If you want a traditional brand, a green number plate, and convenience at the same time, is the Volkswagen Passat PHEV the best choice?
A question from a reader, it seems that a few people still remember the hybrid version of the Passat.
Whether you should choose this car is better to look at the sales data first, the sales of the Passat fuel version in April 2024 are 16,033 units, while the sales of the plug-in hybrid version are only 520 units! The disparity is not a little bit. However, the terminal discount of the plug-in hybrid version of the Passat can exceed 70,000 yuan, and the actual threshold price is as low as about 160,000 yuan, and even the high-power (380TSI) version of the Passat cannot be bought with the same budget, so the plug-in hybrid version looks pretty good.
The DQ400e architecture is not ideal
On the premise that the price and performance seem to be advantageous, the sales of the plug-in hybrid version of the Passat are still far inferior to the fuel version, which is enough to show that the overall strength of the car is inevitably not high. The plug-in hybrid system it is equipped with is relatively special, the core is the old 1.4T 280TSI engine, the power parameter is 110kW/250N·m, which is no different from the fuel version; Therefore, the engine of this car is not a special model for plug-in hybrid vehicles in the first place, and its performance in terms of performance and energy consumption should not have too high expectations.
The most special point of the car is the DQ400e's six-speed wet dual-clutch transmission, which integrates a drive motor, and the drive system architecture concept is as follows.
The electric motor should be the core power unit of plug-in hybrid vehicles, because it has higher efficiency, stronger low-torque explosive force and more ideal NVH, so the plug-in hybrid system based on the electric motor and supplemented by the internal combustion engine often has ideal fuel consumption performance, and the acceleration feeling will be more direct.
However, the DQ400e architecture integrates an electric motor with a maximum power of only 85kW, which is equivalent to the level of a 1.5L naturally aspirated engine and lower than the standard of the 1.4T 280TSI.
Although the maximum torque is as high as 330 Nm, power is the key to power consumption and performance, especially in the medium and high speed range.
The electric motor with a maximum power of 85kW is destined to have a mediocre power experience in the pure electric mode of the plug-in hybrid Passat, and the point is that it is not suitable for high-speed at all, so even if the vehicle is in E-MODE (pure electric) mode, as long as the engine is automatically started when accelerating sharply, or when the speed is too high, the engine will also be automatically started. However, domestic plug-in hybrid vehicles of the same level have no output power and speed restrictions in pure electric mode, which means that as long as the power battery capacity is sufficient, then it can also drive to the highest speed in pure electric mode, and the engine will not be started when accelerating sharply.
The all-electric range is too short
The reason why the sales of the plug-in hybrid version of the Passat are low is not simply because of the power, but also because its pure electric range is indeed short enough, with a test value of 63 km in NEDC mode and 52 km in WLTC industrial control (2023 model). Among the three types of vehicle mileage, power consumption or fuel consumption test modes, the WLTC working condition is only the closest to the real road condition, the NEDC test value is in the middle, and the CLTC test value is the largest. Therefore, under the premise of using air conditioning or heater, the pure electric mode of this car can only drive about 40 kilometers.
In the price range of 15-200,000 yuan, there are also domestic cars with a pure electric range of about 200 kilometers under WLTC working conditions.
The last thing that needs to be explained is the drive system of the plug-in hybrid version of the Passat, because the transmission used by it is a transverse model, so the two-wheel drive car must be front-wheel drive; The plug-in hybrid version of the Passat is not only at the average level of performance and endurance, but also the handling level can not be praised, and at present, there are already domestic medium-sized rear-drive plug-in hybrid sedans in the price band of 12-150,000 yuan, and there are even options for medium and large cars.
Therefore, if the plug-in hybrid Passat is not a Passat, or this car is not a Volkswagen but an unknown brand of car products, its reasonable selling price can only be at the 100,000 level; The final evaluation of this car is "you buy it as you like, I buy it I don't buy it", and its low sales make sense.
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