I think... a Hybrid in a SUV is a daft idea. Probably work great if all the driving is done around town. But on those longer trips, after the battery is depleted... you are moving a heavy vehicle with a screaming 4 cylinder engine. Can't see performance being that good and they have lowered the towing capacity on hybrids for a reason.

 

That's not really how it works. On long trips, when cruising on a highway in the highest gear is not when you need that power. Running only on 4-cylinders is plenty sufficient to maintain speed, even on a heavy vehicle, and no, the 4-cylinder won't be screaming. Obviously, towing makes that worse, but again, once at cruising speed, you don't need as much power as you think: you only need to maintain speed, to accelerate to a specific speed.

Power is needed when accelerating, such as when driving around town. There, regenerative breaking will keep your battery charged longer (on the Palisade Hybrid, they can even use the engine to recharge the battery if desired. See Stay Mode here: https://insideevs.com/news/757134/hyundai-palisade-hybrid-stay-mode-ev/).

 

If you're giving it the beans to merge onto an expressway or when passing or when hill climbing, yeah, a 4-banger hybrid is bound to make some noise. It comes down to one's priorities.

 

I think... in spite of the hype, folk that drive longer distances are going to be disappointed. Could be wrong.... time will tell

 

Some light reading: https://www.caranddriver.com/features/a61730444/are-hybrids-good-for-long-distance-driving/

Key takeaway: the engine can charge the battery on the highway. As I said in my previous post, you don't actually use much power to maintain speed on a highway - the 4-cylinder is plenty sufficient for that, and to also serve as a generator for the battery. So the battery never typically runs out on a hybrid, and will deliver that extra power needed when off the highway.

I mean, that is the whole point. If they were not designed to recharge the battery while driving, they wouldn't be that useful.

 

There are v8s and v6 that have cylinder deactivation which makes them 3 or 4 cylinder vehicles on highway driving, this is done for better fuel economy but it's possible because vehicles don't need much power to cruising.

This hybrid system has one advantage, it doesn't have serpentine belt. That reduces drag on engine.

The highway advantage probably would be significant as well, given hyundai is claiming it would get 34mpg combined while gas only model gets 25mpg on highway.