The Plug-In Scam: GM and EPA Misrepresentation of the PHEV

In a March 2010 article, “Plug-In Vehicles: The First Great Fraud of the New Millennium,” author John Petersen discussed the weaknesses of the plug-in hybrid or pluggable hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV). He followed this with a Feb 14, 2011 article, “Why Plug- In Vehicles Are a Luxury No Nation and No Investor Can Afford,” and then an August 25, 2011 article, “It’s Time to Kill the Electric Car, Drive a Stake Through Its Heart and Burn the Corpse.”  The PHEV is a new car architecture that has been lauded by utilities, coal companies, “greens,” car companies, activists, environmentalists, and politicians – both liberal and conservative. The PHEV may not be the first great fraud of the millennium—possibly that could be reserved for credit default swaps and other financial chicanery. But “fraud” or “scam” is an applicable word to describe the evolution of the PHEV. This section reviews the PHEV’s history and shows how the EPA labeling system for the PHEV was even more flawed and suspect than that for the battery electric vehicle (BEV). This report brings a badly needed perspective to the excessive Miles per Gallon equivalent (MPGe) claims of PHEV vehicles.