Hybrid, Plugin Hybrid or Full EV?

bloke91

Hi all,

Looking for advice and thoughts please.

Currently have a small hatchback and SUV in the household, both traditional petrol cars.  Small hatchback is used mainly for around the town and work commutes of 60 miles round trip 4 times a week.  SUV used for longer range trips for holidays and around the town driving.

It is time to replace the hatchback and I am toying with weather to focus on hybrid EV, plug in hybrid, or full EV?.

I am mindful of the additional cost with all types of EV's due to the battery and my current thinking is not to buy another traditional petrol due to EV's being the future, supposedly cheaper to run and new traditional petrol car sales expected to be banned.

My current thinking is leaning towards plug in hybrid as provides best of both worlds with anywhere between a 40 - 60 EV range and additional petrol engine that will kick in for longer journeys.  All be it with a significantly higher car purchase price and additional weight of battery compared with a traditional petrol car.

Be great to obtain your thoughts or experiences please.

Thanks

bryanb

Is it possible to charge at home?

henry24

There is a thread running a few posts below asking the same question it's currently on page 25 with answers, but basically you have to make your own mind up as some like them and others don't 

Keep_pedalling

Are you looking at buying new or used? If you can charge at home then a full EV would be ideal. You would never need to use a public charger for the milage you would use it for. 

Iceweasel

Why not a mild hybrid to replace both your current vehicles?

Many folks sre not even aware of their existence.

I have a diesel-electric, it does well over 60mpg and needs no charging connection at all.

It has a 48v 'power' battery as well as conventional separate 12v one.

To me this is the intermediate answer until fully electric vehicles can replace ICE engined vehicles for everyone with no downsides such as range, charging availability, and the downtime  needed on long journeys.

skycatcher

Iceweasel said:

Why not a mild hybrid to replace both your current vehicles?

Many folks sre not even aware of their existence.

I have a diesel-electric, it does well over 60mpg and needs no charging connection at all.

It has a 48v 'power' battery as well as conventional separate 12v one.

To me this is the intermediate answer until fully electric vehicles can replace ICE engined vehicles for everyone with no downsides such as range, charging availability, and the downtime  needed on long journeys.

May i ask what your vehicle is?

Keep_pedalling

I don’t think a mild hybrid offers much for the type of usage the OP is talking about, and I would not go anywhere near a diesel for mainly town driving.

Bigphil1474

OP, I have a relative with a full EV Tesla, and another one where they have two hybrid Toyotas in their household. They both love them, but they match their circumstances.

If you have home charging, then for me the full EV would work as you can pretty much drive for a week between charges and get all your commuting and tootling round town done for the cost of a single charge, preferably on cheap overnight electricity. Even an older second hand EV would get your commute done even if it needs charging up more frequently. A plug in hybrid would be a fine alternative if you only had one car, but not sure why you would want to while you have 2 cars. I don't see the point of a mild hybrid, getting 60mpg in a diesel electric sounds like the diesel is doing all the work. Get the right peg for the right hole though.

facade

If you can charge at home, go full EV.

Hybrids are the worst of both Worlds- very low range on electric and an IC engine to service, queue for fuel at a petrol station and have to use regularly to avoid modern rubbish fuel "going off" in the tank.

Cliched I know, but the sheer joy of filling up the car with electricity at home is tangible!

EVs are very relaxing to drive too compared to the wearying noise of an IC engine at speed.

The main downside with full electric is if you do want to drive to John o' Groats and back you have to find fast chargers on the way, and they can be thin on the ground the further you get from The Only City That Matters To Policy Makers, and the unit cost is astronomical compared to at home. Most EVs will do over 150 miles easily, so it isn't a hardship stopping for 20 minutes at a fast charger every 150 miles, you probably need a short break by then anyway.

ButterCheese

Absolute no on the Diesel hybrid unless you're willing to do unplanned 45 min trips down the motorway when you've done too many short runs and your DPF light comes on.

Full EVs suit a lot of people but there are a few lifestyle chnages you'll need to consider.  For example going away on holiday - factoring in stops and being prepared to wait for an available charger.  Not a problem for some, get out, have lunch, whatever.  But somehting to think about.  it might only be once a year but it's not fun if you have small kids who don't handle waiting for hours very well, on top of an already long journey.

E.g. we would probably get away with a full EV but we can't afford it.  We'd also have to pay for a charger to be installed.  When we want to go to up north twice a year (360 miles each way) it would probably ok as we tend to leave at 4am.  But adding an hours charging time to a journey that can already take up to 9 hours is not something I'd want to risk.  And forget going on the train, it would cost £400 for two of us

WellKnownSid

We went second hand when we replaced our second car with an EV.  This car was averaging about 1,600 miles a year.

Picking an EV which was 11 months old with 3k on the clock meant 60% off the new price and we were able to get a top of the range model with heated leather seats / heated steering wheel / etc for less than a three year old 30,000 mile base model 1 litre petrol equivalent.

In the last year we've covered over 10,000 miles on electric and now only use our main car (full hybrid) if we need the seven seats.  If you compare petrol at £1.31 a litre ==> £5.96 a gallon, that gallon would comfortably buy us over 300 miles worth of electricity, so the hybrid simply cannot touch it on running costs.

Better still, we recently changed tariff again which reduces the whole-house electricity cost overnight.  We are now in the territory that we are saving more money this winter on our electricity bill than the entire ownership costs of the EV.

We were glad to have moved away from two diesels back in 2023.  Diesel supply is extremely flakey locally - nothing worse than driving 10 miles to our nearest filling station to find they've run out AGAIN.  Filling up 'on the drive' is a complete game-changer.