PHEV Maintenance
Maintaining your PHEV
One of the great things about owning a Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicle is that maintenance is significantly reduced compared to a typical internal combustion vehicle. That said, there is still some maintenance.
With a PHEV, you'll still have an internal combustion engine that will need to be taken care of, but with the ability to rely on your electric motor for most of your driving, that should translate into fewer oil changes and less wear on the engine.
As for specific maintenance for the electric side of your vehicle, there's very little until the vehicle gets to 5 or 6 years of age. At this point, the battery coolant should be checked or replaced.
Here are some other maintenance areas that an owner should be aware of!Let's start off easy.
A few acronyms define what we're talking about regarding electric vehicles, conventional gas or diesel vehicles, and hybrids.
- IC - Internal Combustion Vehicle
- PHEV - Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle
- EV - Electric Vehicle
Tires
Rotate tires every 10,000km to extend the life of your tires.
For most Canadians, it's sufficient to rotate your tires are part of your seasonal tire swap.
Batteries
These are maintenance-free and will almost always last well beyond your ownership period. The Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV has a warranty of 10 years or 160,000 km, and it's a reasonable assumption to expect that the battery should last beyond the typical average vehicle life of 300,000 kilometres.
In other words, anyone buying a new Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicle today will likely not have to worry about the battery until the vehicle itself is ready to be retired.
Other Maintenance
There are several maintenance checks that are standard for any type of vehicle, and these shouldn't be ignored as the vehicle ages. These include suspension parts such as bushings and shock absorbers, CV joints, wheel bearings, windshields, and more. Body and interior parts can also fail as a vehicle ages.
Keeping in mind that the PHEV also has Internal Combustion (IC) components, they will require more maintenance than an electric-only vehicle. Oil changes, for example, are still necessary but will be less frequent than an internal combustion engine vehicle. Overall, an EV will have dramatically lower maintenance costs than an IC vehicle, but it is not maintenance-free.