I am keeping an eye on the car debate but I don't get it. A petrol car uses petrol - fine. An pure electric car has batteries that are charged up from the mains - repeatedly. But Hybrids:they have a petrol engine that also uses petrol to charge the batteries? So in effect, when on petrol, you will get terrible economy because you are charging up the batteries from petrol. And the car will be big and heavy. You still pay thousands more than a petrol car but this is "green"?
I have a PHEV, Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle. The batteries will charge when plugged in, or, charge while driving using regeneration when braking, coasting or decelerating .... so free power. As long as I drive steady, I can get an average of 25% of my total miles covered, without using any petrol at all. I can charge the batteries from the petrol engine as I drive, but, this does reduce the economy as you say. To be honest, this type of car is not really "green", its aimed at the "fleet market / company car". As an example, my colleague has the same car as me, but his is a modern 2ltr diesel with great economy and low emissions. But, he pays £330 a month more than my PHEV version, purely based on the difference between the emissions of the 2 cars. The petrol hybrid cars help people like me in saving tax, and they are a nod towards the governments who want to be seen to stop the sales of petrol / diesel only cars.
Wasn't there a survey of fleet petrol / electric hybrids that found barely any had used the cables to charge the batteries. They had been sourced purely for the tax benefits ? TB
I heard that too... On R4 this am, they said of all cars sold -either Hybrid or Leccy- currently outsell diesels.
Right: so a hybrid can still be plugged into the mains, like a pure electric car? And then you have the option on running somewhere purely on battery, but if the battery runs out you can switch to petrol?
Basically yes, but the range can be quite low on battery alone, say 30 to 40 ish miles for the current cars. Then it will be driving on the engine, or a combination of the engine and batteries, with the batteries topping up as you brake, coast etc. The technology in the cars is very clever, it will switch from battery to petrol and back again without you feeling a difference. The car will select the best power for the conditions. As mentioned above, if driven sensibly, I can get 25% of my total journey without using any petrol at all. My average journey is typically 150 to 200 miles, with M/way, town and country roads. Over the last 66,000 mile, the car has averaged 41 mpg, which is not bad for a large saloon car, with almost 300bhp and 0-60 time of sub 6 seconds.
I wonder when the government will realise that electric and/or hybrid cars wont generate taxes for them so will start to tax them to the hilt to claw the lost revenue back
They need to keep them attractive for a few more years, to move the volume from petrol and diesel cars. This will help them hit their promises of reduction in petrol and diesel only cars. Then the "claw back" will begin. In the short term, the traditional company cars are being hit, as mentioned above, 2 near identical cars, one PHEV and one diesel. Tax going up and up on the diesel, and coming down on the PHEV. It's the diesels etc that are funding the tax savings on PHEV's, for now.
Thanks. That is all useful stuff. When I get my license back, I am not planning to go with any of the new technologies - the price is just too high. I am looking at used in the 5-10k bracket. As the car will spend most of its days doing nothing but parked on my drive, I just can't justify it!
Depends what size call your looking for you can get the small Toyota for that and town driving and yearly road tax is next to bugger all - but can’t plug in hybrid version
I'll keep an eye on the market but I'm only looking for something small, 1 to 1.6 litre - I'd rather spend money on a motorbike!
Have a Volvo V50 e-drive. 1.6 diesel. Tax free! 56mpg average for us which is mainly driving 5 miles to the shop and back and occasionally 70 miles to London and back. Ours has done 100000 miles, 11 years old, still has the first exhaust.
I have a BMW 530e, 184hp 2.0l petrol engine coupled with a 113hp electric motor, it goes like stink but 19 miles on a full charge (pure electric) and a combined consumption of 42 isn’t particularly economical. Biggest draw for me was the BIK at 9% it was a no brainer. Down side is it’s addictive in sport mode and driving with the batteries on charge drains the pitiful fuel tank ever so rapidly, on the upside though are the Sainsbury’s points
