PHEVs check my understanding /use

Specifically Superb iV / Passat GTE (or similar).

My commute is 20 miles each way with no easy option for during the day charging.  So I could get one way or just do urban bits on battery but not the whole thing.  That’s 4 days a week at my usual office.

I usually do a couple of 20 mile round trips on the weekend that would be covered by a full charge.  This bit definitely works.

Rest of my driving is dominated by longer A road and motorway trips (generally 50-200 miles).  Say an average of 150-200 miles/week on top of the other.  More if travelling for work.

The car has the extra weight of two adults and 150l less boot space.

Am I right in thinking that I’m not going to be getting a massive real world efficiency gain from the PHEV Vs. equivalent petrol model?  And I’m unlikely to get big electric savings because of the amount of time it’ll be running on hybrid/ice?

I think I know the answer but I don’t want to miss something.  🙂

I know someone is going to say it but an EV doesn’t seem to quite work yet (if only for cost/vehicle style) because of towing + gaps in charging infrastructure.   I’m planning to hold out for next gen of battery and charging tech with one last ICE/PHEV until the kids go to uni in a few years.

I have a Golf GTE, my commute is 12miles each way.
When I bought the car the battery was only showing 25miles when fully charged and no chance of making it to and from work.
Fortunately I had a new ev battery on recall and it now shows 29-31 miles full charge range and easily makes it there and back, but any cold where I need to demist the window and it’s close.
In winter I use the petrol engine in a morning to work, I need the heat anyway to defrost the windows etc and come home on pure ev.

If you switch modes tactically you can get really good mpg (+80’s) so drive to city edge switch to EV and opposite coming back.
If you “make progress” in GTE mode 30’s!

For me and ideal would be 50-100mile battery hybrid.

One thing to note is maintenance, oil needs changing very regularly, stop/ starts lot of cold to load running don’t help.

See if you can find a real word review with an equivalent mpg. Like this

Skoda Superb Estate iV Review

But it seems to that you’ll massively reduce emissions in your commute. At constant speed on a motorway you’ll gain little. But you gain whenever it goes stop start on a journey, Because the ICE is off.

I ran an A class PHEV for 3 years with a home charger and the ability to charge at work.

To give you an idea on motorway use, the best I saw on my regular 340 mile round trip to Nottingham, was 58 mpg average, starting with a full battery at home and not charging again until I got home. I would start the drive on battery until I hit the motorway, then switch over to the ICE and keep battery in reserve for driving around Nottingham and any traffic I might  get caught up in on the motorway.

Of course, the A class is a smaller car than the cars you mention, but these figures just give you a flavour. I suspect on runs like this, a diesel car would be more efficient.

I think with that use-case you’d get a significant decrease in fuel use – 80%ish of your daily commute would be covered, and the rest of the time you’re on a hybrid so likely 20% more efficient there. Your 50 mile trips would be something like 60% on electricity and longer trips are roughly hybrid only, but motorway so not a huge amount of difference.

if you’re buying new it might be that a non-hybrid petrol isn’t available any more

All the new model petrol passats are hybrid. Though some mild hybrid and some plug in. How mild I’m not sure (the old mild hybrids seemed pointless).

I’m assuming the PHEV also regen?

As above, it’s about more than just some electric miles.  Even when driving on ICE you’ll still be recovering energy that would be lost in a non-hybrid.  They do regen braking, but they also should use the battery to allow the petrol engine to operate more efficiently.  I believe these cars have several operating modes, you need to familiarise yourself with them.  The problem with the real world reports is that a lot of people don’t care and just drive, which can result in even worse efficiency.

I have an Octavia iV. When charged, I put it in hybrid mode and let the car sort it all out. Standard regen is fine, but you can achieve more by having it in ‘Sport’ mode. I think I’ve averaged about 60mpg overall in 3000 odd miles, mostly driven on hybrid mode and all my work journeys (75% of my mileage) starting with a full charge. Mixture of mostly A roads and motorway. When it has no charge and it runs like a normal hybrid, it is okay. Needs time for the battery to warm and start assisting you. Very short journeys with no charge are brutal on economy.

Octavia IV here that I got in December 2021.

14 mile each way commute, hilly and twisty country roads. In summer I can do this both ways and use about 60% of the battery if I drive nice but even then I seem to be as fast as anyone on the road. In winter the battery cuts out at about 25 miles as there is no battery warming. In winter I tend to run in Hybrid mode and see 120-200 mpg less the electricity cost of course but it does not use all of the battery in a hybrid commute.

