Is that Camry a plug in hybrid? I'm guessing not. It would be interesting to see a similar comparison against a plug-in hybrid that does half it's mileage in electric only mode.
My Volt's operation has been about 80% on battery electric. The ICE is used to create electricity for only when the battery is run down to a minimum.
... this is what I'm driving today.
Probably not a lot of environmental impact for making this choice.
Now imagine how low that impact would be by switching your fuel to biodiesel made from post-consumer waste.....
We do a lot of camping and mountain driving with a cargo carrier so that is definitively a factor for us. In the future there might be some light towing ... so the extra torque is definitively desired in my view.
The increased torque is a help when starting off from a full stop, and moot once past about 20 mph. At that speed and higher the transmission gearing ratios can be selected to compensate for the differences of diesel torque but low rpm, vs. gasoline torque but at higher rpm. Just drop a gear.
And with electric, whether by itself in a BEV or series hybrid, or whether electric boost as in a parallel hybrid, there is more torque at rotation speeds slower than any ICE can idle, so start-off is even better.
One of the not so great things about hybrids is that you have the impacts from manufacturing both ICE and electric powertrains for one vehicle. Even though a 2015 model year vehicle is distant enough from today's manufacturing to have very little correlation with current manufacturing emissions.
That was an issue for me at first, but one hybrid is less of an impact that an alternative of a BEV and also an ICE. I've rationalized it to my satisfaction by thinking I've only got 3/4 the impact of a full electric car, and only 3/4 the impact of an ICE powered car, yet have a BEV commuter and a long distance tourer with only one registration-insurance-parking spot.
True. I made the point because of how many times that I have been asked variations on “but what about the battery?” Usually followed by “where does your electricity come from?”.
I'm fortunate to have a power company that purchases electric supplied by 80% non-fossil sources. I do have to keep in mind that power during my nightly off-peak charging has a much lower solar percentage (banked in batteries during the day), but is still mostly mostly non-fossil renewable.
