General Motors CEO Mary Barra has a grim assessment for plug-in hybrid drivers: “They don’t plug it in.”
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General Motors CEO Mary Barra said the company remains committed to “an EV future” despite industry headwinds.
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In the meantime, the automaker is looking at hybrid options, Barra said, because it doesn’t currently offer any.
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There’s only one problem with plug-in hybrids, and that’s making sure people actually plug them in.
On paper, China’s Chevrolet Equinox Plus Plug-In Hybrid looks like a shoo-in for the United States. Here’s a familiar nameplate in a practical crossover body that combines a petrol engine with battery power for more than 600 miles of total range on China’s test cycle.
But for a number of reasons, it’s not coming to this market, leaving Americans with the gas-powered Equinox and the popular Equinox EV. In the US, General Motors has largely moved away from hybrid power of all kinds to focus on what CEO Mary Barra calls the “end game”: an all-electric future.
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And at Monday’s Automotive Press Association conference in Detroit, Barra told an uncomfortable truth about America’s plug-in hybrids.
“What we still know today with plug-in hybrids is that most people don’t plug them in,” she said. “That’s why we’re trying to be very careful about what we do from a hybrid and plug-in hybrid perspective.”
You can see Barra’s remarks about hybrids at Reuters reporter Kalea Hall in the video below.
Barra’s comments are perhaps the starkest admission yet – and certainly from the senior auto executive – of an auto industry truth that is widely known but barely acknowledged.
Plug-in hybrids (PHEVs) pair a gasoline engine with what is typically a small battery to increase fuel economy and range, sometimes running on electricity. Those batteries are typically larger than those found in regular hybrids, requiring them to be plugged in. They are particularly popular in Europe and China, but require someone to put gas in a car and plug it in, using a wall outlet or a traditional electric vehicle charger. Because PHEVs can typically cover 30 to 50 miles using only battery power, they are often touted as a way to bridge the gap between gasoline and electric cars.
In 2024, InsideEVs contributor John Voelcker investigated user behavior around PHEVs, specifically whether or not owners plug them in. He contacted several automakers to ask if they had or could provide recent data on plugging habits for these cars; they either wouldn’t provide that data or couldn’t tell.
This may be because PHEVs have come under fire in recent years, as several studies have reported that owners generally do not plug them in. “We find that current PHEVs show a much lower share of electric propulsion than assumed in EPA labeling,” the International Clean Transportation Council stated in 2022. “A consequence of this relatively low share of electric propulsion is that actual fuel consumption is 42% – 67% higher than real-world fuel consumption.”
2025 Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV
In other words, because drivers aren’t plugging their cars in, they’re not getting the most out of their powertrains—pulling along with a nearly dead battery and using far more fuel than they should. The problem was worse in Europe, where PHEV models are even more widespread. The studies show that the lack of plug use means emissions were much higher than expected.
As electric vehicle sales slow in America, some automakers have indicated that PHEVs are a better short-term solution to electrification. Hyundai, Toyota, Volvo and Mazda are among those offering multiple PHEV models right now. But there may also be cracks in the market. Without stricter fuel economy regulations or EV tax credits, Jeep and Chrysler parent company Stellantis recently opted to phase out its PHEV models entirely, despite being behind the best-selling PHEV model in the country.
More recently, automakers are pinning their hopes on extended range electric vehicles, or EREVs. They could be described as a sort of reverse PHEV. They start with an EV-sized battery and platform and add a gasoline engine to recharge that battery. However, if EREVs also need to be plugged in and filled with gas, automakers may face exactly the same problem as users.
In GM’s case, its only hybrid is the Chevrolet Corvette E-Ray and its only PHEV models are sold in China. The automaker helped popularize the field more than 15 years ago with the revolutionary Chevrolet Volt. Now, amid the EV slowdown, GM is looking to bring more hybrids and PHEVs to the US, possibly in 2027. How it will educate users to plug them in remains to be seen.
Still, Barra said he doesn’t regret GM’s initial strategy of bypassing hybrids and going straight to electric vehicles, even though the automaker has received criticism for the move.
“With everything we knew at the time, we would have made the same decision,” Barra said. “We have to be very careful with our capital and how we deploy it.”
Contact the author: patrick.george@insideevs.com