Should my next car be a plug-in hybrid?
I’m thinking of changing my current car – a 1.4-litre petrol Volkswagen Golf Estate – for a plug-in hybrid. My work commute is just two miles each way, although it does involve driving up a steep hill, but I probably average around 15-20 miles a day including family drop-offs. I also make occasional longer journeys to visit relatives, go on holiday and drop my children off at university.
If I had a plug-in hybrid, I could use it on pure electric power alone most of the time, charging it up at night. It would also be capable of making longer journeys without me having to worry about where and when to charge the battery up en route.
I live in rural west Wales and want to stick to a brand with a main dealer nearby. This limits me to Volkswagen, Ford, Hyundai and Peugeot.
Do you think a plug-in hybrid is the best option for me? And, if so, which model would you recommend? John Glasby
WHAT CAR? SAYS…
A plug-in hybrid (PHEV) does sound like a good choice; it gives you the benefit of electric motoring on a daily basis, with the back-up of a conventional engine for longer trips.
A PHEV is likely to be pricier than a conventionally powered model to buy, but you’ll pay no or very little road tax and won’t be liable to pay a congestion charge to drive into cities, while your daily driving should cost at least 50% less than it would in a petrol or diesel car if you keep the battery topped up.
On average, it costs 12p per mile to drive a petrol-engined car but just 5p per mile using electric power, based on charging up at home at a rate of 14p per kilowatt hour – the national average on a standard single-rate tariff. There are also a growing number of special electricity deals for those charging up a car at home, such as very low night-time tariffs, and one of these could reduce your running costs further.
The main disadvantage of running a PHEV comes when its batteries are flat; their dead weight has a negative effect on fuel economy, so your occasional long drives could cost more on petrol than they do in your current Golf.
Our favourite PHEV, the Skoda Octavia iv Estate, can officially do 41 miles on a charge and has a smart, roomy interior and a cosseting ride. However, with no Skoda dealer nearby, you could go for the Volkswagen Passat GTE Estate, which uses the same electric motor and 1.4-litre petrol engine as the Octavia. Its official electric range is slightly shorter, at 36 miles, but its real-world range of around 25 miles will be enough for your usual daily drives.
Its ‘smart hybrid’ mode automatically switches between electric and petrol power to minimise fuel consumption, and for longer drives you can input your destination into the sat-nav and leave the car to work out which part of the route is best suited to battery power.
‘On average, it costs 12p per mile to drive a petrol car, versus just 5p for electric power’