When travelling I use battery mode in the slow urban areas and put it in hybrid mode but set to keep the battery level at say 80% on motorways and then switch back to electric when needed. I travel from Cumbria to Manchester as the main run and see about 65 mpg less the electricity cost for a 200 mile trip.

Long runs with no battery charge will see mid 50s mpg

It is a brilliant tow car from a power and stability point of view with a 1.1tn caravan but mpg is not up to diesel standards so often around 23mpg on a long run.

For me I think it works well but it will be replaced by a Polestar 2 of Ionic 5 at the end of the year due to changing company policy.

I know someone is going to say it but an EV doesn’t seem to quite work yet (if only for cost/vehicle style) because of towing + gaps in charging infrastructure. 

the towing factor may be real (and will make charging on the go a ball ache) but there’s a difference between towing a topper dinghy and a 6 berth caravan…

im sceptical that the gaps in charging infrastructure are as real as you think.

an EV doesn’t seem to quite work yet (if only for cost/vehicle style) because of towing + gaps in charging infrastructure.

What gaps are you thinking of?

i found when driving a phev – the worst way to try and drive it was as an electric car – its not an electric car.

Let it do its thing and just drive it in a smooth manner.

over 2 weeks of driving i was able to get just under 60mpg out of a 2l petrol fully loaded with 4 people and baby paraphernalia on mixed B road driving.

can absolutely see the value in a hybrid once you stop trying to treat it as “an electric car” and “as a petrol car” …. its shit at being either.

What gaps are you thinking of?

an obvious one being the fact that if you remove white male privilege – the chargers in many places are unattended and in places you don’t want your SO sitting waiting for 30 minutes on their own on a car to charge.

which is possibly a Scotland thing given thats where i have viewed this as i live there.

@trail_rat my wife has had an EV for over three years (and her female boss the same) and neither have ever expressed concerns about safety while charging in Scotland.  Are there public reports of people being attacked at chargers? Or is this just one of those things where men exaggerate a risk to subconsciously make women feel vulnerable?

which is possibly a Scotland thing given thats where i have viewed this as i live there.

No I think it’s a valid point wherever you are tbh.

Are there public reports of people being attacked at chargers?

There are lots of reports of lone women being attacked or threatened (and many more times that number of women who are made to feel unsafe but don’t report anything) at quiet locations when they are alone, particularly late at night.  EV chargers often fit into that category.

the towing factor may be real (and will make charging on the go a ball ache)

Yeah it will be a ball-ache but then paying for diesel the rest of the year is a bigger ball-ache.  This guy tows a decent weight van across Europe and is recharging every 180-200km, so the ultimate range is probably a bit more. That’s good enough for me, especially as most of my trips are barely that far anyway.  Even if I went to Scotland that’s only a couple of extra stops over what we’d have for lunch/coffee anyway.

Or is this just one of those things where men exaggerate a risk to subconsciously make women feel vulnerable?

Is that how you view white male privilege ? More telling of you than me that is.

Fwiw 4 of us 6 ft + guys were attacked with buckie bottles walking behind the chargers in gallowgate carpark on a Thursday night a few weeks back.

There are lots of reports of lone women being attacked or threatened (and many more times that number of women who are made to feel unsafe but don’t report anything) at quiet locations when they are alone, particularly late at night.  EV chargers often fit into that category.

I fully accept that women feel unsafe in certain locations (indeed it’s not just women, but society including women themselves does a great job of telling women they should feel unsafe) but I’m wondering if EV chargers are specifically perceived as problematic in the 30 seconds it takes to plug in and then unplug, or if people locked in their car whilst it’s charging tend to get approached by people?  Attacks on women from total strangers are actually pretty rare (compared to those from people they know/trust); I’m trying to imagine the motivation for a man looking to prey on women thinking that their best spot would be to hang out at the EV charger… where probably half the users will be men, virtually all will have a phone, be inside a lockable box for 98% of the transaction time… and where there’s a public utility likely to bring another customer along, either of which might have a dashcam etc….

so unless there’s actual reports of women being harassed at chargers I’m going to suggest this is actually as much White Knight and adds to women’s anxiety rather than addresses the underlying problem!   You sound like my FIL who has read so much daily express that he thinks women shouldn’t go out in the dark on their own and should certainly never park their cars anywhere in the dark except their own driveway.

