in this comparison the cost per mile in Hybrid mode is about 50% more than than in EV mode

this isn’t a huge difference but it’s definitely greater than a margin of error

also if we exclude the C63 and the old Volvo then modern PHEVs all get 1/3 of their miles in EV mode if plugged in overnight which means that plugging in will save you one third of one third or 10% overall in energy costs versus driving the same car without plugging in.

of course if you compare a PHEV to a regular Hybrid it will likely have 10% worse economy due to added weight of larger battery so in the end you will not save anything by driving a PHEV and plugging it in versus just driving a Hybrid …

so really it comes down to which car is available in which drivetrain … for example Panamera only has PHEV options while 911 only has Hybrid option …

some cars like Prius and RAV4 have both Hybrid and PHEV options but there maybe other differences as well for example i think only regular Prius has available AWD and not PHEV and so on …

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one reason i am still partial to PHEVs is that they reduce how often you need to buy gas …

that is to say that i find plugging the car in less annoying than going to the gas station …

kind of like showering at home versus showering in the gym - many people just prefer to shower at home you know ?

i actually shower in the gym but i understand the sentiment. same here.

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now let’s do Lucid Air Touring AWD 19" wheels

it gets 132 MPGE or 26 kwh / 100 mi

in our example we had 10400 miles per year so 104 X 26 kwh = 2704 kwh

at $0.19 per KWH ( residential rate in Orlando ) = $514 per year

at $0.55 per KWH ( Electrify America DC Fast Charging Rate ) = $1487 per year

with our driving pattern in the examples above we would have almost exact 50/50 split between miles on home charging vs on DC fast charging so ($514+1487)/2 = $1,001

so excluding C63 and the old Volvo the annual fuel costs are:

Lucid on smaller wheels - $1,001
Volvo - $1,187
BMW 550e - $1,475
AMG e53 - $1,514

i was reading about evacuations in an EV and surprisingly apparently it isn’t as bad as i thought - yes there will be lines for chargers but the chargers can’t run out of electricity like gas stations runout of gas …

so in that sense evacuating in an EV is more fool proof although it will take longer as you will have to spend time in charging lines …

on other hand with ICE you will be able to drive from Orlando straight to Atlanta but only if you have kept a few cans of gas filled before the stations ran out of gas …

for the time being i would feel safer with gas cans but at least it is not hopeless with EVs which means that if in say 20 years you won’t be able to buy ICE anymore that doesn’t necessarily mean it will become impossible to evacuate from Florida …

chargers are hard to come by in urbanized areas but they are more plentiful along interstates where you would need them during evacuation - this is due to land being cheaper outside cities …

well, maybe this is just wishful thinking and actually it will be hopeless but also 20 years is a long time and as Keynes said “in the long run we are all dead”

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Lucid on smaller wheels - $1,001
Volvo - $1,187
BMW 550e - $1,475
AMG e53 - $1,514

you would save $500 a year on Lucid vs AMG but on your 5,000 miles of road trips assuming you charge every 200 miles you would have to stop for 25 times for 20 minutes or a total of 8 hours.

$500/8 = $60

so Lucid is paying you $60 per hour to wait for the car to charge, which is about fair.

additionally there is less service / maintenance with EVs so you save some time on that, but Lucids are more prone to issues so you will spend more time with those and it will probably more than offset any time saved by not needing to change oil.

both cars are also about the same size, the same price and the same performance. i have sat inside Lucid and driven an older gen E-Class and my guess is i would prefer the interior of Mercedes but the driving experience of Lucid.

I just like how EVs accelerate and slow down without any gear shifts or mechanical brakes. i also like the feeling of having the weight of the car under the floor.

but Lucid is still a startup that is losing money ( and thus could fold ) and EV infrastructure especially when it comes to evacuations is still suspect so, like Panamera, it’s not really a viable option.

Lucid and Panamera are both really just glimpses of what in theory could be.

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during Milton the chargers held up as gas stations failed

Impact of Hurricane Milton on Electric Vehicle Charging

i was there at the time and was only able to get gas by some kind of a miracle