Well the gimmick on my wifes outlander PHEV seems to be working pretty well. 3L/100km (78MPG) with our usage. Electricity is cheap where I live as well. It costs a premium over the ICE version but also has more power. The wife charges for free at work and it costs a whopping $1.20 to charge from empty at home.
My Chevy bolt cost the same as a new civic and made my commute go from $14/day in fuel to the same $1.20. all costs in (payment and electrical) my monthly costs are the same as just my fuel bill vs my old subaru.
If the vehicle isn’t a super expensive expensive PHEV/BEV, they do in fact make sense and are quite nice to live with. The bolt/volt were great cars and GM killed them. Mitsubishi has been making the outlander PHEV for over a decade. From A to B and commuting you simply can’t beat how cheap running on electric is per km/mile. Not spending 70k on one to say you’re saving money on gas, but regular priced cars.
The outlander PHEV base cost what a fully loaded ICE version does (slightly less after the rebate), the wife wanted efficiency over the bells and whistles so we went base phev. And my bolt? Base as well. These things can work out in the owners favor if the vehicle cost isn’t astronomical. This is what the manufacturers need to sort out.
I did the idler and belt on my wrx in my driveway, I was thinking it was a fwd car that the belt threads through a motor mount or something which I could understand. But on a Subaru? Nah fam. Find a different mechanic