If you often drive with electricity, the fuel spoils

Attention plug-in hybrid drivers

The fuel in the tank spoils

If you drive an electric hybrid engine almost exclusively to save costs and emissions, you may be in for a nasty surprise: The fuel in the tank spoils like milk forgotten in the refrigerator.

Each new technology creates unexpected problems. When the first fuel vehicles with partial hybrid electric (PHEV) and electric vehicles with gasoline engines appeared as power generators, engineers faced a new question: What if you were constantly driving with electricity from a battery and almost never needed a combustion engine? Mechanics want to work, otherwise they are at risk of damage.

This is one of the reasons why the combustion engine turns on from time to time, sometimes to fill a 12-volt battery. But now another problem appears: if the fuel is never used, it spoils like milk forgotten in the refrigerator. Gasoline ages in the tank – which we never noticed in the “normal” car because we use it. But that’s why the lawn mower won’t start after winter.