Using anonymized real-world data, Ford has discovered some rather peculiar and insightful habits of Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicle (PHEV) owners which could show that car owners are ready to shift to all-electric power sooner rather than later.
Data gathered from Kuga PHEV customers (see lead photo), has lead Ford to discover that customers are making the most of their vehicles’ 35-mile (56.3-kilometer) pure electric driving range. For the first half of 2021, Kuga PHEV owners around Europe covered 49 percent of their distance traveled using battery power alone.
More than two-thirds (around 66 percent) of driving journeys are quite short—less than 60 kilometers with the average distance traveled around 32 miles (52 kilometers). These can be completed by externally charging the on-board 14.4-kwh battery.
Ford has also found out that customers have readily acclimatized to PHEV ownership by treating their vehicle as they would their smartphone, charging them mostly overnight (45 percent of the time). This helps because electricity rates are cheaper at night in some European countries such as the U.K.
The Ford Kuga PHEV was the best-selling PHEV across all segments in Europe during the first half of 2021. As a whole, sales of PHEVs and EVs are surging across the continent with PHEVs now accounting for 8.4 percent of all new cars sold in Europe—an uptick of more than 255 percent compared to 2020.
Its early success has prompted Ford to announce that 100 percent of its passenger vehicle range in Europe will be zero emissions—either all-electric or PHEV by the middle of 2026, moving to all-electric by 2030.
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