Plug-in Hybrids emit 6x more pollution than claimed, and they’re getting dirtier — SkimNews
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- Transport & Environment (T&E) analyzed data from 220,000 PHEVs across Europe and found real-world emissions are now 6x higher than official government testing indicates.
- PHEV emissions rose from 138 gCO2/km in 2023 to 145 gCO2/km in 2024 — a 5% year-over-year increase, while government testing during the same period predicted they would get cleaner.
- EU testing standards use "utility factors" that assume drivers will plug in more often than they actually do, because in practice people rarely charge their PHEVs consistently.
- European automakers are lobbying the EU to weaken planned updates to those utility factors, which would preserve the greenwashing "extra credit" they earn for selling PHEVs over deploying pure EVs.
- Lucien Mathieu of T&E called PHEVs "one of the auto industry's greatest greenwashing stunts" and warned that Europe must resist delaying fully electric investment to stay competitive with China's rapidly expanding EV market.
- The EU's OBFCM (On Board Fuel Consumption Monitoring) system provides real-world fuel data that exposes the widening gap between laboratory tests and actual driving — the same type of system that emerged after the Dieselgate scandal a decade ago.
Why it matters: If the EU weakens utility factor updates under automaker pressure, PHEVs will keep earning regulatory credit that delays Europe's shift to fully electric vehicles — handing Chinese automakers, which are rapidly deploying new EVs and gaining European market share, an even bigger competitive advantage.
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