(FWIW if you are charging “on the road” you generally want a big fast charger, and generally they aren’t in secluded dodgy areas; even the little 22kW bollard sized chargers aren’t usually put somewhere that the NEDs hang out because they would get vandalised.  I can’t recall ever going to a charger where I wouldn’t have been happy to leave my car charging for an hour or two whilst I went to do something).

Fwiw 4 of us 6 ft + guys were attacked with buckie bottles walking behind the chargers in gallowgate carpark on a Thursday night a few weeks back.

thing is Glasgow Buckie drinkers have always been far more respectful to women that big groups of guys so your wife could probably have charged her car there without incident – but if she didn’t like the look of it she could have gone to one of the many other charging stations within a mile or two radius… because it’s not an area that’s dreadfully served by chargers and you’d likely only be charging in the gallowgate if it was the start or end of your journey in which case the problem of getting attacked is likely greater between car and destination than between car and charger.

society including women themselves does a great job of telling women they should feel unsafe

Women: We feel unsafe because of all the negative experiences we have on a regular basis with men.

Men: No, you don’t, you’re fine stop worrying.

 if you are charging “on the road” you generally want a big fast charger, and generally they aren’t in secluded dodgy areas

They are often in industrial or commercial areas which are often deserted late at night (the ones I have used are).  It doesn’t have to be where neds hang out because neds aren’t alway the problem.  Men from any social stratum can be a problem, the wealthy entitled ones can be just as bad, from what I’ve observed.  The recent bear/man thing on social media should make you think. If women would rather be alone in the woods with a bear than a man, imagine how you feel when you are charging at 11pm on an industrial estate with no-one around then a flash car pulls up next to you, a man gets out, plugs it in then sits there watching you.

You sound like my FIL who has read so much daily express

I get most of this information from talking to women, and it’s how a lot of them feel.  You can tell them they’re wrong, if you like, but that’s gaslighting.  And you know what, attacks might be rare, but most women have actually been attacked or had a strongly negative experience.   How people feel is just as important when it comes to safety.

Had a Golf GTE too with that powertrain. Absolute worst case, start with near-empty battery and long motorway trip I saw 43mpg. It’ll still regen on braking and assist where it can.

Plug in as often as possible at home and it sounds like a good chunk of your miles would be electric. I found it didn’t make much difference how I used the battery as long as you arrive back home with it empty. Used to do Bromley to St Albans (100ish mile round trip, mix of traffic and motorway) on a battery plus 65+mpg on petrol. Even with the charging cost it was better than a diesel, and far more relaxing in the slow traffic than an engine switching on and off all the time.

Have a BEV now (egolf then Leaf e+) but if I needed towing the Passat GTE would be it. They work great as a short range EV that can go far when you need it.

Women: We feel unsafe because of all the negative experiences we have on a regular basis with men.

Men: No, you don’t, you’re fine stop worrying.

That’s not what I’m saying. What I am saying is – a lot of the perception of risk is created by people of both genders saying “shouldn’t go there is dark and dodgy” rather than actual evidence that that area is particularly high risk of women being attacked.

 if you are charging “on the road” you generally want a big fast charger, and generally they aren’t in secluded dodgy areas
They are often in industrial or commercial areas which are often deserted late at night (the ones I have used are).

Exactly – deserted.  There’s no one there to attack you, and nobody is hanging around there hoping to find someone to attack because the footfall is so low you need to to be be an a really shite attacker to pick that is a spot to go.

The recent bear/man thing on social media should make you think. If women would rather be alone in the woods with a bear than a man,

I have no idea what you are talking about.

imagine how you feel when you are charging at 11pm on an industrial estate with no-one around then a flash car pulls up next to you, a man gets out, plugs it in then sits there watching you.

And yet 99% of people plug in and stare at their phone.  In three years of charging in quite a variety of charger locations neither of the women EV owners I know have reported ever being stared at or made to feel uncomfortable by another “customer”.  If they did, they are in their car can lock the door, call a loved one or the police.  We are at risk of telling women they shouldn’t have EV’s because they have to charge them and there’s men around.

I get most of this information from talking to women, and it’s how a lot of them feel.   You can tell them they’re wrong, if you like, but that’s gaslighting. 

