I have a plug-in hybrid and it's the best of both worlds. Works great as a commuter car because it gets 40+ miles on battery without paying for gas, but the gas engine allows for long trips as well without having the range anxiety or high charging costs on longer trips with strictly EVs.
In 2018 I bought a Honda Clarity, mainly for my wife as a commuter car, since she drove about 20 miles/day + errands. Two years prior we'd put solar panels on my garage roof, and it's worked great because every night I just plug it into the 110 outlet in my garage and by morning have another 45 miles to run on the battery -- charged by the solar panels on the garage.
We also take annual trips to Colorado & Wyoming and on those trips it's just like driving a regular gas car. The transition from battery to gas is seamless. I like the flexibility of this car so much that when my wife totalled our first Clarity last year, I searched out another 2018 Clarity in MNPLS for a good price.
The traction battery is warrantied for 8 years, and when I first bought the Clarity I figured I'd trade it in 2026, and by that time there'd be a huge # of plug-in hybrid options available, with increased range, etc. Wrong. I think manufacturers really missed the boat by trying to shift from gas directly to EVs. Plug-in hybrids are the logical transition technology to ease people into the future of EVs, but 7 years after purchasing mine, there are very few models available, and the battery range hasn't increased much on those models.
The downside to plug-in hybrids is they use very complicated technology. As an engineer friend told me, they are the most complex car that will ever be built....by far. EVs are elementary, by comparison. So they do have glitches. But because of the extra weight of the batteries, my Clarity sedan drives like a luxury car and I love it.
PS: Honda was never committed to plug-in hybrids and stopped making Claritys after 5 years.
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