New Car Purchase: Petrol or Hybrid?

born_again

Herzlos said:

MX5huggy said:

I see no reason not to go for a full EV. Something like a Kia e Niro. 2nd hand you’ll get a bargain. Your fuel bill could be £200 per year plus a bit for you continental trip (where charging is a piece of cake). 

I was thinking the same but a Leaf or a Zoe.

The 1 or more European trips a year may cause problems though, so something newer with a larger range might be ok there.

Otherwise at that mileage I'd probably just stick with petrol as there won't be much cost saving from having a hybrid.

Neither have CCS as standard. Leaf is Chademo charging, not as widely supported. Zoe could have CCS but is was a extra.

Neither have very good range for european trips. 

bob_a_builder

Thinking of an EV ?
Look on Autotrader, select Electric,  put a search filter of <100miles or so
You'll find plenty of brand new EVs with full warranties which have been pre-registered by manufacturers due to the governments IC/EV quota/fine scheme with significant savings over the 'new' price, since they are just not shifting enough to avoid the upcoming government fine

Alanp

If the op only does low mileage, they may have (12 v) battery issues, my Yaris cross had a flat battery last Christmas and I had to call out Toyota assist, there are ways to combat this ( in the Toyota) , you can leave it in ready mode a couple of times per week, or use a smart charger if you are able, or, like me, buy a portable jump starter, it seems a lot of hybrid cars can have this issue, my last car, a mild hybrid, also had battery issues although it never went flat, if the op, does go the hybrid route, it might be worth checking owners forums to see if any battery issues exist with that particular model…

Goudy

Alanp said:

If the op only does low mileage, they may have (12 v) battery issues, my Yaris cross had a flat battery last Christmas and I had to call out Toyota assist, there are ways to combat this ( in the Toyota) , you can leave it in ready mode a couple of times per week, or use a smart charger if you are able, or, like me, buy a portable jump starter, it seems a lot of hybrid cars can have this issue, my last car, a mild hybrid, also had battery issues although it never went flat, if the op, does go the hybrid route, it might be worth checking owners forums to see if any battery issues exist with that particular model…

Yes, this can be an issue as the 12v battery on them is rather small as it no longer performs some heavy duty tasks, like cranking the starter motor.

One of my friends is a Toyota tech (now independent) and recommends using a solar trickle charger.
Most solar trickle chargers plug in to the OBD port (it's live all the time) and stick in the windscreen with rubber suckers or sit on the dash top in the window.

All but the most expensive (and largest) won't charge a flat battery, but most will put out enough to stop the 12v battery from going completely flat. Costs around £50.

 

WellKnownSid

We swapped two diesels last year for full-hybrid and an EV.  The Zoe we bought for £13k was 11 months old, had under 3k miles on the clock and came approved-used from a Renault dealer.  This was from a dealer 120 miles away because my local dealer wanted £19,500 the same car with 12,000 on the clock   

I would honestly recommend either an EV or full hybrid over any straight or mild-hybrid ICE - ours are both better to drive than the diesels they replaced which were already better than any petrol cars we've owned to date (straight six Mercedes excepted).  The hybrid we bought was a Jogger - fits the entire family in it and makes light work of long distances.  The power delivery means it'll happily see boy racers in their diesel A3s off the lights which no Dacia has a right to do

Distance is much less of an issue in an EV now - when we did a 700 mile round trip from Scotland to London earlier in the year - we just stopped off half way for lunch in Trentham and plugged into the public Tesla chargers there - half the price of the 'other charging networks' which are available.  We barely had time to toilet the kids and eat a pastry before Zoe told me she was ready to va-va-voom.  It may be down to timing, but we've been up and down the M6 and A1 all year and seen plenty of free charging bays everywhere we stop - a world away from even last summer.

At home I'm now charging at 6.7p per kWh overnight with EON which gets me around 4 miles.  Petrol locally is £1.33 at the moment so 1.33*4.55 = £6.05 per gallon.  The price of a gallon buys me £6.05 / 6.7p = 90.3 kWh of electrickery so when I times by 3.6 instead of 4 to account for losses that's still a healthy "325 miles per gallon" in old money.  That's good economy.

Goudy

WellKnownSid said:

 The hybrid we bought was a Jogger - fits the entire family in it and makes light work of long distances.  The power delivery means it'll happily see boy racers in their diesel A3s off the lights which no Dacia has a right to do

I think that just goes to show that these hybrid powertrains are now becoming the norm for entry level models.

I don't mean to sound disparaging towards Dacia, I have owned one.
What I mean it's starting to becoming the entry level powertrain on offer for most brands.

20 odd years ago you had the choice of petrol or you paid a bit more for a diesel.
Then soon after Hybrids start to become an costly option.

Since then diesel has pretty much disappeared from most (but not all) line ups and the options are petrol or hybrid or EV, with the EV's now being the costly option.

These days the likes of Toyota are just offering hybrids and the odd EV and I'm certain more will follow so the first rung on any brands model ladder will be some form of hybrid rather than straight petrol, at least for the UK market.

Savvy_Sue

I don't know a lot about this, but the friend I know who bought electric traded up, because she found she couldn't do her regular 'long-distance' trip on one charge, but it was a journey she was happy to do without a food break - possibly without any break at all. So if you have any regular trips like that, factor that into your equations. 

If you're persuaded back to petrol, I'd recommend an automatic. Once you're used to it, it makes driving so much easier, and as long as you only ever clobber your left arm / leg you won't need so much injury non-driving time. :-)

WellKnownSid

Savvy_Sue said:

I don't know a lot about this, but the friend I know who bought electric traded up, because she found she couldn't do her regular 'long-distance' trip on one charge, but it was a journey she was happy to do without a food break - possibly without any break at all. So if you have any regular trips like that, factor that into your equations. 

EVs do require people to change how they think about refuelling.  For me, one stop between Scotland and London is nothing when the kids need to stop every other services anyway (wee-wee to charge ratio of 7:1).

In our case the benefit is that having a 7kW filling station on our driveway has saved hundreds of miles and 24 hours of driving / pouring / driving home over the last year - sufficient to cover more than a few guilt-free Greggs sausage rolls and the odd pumpkin spiced latte at Charnock Richard.

WellKnownSid

Goudy said:

WellKnownSid said:

 The hybrid we bought was a Jogger - fits the entire family in it and makes light work of long distances.  The power delivery means it'll happily see boy racers in their diesel A3s off the lights which no Dacia has a right to do

Since then diesel has pretty much disappeared from most (but not all) line ups and the options are petrol or hybrid or EV, with the EV's now being the costly option.

Although Dacia's only electric vehicle is also one of the cheapest new cars on the market now - £14,995
https://youtu.be/T-BZ-SB10q8?si=HnYyKFG6qZanwykT

Desmond_Hume

The Jogger hybrid takes a glacial 10s to hit 60.  You’re not seeing much away off the lights with that kind of pace.