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This is a tough one.
Generally, I like 2 mode hybrids (ones that can run exclusively in EV mode, as these new GM ones can) not because I believe they're going to make any meaningful difference in consumption in the big picture. I like them because regardless of why the manufacturers make them, and regardless of why some people buy them, they can and sometimes do unexpectedly open people's eyes to genuine alternatives.
I see 2-mode hybrids as vehicles that can potentially put people on a slippery, green slope. Unintended education.
And that's because I can personally trace a line from my first drive in a gen1 Prius to having built the ForkenSwift to having ridden my bicycle further this year for transportation purposes (vs. recreation) than in any other.
Predisposed? Probably.
I read a quote recently from the owner of a US NEV dealership who said many of the customers buying his EV's drove hybrids. Predisposed? Maybe.
But I like the idea that it's a slippery slope, and I can't shake the feeling whenever I see a 2-mode hybrid that the manufacturers have unintentionally cracked open Pandora's box, and it's causing more people to start asking important questions about the transportainment industry in general. (BTW, I like that word - transportainment - stole it from Phil Knox, if I recall.)
OK, perhaps a sliver of hybrid drivers, which make up a sliver of all drivers may experience this. But it's nice to be idealistic once in a while.
EDIT: so I guess my answer is really "none of the above", but it's probably closest to "Somewhere in between, possibly a wash."
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