Changing car later in the year and considering a hybrid, I live 17 miles from work and they have just installed charging points in the work cat park, so in theory I can commute totally on electric power. I’m just wondering how much it costs to charge a PHEV at home? How much roughly would my electricity bill.go up?
Cheers.

how much range has the proposed car got? if 35 miles you could just charge it at work and never at home..

negligably is the answer either way

You should be able to get 17 miles out of a PHEV and then charge at work. Efficiency of PHEVs is normally poor so let’s say 2 miles per kWh that’s 8.5 kWh per day at 15p a kWh which works out at £1.28 a day. That’s worst case. If you get more than 17 miles out of electric power only then charging to 100% for free at work will get you back home with some charge still left.

But bear in mind that the fuel economy of the engine takes a fair hit because of the batteries.
My former boss had a Outlander Phev, he drove to work and charged at the office day to day, but he was pretty miffed about never seeing 30 mpg on a motorway run, when the Diesel Passat it replaced could get 60mpg.

Not saying they are a bad thing, but depends on your specific usage case. (is my understanding)

that’s what people I know who’ve had hybrids who now all have full BEV’s. The Hybrid is the worst of both worlds. Not so bad if you can do the commute on electric but you get hit on journeys that use the engine.

For example a mate with a BMW 330e used to leave the drive with a 30+ mile electric range and a 22 mile round trip to work. The real world range was around 22 miles…so touch and go for him as to wether the engine would come on during his return journey. Was a Dual Carriageway journey and cruising at constant speed is not an electric vehicles strong point, but still if he took an alternative non-dual carriageway route that was a couple of miles further it was the same touch and go story.

Range of all the cars I’m looking at is around 35 miles.
Everything I’m reading is saying to keep the battery at 100% as much as possible.
I’m hoping to get something like a GTE or Leon FR that’s sporty but really efficient when in Manchester traffic on my commute.

Which PHEV are you considering. As mentioned Outlander’s are poor on fuel efficiency, I had a Golf GTE on full electric 26 miles was achievable easily, more was possible. Petrol mode only was high 50s and low 60s, then hybrid was around 72. Charge mode I used once, I got under 30 mpg so never used it again.

Yeah GTE is one shortlist. Any of the ‘warm hatchbacks’ a class, leon, gtte.

If in petrol mode I’m getting anything over 40ish I’m happy as other than the odd long drive to the lakes or Wales I drive fairly close to home, friends and family.

Loved mine was a great little hatchback that goes when you want it to. The shallow hatch started to get annoying once my youngest took up hardball cricket as the car would be loaded up with pretty much just her equipment. Pretty well specced out car, handles well, the GTE button is great for those overtaking moments.

Drac how do you think it would fair space wise for a camping biking trip? Bikes on a bike rack but would a gte carry tent and all camping/biking equipment?

Our Kuga has a 14kWh battery, and gets between 35-40 miles range.

Even with a depleted battery it’s pretty clever and I’ve seen some trips where we’ve got 70mpg.

cruising at constant speed is not an electric vehicles strong point

I’ll often see the car cruising along at 70 just on electric power, it only needs the engine if you’re accelerating.

If most of the journey is the commute why not full electric? You’ll be lugging around the normal engine for no need adding weight & affecting economy. If a full electric hasn’t the range for the occasional trip could you hire?

If most of the journey is the commute why not full electric?

For us, charging is a problem. We don’t have a drive way so we’re reliant on charging infrastructure two streets away (we’ve asked for a lamppost charger but it’s a long wait).

No charging at Mrs Dubs work (school) either.

Maybe when this PCP runs out we’ll go to full electric.

Drac how do you think it would fair space wise for a camping biking trip? Bikes on a bike rack but would a gte carry tent and all camping/biking equipment?

2 people yes but a family I’ll be some tactical packing.

I an easily see 55-60 mpg on a run in my 330e when charged
Same journey with an empty battery is 45-50mpg.

Summer range on battery is 27-30 miles
Winter range is 20-22

Drac

I had a Golf GTE on full electric 26 miles was achievable easily, more was possible. Petrol mode only was high 50s and low 60s, then hybrid was around 72. Charge mode I used once, I got under 30 mpg so never used it again.

