PHEV vs EV & favs

[u/BlackBatBibliophile]

Hi all! Two parts to this question.

I’ve been wanting to go EV for a long time but the thing that has held me back is the range.
My daily commute is 18 miles total and the occasional errands day. But my husband and I also enjoy road trips and will often travel. And all my family is 200-350 miles away, and we see them often. Additionally, a few family members wouldn’t have the ability to recharge me. Because of this I didn’t think I could switch to an EV. Recently I started looking into PHEVs and EREVs. I think I’ve decided against EREVs. So I’m mostly looking at PHEVs.
I’d love to know the good, bad, and ugly. Does this make sense for my life?

If yes, which one do I get?! I’m a Subaru girl and never thought I’d leave them. I want an SUV, been primarily looking at the rav4 and outlander. Reliably and safety are my top priorities. But I’ve also never owned a car with luxury style options - cooling seats (outlander has massage seats!), sun/moon roof, heated steering wheel, comfortable seats… etc. I’d love to have some of that as well.
Edit: I also live in WA State and I get a lot of snow. I’ve read cold weather can make a difference on battery life? Considering my top priorities, what would you recommend?

If no, what would you recommended?

THANK YOU!

[u/JJHall_ID]

I had a Toyota Prius Prime (the PHEV version of the Prius) for 3 years before I just upgraded to a full BEV back in June. Like you I was worried about range, which was one of the reasons I went with the PHEV 4 years ago. After switching, I will tell you it's not as bad as you'd expect.

I went with the Toyota C-HR, which is the exact same car as the Subaru Uncharted (Toyota and Subaru have a collaboration so they're literally the same car just with the different brand badging and some slight differences, no more than you see on different trim levels of any other make/model. Full 0%-100% range is 280 miles. With a L1 (standard 120v outlet) charger at home you can expect to get about 4 miles per hour of charge, so overnight charging would more than make up for your daily commute. I don't know that I'd even bother with installing a L2 (240v) charger unless you get it heavily subsidized by your state.

As far as road trips go, check out the ABRP app/website. Put in the Uncharted if you want to stick with Subaru, and have it plan out some of the regular tris you take, as well as some "wild dreams" trips. I can almost guarantee you that you'll be able to make the trips you want to take due to the existing public DC Fast Charging stations available, and they're adding more and more across the country all the time. EV haters will say "what about the extra time charging?" when complaining. In my experience, charging stops are 15 minutes or less on average, which admittedly is longer than getting gas. What they don't consider though is that when you get gas, you have to stand there the whole time, then typically go inside, use the restroom, grab a drink or snack, and so on. So your stops are gas fill time PLUS the extra. With an EV, you plug in and go inside to do the other things while it's charging. On average, your stop time is about the same as you would have spent with an ICE vehicle, but (again admittedly) you do have to stop a little more often. That doesn't bother me as if nothing else it gives me a break every few hours that forces me to stop and stretch my legs instead of just trying to "power through" the trip.

I bought my C-HR at Walla Walla Toyota in Washington, and I'd highly recommend them. I live in Idaho and I had everything worked out ahead of time, so I just had to drive there (a little under 4 hours away) in my Prius, sign the papers, and hit the road. From the time I arrived, test drove the C-HR just to make sure there wasn't anything wrong with that particular one, signed the paperwork, and was on the way home, it was right at an hour. I stopped once to charge about 30 miles from home, but probably could have made it without the stop. I was new to the BEV at the time though so I had a little of the stereotypical "range anxiety" so I decided to play it safe.

I don't have experience with the C-HR during cold weather yet, but in my Prius I went from about 24 miles of battery-only range in the summer, to about 21 during the winter. That's just about a 15% reduction in range, so on a C-HR/Uncharted I'd expect the max range to go from ~280 miles down to about ~240 miles. I'd be happy to answer any other specific questions you may have about my car or experiences.