I have a plug in hybrid electric vehicle. I bought it gently used (around 12,000 miles), for just under $25,000.
So far, it has been the lowest-maintenance car I’ve ever owned. It’s coming up on 100,000 miles now, and I don’t recall having yet spent anything on it in terms of repairs. The “normal” maintenance is lower than my traditional gas cars, too, since the oil only needs to be changed either once a year or when it has enough gas-powered miles.
About the only maintenance so far that may be more on the expensive side is tires. Like many electrified cars, it seems to like using those up quickly. I don’t have good enough records to quantify that for certain, though. It could just be that because it’s the lowest cost car to drive of the ones we own, we’re just using it more and putting the miles on it faster.
While it is true that there are “two systems” in it, the reality is that it may very well be a lower-cost way to get electrified driving than an all electric car. This is because a lot of the cost of pure EVs comes in the form of the battery pack. With a relatively small battery, that cost is lower in my PHEV.
In addition, since the gas engine only powers the wheels under certain circumstances (in my car: I believe it’s only if the drive battery is completely depleted or if the car is traveling at highway speeds and is in hybrid mode), it doesn’t have to be a huge engine to still provide reasonable performance. So that keeps the gas engine costs down, too.
Regards,
-Chuck