I don’t think that asking people to question if their fears are based on rational concerns or essentially geographic stereotypes is gaslighting. Quite the opposite – if trail_rat had written “my SO doesn’t like sitting it remote places in the dark” I probably wouldn’t even have responded – but that’s not what he wrote, he said HE doesn’t like his SO sitting there.  My point is reinforce the view that really they are vulnerable and shouldn’t go our on their own in the dark contributes to the problem.  I’m not disputing that many women feel vulnerable, I will dispute that many women are attacked in isolated areas – because thats an oxymoron.  And I’m certainly not disputing that men attack women or even just gain some pleasure from dominating women, or that there’s weird creepy men who will stare at women.  I’m sceptical that they are hanging round chargers.

And you know what, attacks might be rare, but most women have actually been attacked

Most women have not been attacked by total strangers, and certainly not whilst sitting in their car.

or had a strongly negative experience.

That’s my point.  From about the age girls hit puberty society starts telling them there’s loads of dodgy guys waiting to attack them and they spend their lives in fear of that.  Now there are dodgy guys around, but not as many as we tell them, and the places where the dodgy guys are are not the places we tell them to be most wary of.  We convince ourselves that a woman taking a shortcut through an unlit park, or across some woods is particularly vulnerable.  In reality she’s probably much more at risk on a bus, in a pub, a mcd’s, a party or somewhere else “with lots of people around”.

How people feel is just as important when it comes to safety.

Absolutely – but part of the reason women feel vulnerable is because society tells them they should.  Trailrat got attacked with bucky bottles.  I got mugged with a knife (a long time ago) not that far from where he was.  Society doesn’t tell us we should not go out in the dark, but women should be careful…   I don’t know any woman who has been physically assaulted by a stranger, but I know loads of blokes who have.   Actually society gaslights us all to believe that dark and isolated = not safe for women, it exploits our irrational fears.

However to bring us back to the topic – are there really gaps in the charging network where the OP (who I’m pretty sure is a bloke) – either on paper or on the ground because they are in “no go zones” for his 50-200 miles A-road and M-way trips?  I’d genuinely be interested in some example trips where he doesn’t think he’d be able to charge?   I do get it requires more planning and potentially has some inconvenience attached for a 150+ mile there and back trip except in the most top end vehicles.   I also get that towing will reduce range and make charging more effort so if I was doing it regularly on distance that would require a charge I wouldn’t bother.  if its a couple of times a year, then it might be less clear cut.

part of the reason women feel vulnerable is because society tells them they should

How exactly do you know this? Have you done or read extensive research or are you just projecting your experiences onto women?

I don’t know any woman who has been physically assaulted by a stranger

I do, but it’s not just about physical assault. It’s about verbal assault or just threatening behaviour. Did you not hear about #metoo?  Are you honestly going to tell all those women to stop worrying and it’s all in their imagination? Based on your life experience AS A MAN?

Exactly – deserted.  There’s no one there to attack you

Mate.. you really have no idea how these things work. When there are instances of violence, often it happens precisely because no-one else is around. If you were a rapist or a pervert wanting to assault women, would you go to places where there would be lots of people or possibly a lone woman and no-one else?

And yet 99% of people plug in and stare at their phone.

Well that’s quality research, I’m convinced. When my wife comes home I’ll tell her that it’s all fine and she’s just worrying too much.  **** sake.

if I remember correctly the OP said ‘no EVs’.

Fair enough. I won’t touch on our experience using only EVs since 2019 especially as we’re not in Scotland, nor do we tow anything. I now do not want to drive a non-EV.

personally I wouldnt be buying a PHEV with my own money, its the worst of both worlds.
either stick with ICE or go all in on BEV.

If you can charge at home thats where you’ll be charging most of the time, even charging out and about you just need to charge enough to get home.

my wife doesnt even like charging at home, she’s not worried about safety, she just cant be arsed plugging it in :\

Mate..

I’m sure you are trying to de-escalate a debate, but are you aware than many people find being called “mate” by someone who is not their mate patronising and borderline offensive?

I’m walking away from this thread now, because I’ve got better ways to waste my time than arguing with men about why women should feel vulnerable.  Of course if anyone has any actual examples of women being attacked or even made to feel particularly uncomfortable (more so than anywhere else in life) at EV chargers I remain interested.

Thanks all, long day at work so only just checking in.

