I know the answer is why wouldn't it get charged. I live in an apartment and while there are Blink charging stations, its not that convenient. Probably move back to a house in the future.

Not sure what happened with the 1st paragraph 🤔

 

Most of them should continue to operate like regular hybrids once the battery shows depleted. The issue is, whether you want to drag around the extra weight or if you should get a regular hybrid until daily charging is more reliable

 

Good point about the weight. I realize it would operate as a hybrid when depleted, but didn't know if any harm would come from it being depleted for a few weeks frequently.

 

The battery is never completely depleted and it’s keeps enough battery for it to operate like a regular hybrid. Take the Lexus RX and NX plug in for example, with a depleted battery you gain additional 126-128hp to “drag around the extra weight” and anything you want to drag along with you with the extra hp in hybrid mode vs EV mode.

As for should you get a regular hybrid vs a PHEV, you can either have a 240hp regular hybrid or 304hp (NX & RX) 404hp (TX 550+) PHEV at your disposal whenever you want to run in hybrid mode. MPG is similar on both with the PHEV having an advantage to run in EV mode only for longer distance vs short spurts of EV mode in a regular hybrid.

PHEV and regular hybrid owner here

 

The Wrangler 4xe's I've rented with depleted batteries felt really slow compared to the bone stock wranglers. Might just be a Stellantis thing

 

I’ve read the Volvo PHEV is the same way.

Toyota/Lexus PHEV doesn’t function that way. Depleted EV battery and you have 100% hp on tap. It’s a very noticeable difference. Take the big 3 row TX 550+ in EV mode I believe it’s 0-60 is 10-11 sec but with a depleted EV battery/HV mode it’s 0-60 is 5.3 seconds.

 

Which is the logical way it should work! Make PHEV "empty" around 15% and have it operate as a regular hybrid while maintaining that charge.

 

On Toyota/Lexus empty is around 30% and full is 90%

I’ve plugged in and seen the battery level as low as 25% after running around in HV mode after depleting the EV range. Normally it shows 30-31% when depleted when I plug in.