Who is Andy Palmer and why is he saying “Hybrids are a road to hell?” Admittedly, Palmer is not a household name, but he is well known in the auto industry. He went to work for Nissan in 2002 and rose quickly to become the chief operating officer and head of global planning for the company. In 2014, he became CEO of Aston Martin, a position he held for six years.
Some call him “the godfather of the electric car” because during his time at Nissan he pushed for the development of the LEAF, the world’s first mass market electric car. He told Business Insider recently, “I wish I could say that it was driven by a motivation to better the world. But actually, it was driven by the Toyota Prius kicking our ass.” Rather than just copying Toyota’s success with its hybrid drivetrain, Palmer said he pushed Nissan to build a fully electric vehicle, a plan that resulted in the LEAF after CEO Carlos Ghosn added his support for the idea.
Palmer told Business Insider that delaying transitioning to EVs in favor of selling hybrids was a “fool’s errand” and warned that automakers doing so risked falling even further behind Chinese EV companies. “Hybrids are a road to hell. They are a transition strategy, and the longer you stay on that transition, the less quickly you ramp up into the new world. If you just delay transitioning to EVs by diluting it with hybrids then you are more uncompetitive for longer, and you allow the Chinese to continue to develop their market and their leadership. I honestly think it’s a fool’s errand.”
A hybrid would likely be what I’d be able to get if I were to upgrade my ICE (which still runs fine, but is getting up there in years and miles). I don’t drive a lot, mostly around town, but every 13 weeks I have a round trip that’s about 5 hours with nowhere to charge at my destination, and EVs in the price range I’d want for my use pattern don’t have that kind of range. The leaf would need a charge on that trip, for example. Admittedly there are a ton of fully electric cars that can do more than double that range, but without doing too much looking since I can’t afford it anyway, I assume they either aren’t available in the US or are wiiiiildly expensive for how little I’d use it.
I’m getting an e-bike instead and just using my car a dozen or so times a year when the bike isn’t sufficient (the 13 week trip, picking up large items, and whatever travel for stuff not in my small town). It’s basically like having a hybrid, but a lot less convenient :)
With that kind of usage pattern, you might even want to consider just renting a car when you’re off on the rare long trips.