PHEV Real MPG?

[Paulq]

I currently have a regular hybrid and, given that my weekly driving is mostly to and from work, I am considering a PHEV.  Any owners comment on what the real MPG is (assume mixed driving and sensibly, without killing it). I realise that this will vary based on a number of factors but am curious to understand real world economy by actual owners rather than the review blurb 🙂

Thanks.

[philip42h]

I rather doubt that the Real MPG of PHEV drivers is meaningful - as you say, it is entirely dependent upon journey patterns.

You know full well what you get from your hybrid today - and you will continue to get something similar for journeys beyond the limit of a charged traction Battery. All the journeys that you do within the range of a charged traction Battery will be pretty much free (of petrol consumption costs). If you know your journey profile you can work out, broadly, what MPG you can expect from a PHEV ...

[ColinB]

One major issue is the additional £330 or so VED that you would save to pay, which would potentially wipe out any savings on petrol that you'd make. Other factors such as BIK for company car drivers or the green benefits may counterbalance this, but would definitely put me off. 

[Paulq]

1 hour ago, ColinB said:

One major issue is the additional £330 or so VED that you would save to pay, which would potentially wipe out any savings on petrol that you'd make. Other factors such as BIK for company car drivers or the green benefits may counterbalance this, but would definitely put me off. 

Good point I'd completely forgotten about the VED premium.

[ernieb]

It’s difficult as you’ve already said but if your trips are generally less than a round trip of 45/50miles it might be worth exploring.  I do a lot of local miles and my current total EV driving Milne is 82%.  So either in EV mode or the car has not been using the ICE.  It would also depend on the unit cost of electricity.

[Paulq]

11 minutes ago, ernieb said:

It’s difficult as you’ve already said but if your trips are generally less than a round trip of 45/50miles it might be worth exploring.  I do a lot of local miles and my current total EV driving Milne is 82%.  So either in EV mode or the car has not been using the ICE.  It would also depend on the unit cost of electricity.

On a weekly basis my mileage is about 20 miles a day (town) Monday to Friday.  On top of that there are a couple of 30 mile Motorway trips an every other weekend a round trip of around 150 miles where I can recharge at either end.

The financials are key, obviously, and my guy feeling is that at this point it probably doesn't make sense.  I'd have to Shell out arround £7.5k for the PHEV and then the tax, as above, plus a wall charger for around £750.  The payback period would be significant.

[Flatcoat]

There is one cost you do not need and that is a wall charger. I charge mine with a granny charger via an external 13amp socket. However in all other respects I would never change a car simply to reduce fuel costs. It very rarely works out as anticipated. Wait until you would normally change and then I suspect a PHEV will work. And you may find the Corolla Cross is ok (if it comes as a PHEV?)

[philip42h]

1 hour ago, Paulq said:

On a weekly basis my mileage is about 20 miles a day (town) Monday to Friday.  On top of that there are a couple of 30 mile Motorway trips an every other weekend a round trip of around 150 miles where I can recharge at either end.

The financials are key, obviously, and my guy feeling is that at this point it probably doesn't make sense.  I'd have to shell out arround £7.5k for the PHEV and then the tax, as above, plus a wall charger for around £750.  The payback period would be significant.

If I've done the arithmetic correctly you are doing around 10k miles pa that would become EV miles in a PHEV. That would cost around £2,000 in petrol (10k miles at 20p/mile) or £667 in electricity (10k miles at 3 miles per kWh and 20p per kWh) - but it all depends on where the relative costs of petrol and electricity are and go ...

Which gives you a potential saving of around £1,333 pa.

If your cost to change is £7,500 (as above) plus the luxury vehicle tax of £1,675 you'd be looking at a pay back period of around 7 years ...

In the very best case of someone doing 50 miles a day for 300 days of the year - so 15,000 EV miles - the saving could be nearer £2,000 per year - but that's quite a lot of commuting miles.

Justifying the PHEV on cost grounds alone is quite difficult; justification on the basis of environmental impact or because it is just "more fun" is quite a bit easier.

[Centaur]

I wouldn't hold your breath over lengthy pay-back periods.  In my view, it's just a question of when, not if, they add road fuel duty and standard rated VAT to electricity used for motoring and, maybe, road pricing too.  Cheaper running costs are an incentive to get the public to switch to electric vehicles but it won't last - the lost fuel duty from dwindling petrol and diesel sales will have to be clawed back somehow.

My current car is now over ten years old, has done a lot of miles and is becoming very expensive to maintain.  That seemed reason enough to ponder a change and an HEV would save me a fair amount in running costs, due to the much improved mpg over my current car, the lower servicing costs and the long warranty period.  I have, though, ordered a new PHEV, as I like the car and the way it drives.  If it saves me an extra bit of money in running costs at the outset, then that's a bonus but it didn't figure in my buying decision at all.

Incidentally, the extra road tax didn't make any difference either, as pretty much all the AWD models in the HEV range (and many of the FWD ones with options) are now over £40k too.  Added to which, by the time that my car is delivered and a few more price increases have been introduced, the rest of the range may well have tipped over the £40k threshold too.

[ernieb]

I tend to agree that a lot of cars are now heading to the over £40K mark so that the excess road fund duty will potential hit a lot more drivers. In the US the poor stock of certain cars means they are still attracting huge purchase price hikes at the dealers and it's possible that we might also see something similar.  Looking once more at the number of manufacturers that are on short time, stopped production for chips or lack of parts from the Ukraine the situation only currently looks to get worse in the near term.

Having a dual fuel option is also a benefit in the current circumstances, when we had the recent crisis at the pumps it was comforting to know that all my local trips were being supplied via the mains rather having to join the massive queues.