Are hybrid SUVs a good or bad thing?

[thingstodo]

Originally Posted by AlexanderB

When *not* plugged in.

I mean, if you drive it right, you can drive it all-electric, and by that point, you'd be cheaper off with a fully electric car.

Where, besides a press release, can you find an all-electric SUV or car that will handle gravel roads? That you can ACTUALLY buy, and that costs less than a house?

I'm not that picky
- haul a 3500 lb trailer, once a month or so
- survive potholes or railway crossings on a road at 80+ kph
- 210 km range, one way, that I drive every second Friday evening, at 100 kph. I don't want to be a slow-moving hazard to other drivers

It would be great if I could haul the trailer to my cabin, but that would be pushing it a bit for an EV.

With no other visible options, I'm looking for a hybrid SUV ....

[AlexanderB]

Tesla Model X, at least, I've seen some over here, including one towing a pretty big trailer. Costs as much as a house though, so yeah, maybe not.

I was going to say someting about driving fast on poor road surfaces, but then I remembered I live in a country with mostly excellent road surfacing.

I guess my vision is colored, plug-in-hybrids over here are mainly tax-evasion vehicles, most are not actually driven by people who want to save fuel, just people who want the 'most car' for their money. (Who would blame them, really..)
Some of the most excessive speeders are the PHEV drivers, usually the same guys who never plug the damn thing in because together with the car, they also got an unlimited fuel card from the company they work for, and you end up with the "real life 20 mpg" kinda stuff, but they got a large tax break on their landbarge because its supposed to get near-infinite mpg.

Secondly, because of the tax break, its literally pulling market share from smaller, lighter and (in the real world) more economical regular cars.

The only upside to all this is that the tax break is (or was) even bigger on full-electric cars, so thats taking off quite well too..