How to tell if your car is a hybrid
If you ask yourself, “Is my car a hybrid?”, here is how you can easily determine.
Despite the common belief that a Hybrid is something that only a Toyota can have for powertrain, there are plenty of European carmakers that, surprising or not, have it too.
For whatever reason, the manufacturers of luxury cars avoid advertising their products as being a hybrid. At best, in the technical specifications of some models, you may find Mild Hybrid mentioned somewhere in the small print. That refers to the 48 Volt hybrid transmissions fitted in them.
Forced by ever stricter emission requirements and demand for fuel economy, car manufacturers can no longer afford to pay penalties for producing V6 and V8 engines, that emit high CO2 and other pollutants. The only option before going full electric is to switch to hybrid, mild hybrid, or plugin hybrid.
Most European carmakers do not announce or make it clear if they use hybrid technology in their vehicles. it's not apparent why they are shy about that feature, but likely their marketing departments believe the title Hybrid hurts their branding.
In order to avoid penalties from their governments, some car companies like GM went to the extent of manufacturing a small quantity of compliance vehicles, like the famous GM EV1 and later on, the Chevy Volt, Chevrolet Spark EV as well as Fiat 500e. That helps them reduce their emissions quote set by EPA, and continue making big V8 engines.
Enough reading, let's begin by performing the easiest test on your car:
Start the car and look closely at the instrument panel. If you notice the sign READY in a green rectangle, you're definitely sitting in a car with a hybrid powertrain. This method is mostly applicable to Mercedes cars.
Now let's list some current luxury hybrid models on the market.
Mercedes
From the 2019 model year, most of the AMG engines on Mercedes are hybrid. Those are AMG 43 and AMG 53, Since model year 2022 AMG 63 is also available as a hybrid. That includes E-Class, GLE, GLC, GT, GLS, CLS , the new S500, S 580 and others.
The new C300 and E300 models released in 2022 are also hybrid, but C350 and E350 are not.
Photo credit:Thilo Parg
Mercedes is using a dedicated hybrid transmission in their mild hybrid and hybrid models. Currently at its 3-rd generation, the Mercedes-Benz 9-G-TRONIC-Hybrid transmission (see the picture above) has a built-in electric motor, used as a starter, generator, and a power booster (to aid the combustion engine). Seemingly, there are only benefits of using this type of transmission in a vehicle, but in reality, this is an extremely complex piece of machinery, adding production cost, increased maintenance costs, and reduced reliability.
Audi and other VAG models
Audi implements its own version of mild hybrid technology with a 48V starter-generator, connected to the engine with a belt. In addition to simply starting the engine, this electric motor propels the car at certain speeds and loads. The combustion engine is shut off, and only the electric motor moves the vehicle.
Audi has no READY indicator in the instrument cluster, or any other indication of the car being a mild hybrid.
The Plugin hybrid models (PHEV) come with a charging port, which makes it easy to tell they are equipped with this technology. PHEV models are built differently. They use a transmission with a built-in electric motor and a conventional 12V starter, similar to BMW (see details below).
Many of the S-Line Audi models, including S4, S5, S6, S7 and S8, as well as some RS models after MY 2018 are mild hybrid or Plugin Hybrid. Audi A6, A7, A8, Q7 and Q8 in the US have been mild hybrid since 2019 MY as well.
BMW
BMW was the pioneer among the German luxury brands, who started the trend with some of their i3 models and in 2014 with the i8. Currently, almost all of their ICE models are available in hybrid versions with an e- designator after the model number for their Plugin Hybrid models. Starting in 2018, some models like M340, M40 sold in United States were mild hybrid with no badging or special designators. From MY 2022, M340, M440, M40, M50, M60, X6 40i and X7 40i are mild hybrid, again with no specific badges, no READY indicator in the instrument cluster, or any other giveaway.
There are 3 easy ways to determine if your BMW or Audi is a mild hybrid or plugin hybrid:
1. Check for [48V] stickers under the hood.
2. Pay attention to the sound the engine makes when starting it. On a cold start, you would hear the familiar engine crank of the conventional starter. However, once the engine warms up, the cranking sound is replaced by the typical electric motor hum, seen in hybrids like the Toyota Prius. The hum only lasts about a second, after which the combustion engine starts running.
3. Check for the presence of a charging port, similar to the gas cap on a combustion engine car. If present, you have a Plug-in Hybrid (PHEV)
Photo Credit: BMW Group
BMW and some Audi models use an off-the-shelf transmission from ZF (shown above). The electric motor in it is highlighted in blue. This is a far less complex and cheaper part, than the one used by Mercedes. The downside here is the need of a regular starter motor, although this downside is not necessarily a disadvantage, except the extra cost. In case of a failure in the 48V battery, high voltage control modules, or the electric motor in the transmission, the car can still be started with the starter motor. In case of a starter motor failure, the car will start with the electric motor in the transmission, unless it's a cold start. That adds redundancy to the design, which is in favor of the end user.
Range Rover
Mild hybrid and Plug-in Hybrid technology was first introduced in Range Rover Sport for the 2018 MY. The P400e Plug-in hybrid was heavily advertised in Europe but never made it to the US market. In 2020 hybrid options became available on Evoque and Velar models as well.
The new 2023 Range Rover and Range Rover Sport sold in US are MHEV or PHEV.
The PHEV models can easily be identified by the charging port in the front grill. The Mild Hybrid (MHEV) models use a system similar to BMW and same procedure can be used to identify them.
This is what makes a hybrid, mild-hybrid or plugin hybrid BMW and Audi models very difficult to have a starter disable (killswitch) installed on them. Those models have all the components of a regular combustion engine car at the exact same locations. This can be very misleading to inexperienced installers. It's common to see installations with the starter motor interrupted, but the car still starts if disabled, unless the engine is cold.
Congratulations! You are now more familiar with your car.
Next step is to secure it and prevent theft or misuse. We can help with that, regardless of the engine type. We, in fact, specialize in hybrid and electric vehicles.