Honda Accord plug-in hybrid review: Like the Chevy Volt, only normal

Think of the new Honda Accord PHEV (plug-in hybrid electric vehicle) as a Chevrolet Volt in disguise, one that recharges in just an hour. The Volt shouts “different” to the neighbors while the Accord plug-in whispers its differences compared to conventional Volts and Toyota Priuses. If you want your PHEV to announce itself, Honda isn’t playing the self-gratification game. That’s a challenge in a country where most people don’t drop a dollar in the barista’s tip jar until she’s watching. For what may be sound engineering and cost reasons, the Accord runs 10-15 miles on battery power while the Volt goes 30-35. All this adds up to a roomy, comfortable car for 4-5 that will be in need of practical-minded buyers. The Accord PHEV looks the same as the 350,000 other new Accords likely to be bought in the US in 2013. As public recharging stations take hold, the Accord PHEV’s quick charge time may turn into a significant advantage. It will probably cost around $35,000 when it goes on sale in early 2013.

A test drive of the Accord PHEV is a non-event. It’s quiet, quick, roomy in back, expends energy going uphill and gets a lot of it back heading downhill. When the gasoline Earth Dreams four-cylinder gasoline engine kicks in, it’s unobtrusive and isn’t buzzy or raspy. On one test loop at a Honda media event, the EV battery was almost depleted. Plug in the industry-standard J1772 charge connector and in less than 10 minutes on 220-volt charge the battery was almost half full. In urban driving, my loop of eight miles should have exhausted the partially charged battery but I finished with three miles of battery juice showing.

Unlike a full-electric car such as the Ford Focus Electric, Nissan Leaf or Tesla S, there’s no range anxiety because of the Accord PHEV’s gasoline engine. Once that kicks in, you can go another 500 miles, Honda estimates, on a tank of fuel. Honda believes it will get more than 100 mpge while the 2013 Volt has eked up to 98 mpge (and 37 mpg under gasoline power). The mpge rating (miles per gallon of gasoline equivalent) equates driving using utility-company-supplied energy vs. driving the same vehicle with a combustion engine. Electricity is at least twice as efficient as gasoline, thus a car rated at 30-40 mpg will get an mpge around 90-100.

-Courtesy of ExtremeTech