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Keep Q5 charged and it’s a cheap performer

For me, a plug-in hybrid, or PHEV, is still the sensible staging post en route to giving up the internal combustion engine completely and going fully electric.

Use a PHEV properly, which means keeping it fully charged so that short journeys can be done under electric power only, and you will not only help keep the air clean where you live but you will save money.

Greenpeace hates PHEVS and reckons they’re a con that are almost as bad as diesel or petrol vehicles.

But that’s nonsense if the vehicle is used correctly.

Of course, to do that you will need to have the facility to charge a car overnight which generally means having off-street parking such as a driveway.

With the above thoughts in mind, here we have Audi’s latest PHEV that sits alongside the company’s e-tron branded full EVS.

It’s the Q5 TFSI e. Full name for the one we’re testing is... S Line 50 TFSI e Quattro S tronic.

This has a total power output from its 2.0-litre petrol engine and electric motor of 295bhp, while the 55 version has the same petrol engine but produces a combined power output of 362bhp.

Do you really need that extra power or can you live with ‘only’ 295bhp? Since even the 50 version costs £53,495 without options I’d suggest that you can.

The extra power comes from the petrol engine as both the 50 and 55 use the same 141bhp electric motor. This is powered by a 14.1kwh battery that will give you an electric range of around 25 miles all the way up to motorway speeds, but to do that is pointless as high speeds will reduce your electric range considerably.

Under electric power the Q5 is serenely quiet and vibration free.

There’s hardly any tyre noise, the suspension is quiet and you can barely hear the electric motor working. The ride is good and our test car is on conventional steel springs. Vorsprung-spec versions come with air suspension which is likely to be even more comfortable.

The Q5 PHEV is available in both regular and Sportback body styles but we’re testing the former. As you’d expect, the quality inside the Audi is good and the equipment level is impressive, too. Heated and powered seats are standard in all trim levels, as is Audi’s virtual cockpit digital instrument pack.

That lithium ion battery pack robs 95 litres of boot space so the PHEV Q5 has 450 litres of luggage space with the rear seats in place.

Rather more annoying is the lack of tailored storage for the charging cables.

You get two of them with the car – one for a domestic socket which will

charge the battery in around six hours and another for a 7kw Type 2 home wallbox which will take a couple of hours to replenish the battery’s charge.

Well made, spacious and refined to drive, the Audi Q5 plug-in hybrid might be expensive to buy, especially if you go for the most powerful version in top trim and then add loads of options.

But it won’t be expensive to run, so long as you keep it charged.