I am, as correctly surmised, “a bloke” and I’ve no real issues with charging up most places although the prospect of piddling away extra time  sat waiting for or on chargers in bland petrol/service stations at night or hunting for unnecessary artisan tea shops with a charger on a long journey has limited appeal.  It would not impact Mrs dweller much and she’d likely be relatively unphased unless it was a total armpit of a place.  That’s her nature not a comment on the whole debate above, which I’m not getting into as I’m not knowledgeable enough.

Thanks for the PHEV comments.

As regards EVs this is what I think is needed to deal with our use:

To tow 750kg, with a 75kg nose weight – this is just a need regardless of power train.

Have a wltp base range of >300 miles to allow for range drop when towing (seems to be about 50%), or cold weather, most mileage being at 50mph+, traffic jams, age related battery degradation and for occasions where I’m in places where ultra fast charging is challenging because of scarcity of chargers or issues accessing them (e.g. North Wales biking / walking trips, Weymouth for sailing and various places I end up for work).

Have the ability to do a 120 mile top up in 30 minutes so it doesn’t massively impact work trips and cause unreasonable delays to regular trips from Hampshire to Suffolk.  I don’t want to turn a routine 3.5 hour journey into 4.5 hours on a Friday night. That’s the difference between getting there at 10.30 and 11.30pm.

Carry a family of four and a large lab sized  dog + a weekend of luggage.  If it can’t do that I need a roofbox which further adds to the range/charging headaches/amount of public charging we would need to do. That detracts from the economic and enjoyment case.

If someone can tell me that something is out there that ticks those boxes as an EV for £20,000 I’ll go and take a look but right now I don’t think such a vehicle exists.

For comparison you could pick just about any  ICE large estate or mid size SUV from autotrader and it’d be able to tick everything off at that price (except maybe needing a roofbox).

I like tech, I love the idea of an EV environmentally and as a power train for day to day use but there is a limit to (1) my budget and (2) the loss of functionality vs. premium being paid.

Right now I don’t think our budget will give us a viable EV car that will last 5-6 years/90k of our ownership without a major compromise on function that I’m not prepared to make. Please feel free to correct me as I’m genuinely open to viable options.

Last time I asked this the suggestion was £40k + SUVs like the iX3.  This isn’t viable.  I can see a few EV6’s in the mid 30s now and some Ioniqs in the 20s but how are their batteries going to be in 90,000 miles time?

There are Ioniq 5s for £21k at 2 years/4k miles.

how are their batteries going to be in 90,000 miles time?

Battery degradation is not really a thing any more. The cars that are now old were early efforts, and a lot has been learned since then. Hyundai in particular had really good battery management from the start. Our Ioniq Electric has 75k miles and has the same range on the same journeys as the leased one it replaced, which was brand new. According to the internet community of owner feels who monitor these things, noone sees more than about 2% drop in the high mileages that are available e.g. 150k or so. This seems to be the case across the board. Even my ex-taxi Leaf which had 67k was still showing full battery health and the range was close to the official figure. I was getting better range than most other drivers, and they are old tech.

Re cold weather, we get 190 miles in summer and 170 in winter. If you don’t crawl along in a queue for 10 mins on a cold morning without pre heating at the heater on 25C the cold doesn’t make too much difference in my experience.

I wouldn’t hesitate to get an EV in your situation except for the dog thing. I don’t know if the Ioniq 5 boot is big enough for a dog. Re towing, you can lose half the range (or a bit less) towing a caravan but it sounds like you are towing something smaller?

Also the Hyundai/Kia/Genesis cars can add 200 miles in 12 minutes or something silly at the fastest chargers.

Yeah it will be a ball-ache but then paying for diesel the rest of the year is a bigger ball-ache. This guy tows a decent weight van across Europe and is recharging every 180-200km, so the ultimate range is probably a bit more.

Paying for fuel isn’t really a ball ache. It’s a cost that I already incur and moving from an MPV to something else is going to reduce that cost regardless.  An EV will be overall cheaper and cleaner of course which gets a 👍 from me in isolation.

The Imgur link you put up was genuinely interesting.  If he’s getting 180-200km/charge that’s about 120 miles, which confirms my “about half” rule of thumb I’ve been working to on range as I’d guess I’d get a bit more with the boat stacker (higher coefficient of drag, smaller frontal area, lighter weight).

That’s on a warm day and what looks like a spangly new car so at that point a limited loss of battery condition/range and optimal running / charging conditions.

