I bought a plug-in hybrid Jeep Grand Cherokee 4xe. Here's why I chose a hybrid over an EV.

• John Vincent, an automotive editor, bought a 2023 Jeep Grand Cherokee 4xe plug-in hybrid in 2022.
• He loves the SUV's versatility as both an electric car for short trips and a gas car for long drives.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with John Vincent, a 58-year-old automotive editor in Portland, Oregon. It has been edited for length and clarity.

My wife and I bought a 2023 Jeep Grand Cherokee 4xe plug-in hybrid in December 2022 for $75,000. As an automotive journalist and the senior editor of vehicle testing at US News and World Report, I test-drive dozens of vehicles every year. I still love the choice we made to purchase this full-size hybrid SUV.

When I was first shopping around, I was looking at the Kia Sorento hybrid, the Hyundai Santa Fe, the Mercedes GLC, and quite a few others.

This Jeep made the most sense for us because it's basically an electric car for short trips and a gas car for long trips. It's really inexpensive to operate, drives fantastic, and is very capable. It just does everything we were looking for.

The plug-in hybrid Jeep Grand Cherokee 4xe

While shopping, I considered the tax credits that were available at the time. There was a full $7,500 credit, and it made a lot of sense because of how we use the vehicle. The credit is not available anymore, but you can get some state, local, and utility credits for operating it.

My wife drives the car about half the time and can drive it to work and back daily on electricity alone. I think I only put four gas tanks in it last year — and the only reason I had to put gas in it was to protect the engine and the fuel delivery system.

We also have a Honda Odyssey, which is better for our dog. The Jeep is pretty high, and the dog weighs 50 pounds, so lifting the dog up and down in the SUV is difficult. With the minivan, the dog can just hop up inside.

I drive a high-trim model, the Summit, so it is basically a luxury SUV. The luxury model package, which costs around $13,000 more than the base model, has massaging seats and a great navigation system, as well as night vision for when we're on rural country roads, so it's pretty well-loaded. The only thing I wish it had that it doesn't is a lower price tag.

This Jeep can off-road, but I haven't done it yet. The number of miles we put on it is limited because I test other cars, but most of the miles I put on this Jeep are electric.

Driving electric with the hybrid

When we drive outside commuting and exceed its electric-only range, it operates like a normal hybrid and still gets great mileage, but we don't have to be reliant on an EV charger all the time, like with a pure EV.

The Grand Cherokee is a great vehicle, but with gas-only power the mileage is terrible, so the 4xe gets good mileage for a midsize SUV because it's a hybrid.

In a perfect world, you never notice the transitions between running on gas, running as a hybrid, or running as electric. In reality, you do feel those transitions in the Jeep more than you do in some other vehicles, but it's not obtrusive, and I learned to deal with it.

The biggest thing I've noticed is when it switches over to electric, it gets silent. All you hear is tire noise, which is just kind of weird to be gliding along silently.

Jeep and the EV market

People buy Jeeps not just because they want to go off-road, but because they want to know they can go off-road. People who buy EVs want to know they can go 300 miles between charges — not because they typically do, but because they want to have the option.

The public charging infrastructure is not quite ready to support that option for everyone. It's good enough in some parts of the country like California, Washington, and Oregon, where I live, but I would say in 40 of the 50 states, EV infrastructure is not good enough for me to buy one — yet.

We don't rely on it, though, because when the electric charge runs out, the Jeep switches over and acts like a normal hybrid. We never have and never would charge it at a public station.

I'm happy with my hybrid for now.