Do Hybrid Cars Need to Install a Charging Pile for Charging?

[McBrody]

Hybrid cars do need to install a charging pile. Charging piles are convenient and fast, and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) must frequently maintain sufficient battery charge to leverage their advantages. Since plug-in hybrid vehicles have relatively small power battery capacities, they cannot utilize fast charging. Instead, they rely on slow charging, which takes a longer time—typically around 3 to 10 hours to fully charge. Given the lengthy charging duration, relying solely on public charging stations is inconvenient, making home charging conditions crucial. While portable chargers can also be used to charge PHEVs at home, their 1.7KW charging power is too low, resulting in excessively long charging times. Therefore, installing a 3.3KW wall-mounted charging pile is recommended for convenience. In hybrid mode, the motor of a plug-in hybrid vehicle can also assist the engine by providing supplementary power, thereby reducing engine speed and lowering fuel consumption. When the battery charge is insufficient or falls below the SOC (State of Charge) value, the engine will allocate some power to drive the generator and recharge the battery. However, since the engine's speed increases during power generation, and energy loss occurs when converting fuel to electricity—combined with the heavier curb weight of PHEVs compared to conventional fuel-powered cars—this scenario leads to higher fuel consumption, which is not conducive to energy savings and emission reduction.