Someone asked about an example of why I think the infrastructure has holes…

This isn’t a regular trip but it’s one we have done for sailing and it’s 2+ hours / 90 miles. Mix of motorway, dual and single carriageway and some congested bits through towns.  Arrival time tends to be early (around 900 is common) and we are afloat all day so I can’t pop off and buy an expensive coffee and read a book while an EV charges. This means charging time has to be added to the overall trip length somewhere.

When we do this in an ICE we’d be up at 6 and leave around 7.  After pack up it is usually about 530pm before we leave site for our campsite or journey home.

An Ioniq5 long range would comfortably get us from near Portsmouth to Weymouth/Portland (90 miles) fully loaded and a bit of headroom for traffic and running about mileage with no worries on a full charge.

For the return leg I’d have to find a decent rapid charger early on to get a boost of 100miles (50 towing miles) as there’s nothing on the main roads until Poole (about 30 miles).

I guess I would need to charge at Portland for about an hour (max available is 50kW and only a couple of those that are not in town centre car parks) before leaving and then stop again for a Rapid/Ultra Rapid further along.  Realistically with no queuing for chargers around an hour gets added to the base journey time.

I fully accept that this trip would by contrast be a total doddle with a fishing rod and a packed lunch instead 🙂.  I think one of the differences between this and going away with our camping trailer or a caravan would be that our holiday would involve taking the car places where we would find a natural rhythm to charging in public car parks while doing other things that we enjoyed and on the getting there we are aiming to arrive later in the day not early in the morning.

Crossed posts with @molgrips.

Going through that exercise above tells me those trips could be done (Pwllheli where we went last year would be very tricky though).

Also the Hyundai/Kia/Genesis cars can add 200 miles in 12 minutes or something silly at the fastest chargers.

This is indeed brilliant but there aren’t really enough of them (yet) to rely on that as an ownership model/regular need now.  We wouldn’t need to but a better spread of 50kW+ in more areas would make me a lot more comfortable.

I reckon a trailer (if that’s what you have) even with a small boat would be significantly more efficient than a caravan, but there’s not a lot of info out there.

Re Portsmouth to Pwllheli – that’s going to be tricky.  There are quite a few chargers around the edge of Wales so for me (from Cardiff) if I drive up the A49 there are plenty BUT the big issue if towing is how to actually get to a station. You need to un-hitch, which means either dropping your van in a layby (which is far from ideal) or sticking to motorways where you could (in theory) leave your van in the caravan section with a sign on it saying ‘please don’t fine me I’m charging my car’ and then go and charge.

There is an 8-stand charging hub at Corwen on the A5 that would probably be usable, and it’s accessible 24/7, once there you could head to Pwllheli easily. But that might be your last port of call since there are no rapids at all on the Llŷn, you’ve only got what looks like 4 devices in Porthmadog.  Plenty of fast (7kW) though so once you’re at your destination you could top up. Or check with the camp site to see if you can use the EHU and the granny charger.

This kind of stuff is a pain, for sure – you have to want to do it to get the benefits of EV motoring the rest of the time.  For me it’s worth it as EVs are so good the rest of the time.  Chargers are going in very quickly though so if you can wait, the situation will be better next year and the year after.  And the EV you might buy will probably be cheaper too.  There’s also a 25.4kwh Merc C-class which does a good 60-70 miles on electricity, in a few years they might be in budget.  That said the new Passat GTE has 19kWh.  Although I’m not sure how good the battery management is on these – in the past, PHEVs don’t have fancy cooling and management so you could toast the batteries relatively quickly if you use the EV mode all the time.

Rather than start a new thread has anyone run one of the VAG PHEV vehicles to 100,000 miles + (Passat GTE, Superb/Octavia IV)?

I am seriously eyeing up a Superb IV, 3 1/2 years old, 70k at about £15k.  Reviews suggest Skoda will repair or replace the battery pack up to 100k / 8 years if it drops below 70%.

I like the idea of running it EV through town in the morning and the ability to still do decent mpg on the motorway and combined oomph when desired.  Drowning in local roadworks at the minute that have a 2 year lifespan so it’s got appeal over a diesel for clogging reasons.

I note it’ll need more regular oil changes and is dribble charge only so a waterproof EV proof socket mounted in the drive would be on my (an electrician’s) to do list – probably on it’s own RCD as the distribution board is handily on that wall).