I don’t understand how your petrol only figures are so much better than our 1.4 TSI 150 engine could achieve. The long term average was 44 mpg. Surely with the extra weight of the batteries and motors it should be considerably worse, not better.

edit: or were those the instant readout from the dash rather than longterm?

The points about use case are spot on – I would say PHEV is either best of both worlds or worst of both depending on how you will use it. We got used GTE, would have gone full electric but weren’t any available at price point – has been a success as use it for regular trips typically ~15 miles each way and charge at home so most usage hardly touches. If it were ~50 miles each way would be worst of both worlds

Camping/biking trips is just us two and the dog.
Also holmesy I think I fit into the best of both worlds category with you, I think as soon as the commute is 25+ miles it’s not an option. There seems to be a narrow window you need to fit into for a hybrid to really work and I think i fit into it.

were those the instant readout from the dash rather than longterm?

From the dash but I’ve never found them to be less accurate than using maths. Same car with my wife driving would get lower 50s.

Camping/biking trips is just us two and the dog.

Easily then as you can drop the seats.

I think they very much depend on your usage. The older PHEVs like the Outlander are rubbish but the new ones much better.
My journeys for work are generally within a few miles of home and they don’t pay me for mileage within 10 miles of the office and my office is 5 miles away. Most of our day to day mileage is close by too. So electric will be used most of the time. We can charge at home.
However other journeys will be hundreds of miles into areas which don’t have the charging infrastructure right now.
I also can’t get a higher range electric car as a company car nor one with a decent boot size for bikes etc so my choices are either a 160 ish mile electric car which might be ok for the local journeys but useless for other stuff or a PHEV which will work well for everything we need it for and actually cost me less than the electric car anyway. I can get an electric SUV type car but it’ll cost me over £200 a month for a small battery capacity/boot vehicle or the 205bhp Octavia Estate iV which will cost me around £160 a month all in.

It all very much depends on your usage and what is available to you.

I am totally expectant that this will be my last ICE car though, I’ll have the Skoda for 4 years and I’ll expect that there will be much better infrastructure and I’ll be able to get a higher range car with fast charging and decent interior space which will cover all my needs in one go.

I don’t understand how your petrol only figures are so much better than our 1.4 TSI 150 engine could achieve

even with the battery depleated its still a hybrid, so it will shut off the engine when its not producing power and use regenerative braking to not waste as much energy when slowing down. Weight is pretty much free to move around once it is moving – its only accelerating it which is costly, and if you can re-claim that acceleration cost under braking, it becomes a negligable cost.

I am on my second PHEV now. 50 miles a day commute. Charge at home each night. Current car is a Volvo XC40. Am averaging 80mpg for the commute with added cost of a complete battery charge – about £1.30 per day.
For me the choice of cars was also driven by the boot size. Last car was a BMW 225xe. Boot sizes of both the Volvo and the BMW are the same as for non-PHEV versions. Many other PHEV models have severely compromised boot space to fit the batteries. Sometimes smaller fuel tanks too.

Your daily cost is also a function of how you drive. With both of my last two cars, driving over 65mph has notable effect on fuel consumption. Enjoying the acceleration too much is also an added cost. Current car will average over 50mpg when battery used up on mixed route journeys. Has advantage over a full EV in having range of over 500 miles.

For me, the daily cost is better than my past diesels which only managed about 50 mpg in real world (Renaults and a Citroen) Lease cost of PHEV also much less than diesel.

If you do what lots of company car driving PHEV owners apparently do (using as a tax con), such as drive like an idiot, not charging each day, it will cost more overall than a diesel or modern petrol car driven sensibly.

5lab

even with the battery depleated its still a hybrid, so it will shut off the engine when its not producing power and use regenerative braking to not waste as much energy when slowing down. Weight is pretty much free to move around once it is moving – its only accelerating it which is costly, and if you can re-claim that acceleration cost under braking, it becomes a negligable cost.

Yes that’s probably it, just seemed like a big jump from 44 to 60.