PHEV/Hybrid Owners?

Soldato
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22 Dec 2004
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Long time no see folks!

Done some searching but not found anything... we don't appear to have a thread...

Any PHEV owners? EV owners alike welcome too!

My Volvo XC60 T8 is on order at present and really looking forward to its arrival in all its 390bhp Glory :D:D

A couple.. do you have a home charger? If so do you notice much of a difference to your Electric bill? I'll be charging mine at work (once bored of the power anyway...)

Feel free to discuss away anything!
 
Soldato
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My optima PHEV has a battery that covers 31 miles and costs about 85p to charge. This is on a standard tariff and charging at random times of the day and night.
I'm bored as anything with it after 2 years, but with 390bhp hopefully you won't have that problem.
 
Soldato
OP
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The PHEV side of it has obvious fuel savings if used right, I know for the first month or two it wont be but 85p isnt bad at all though! Just deciding whether to charge to charge at both or just at work tbh.

I've test drove a few including the Outlander PHEV, Mini Countryman EV, and the XC90, I missed a ULEV grant with my lease company on the XC90 so had to settle on the 60 but still plenty of family room and no boot space compromise either with 7 seats at least. It should be certainly more comfy than my A4 with certain things!
 
Soldato
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If you can’t get from work to home and back to work again on electric then you should charge in both places.

They only make sense if you charge it and use it on electric as much as possible. I wouldn’t worry about your home electric bill when the cost of petrol is 3-4x more for the same number of miles.
 
Soldato
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Interestingly enough, there are lots of talks about getting EV and PHEV cars to be plugged into the grid to act as electricity reservoirs and use them to discharge to the grid during peak demands ie when people get home or during weekend.
 
Man of Honour
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The only reason I don't have an ev now is that I don't have a driveway to charge it at home, or the right layout of land to make one (inconsiderate edwardians), and so 100-150 miles isn't enough range to sensibly manage public charging (I'd have to charge twice a week for safety).

Some of the newer evs with a 300 mile range are much more feasible in my situation.

A phev makes no sense at all without home charging, you are better off with a self charging hybrid.

Most of the ioniq ev owners I know have podpoint installed at home, whether it's any good or just the preferred partner I don't know.
 
Man of Honour
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Like battery rental/lease, which isn't cheap.

Also EVs are way more expensive to actually buy and unless you want to pay Tesla money for something slightly interesting, you pretty much get an AC unit on wheels. Like a Leaf or Zoe.

Battery lease/rental isn't common, and most cars sold are boring regardless of their power source.
 
Soldato
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Out of all the EV's on the market only the Zoe regularly came with a battery lease so put that one back in the box.

Zoe = Clio - hardly an inspiring car unless you buy an RS version which hardly anyone does.
Leaf = Pulsar - hardly an inspiring car
eGolf = Identical to a standard ICE Golf
Ionic = Identical to ICE
Kona = Identical to ICE

etc. etc.

It's only the Tesla that doesn't have a direct ICE replacement within its own rage. The reason most EV's are a bit boring is because they are designed to be just as boring as their ICE version.
 
Soldato
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Out of all the EV's on the market only the Zoe regularly came with a battery lease so put that one back in the box.

Zoe = Clio - hardly an inspiring car unless you buy an RS version which hardly anyone does.
Leaf = Pulsar - hardly an inspiring car
eGolf = Identical to a standard ICE Golf
Ionic = Identical to ICE
Kona = Identical to ICE

etc. etc.

It's only the Tesla that doesn't have a direct ICE replacement within its own rage. The reason most EV's are a bit boring is because they are designed to be just as boring as their ICE version.


BMW i3 and i3s? Jaguar I-Pace? Audi E-Tron?

As for the OP’s question a hybrid/EV running on electricity is far cheaper than petrol, depreciation aside. Charge at every opportunity possible. It’ll be something like 3p a mile vs 12p for a middle of the range petrol (very approximate!).
 
Soldato
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BMW i3 and i3s? Jaguar I-Pace? Audi E-Tron?

I'll give you the i3, that car is pretty unique in the BMW range but not the other two.

The E-Tron has very similar ICE equivalents (Q5/7/8) and the EV borrows significantly from them much like the Clio/Zoe.

The I-Pace is pretty much an EV version of the E-Pace, sure its built from the ground up but the two cars occupy the same segment and are pretty similar if you look past the older design of the E-Pace interior.
 
Soldato
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I-PACE is nearly 4.7m long, E Pace is under 4.4 and doesn’t have a 400bhp variant... not really similar segments at all before we even get to price.
...It’s closer to an F Pace anyway.

That said I’m not really sure what question that’s answering :p
 
Associate
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Just picked up a 2019 BMW i3 120Ah on Friday. It's great, very nippy, the instant power and torque, no gear change etc, up to 40-50mph its hilariously quick for a little noddy car! Even at motorway speeds it picks up well too. I know the looks are marmite, but I'm a big fan, I like how different it is and the white/black contrast. 150 mile real world range, upto 180-200 in the summer... plenty for our usage. Rapid 50kw chargers are all over too and charge 0-80% in 40 min.

It's via Evezy, which are an all electric car 'subscription' company. For £399 a month all in with insurance etc I'm well impressed. They must be doing these on a loss leader to be honest, and how long it will last remains to be seen - but a 1 month rolling contract means no long term commitment from my end so if it doesn't work out then so be it! Not wanting to shove it down everyones throat but if anyone else fancies a car from them then I have a referral code for £50 of your first month and £50 off for me, just fire me a PM if interested.

https://evezy.co.uk/our-vehicles/bmw-i3-120/
 
Associate
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8 Nov 2005
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862
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London
I have a Merc C350E estate. I think it probably has about the worst electric only range of any PHEV, but for my usage it's OK - I live in central London and so most of my short journeys are done in electric only mode. I have a private drive so had a PodPoint charger installed on the front of the house.

Would definitely consider going full electric next time, but I prefer a proper estate to an SUV.
 
Soldato
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Birmingham
I would say it completely depends on your mileage and more importantly the make up of that mileage whether it's worthwhile (or even feasible) to get an EV at the moment.

If you do low mileage, then the higher purchase/lease cost of the EV will wipe out any savings in fuel

If you do high mileage, but on longer journeys where you have to use public charging then the costs of charging can be on par with ICE - e.g. Ecotricity charge 30p/kwh (15p if you use them for home electric), in my Zoe I get on average 3.6 m/kwh, which works out at ~8.34p/mile, which is only marginally better than an economical diesel. On top of that you have the inconvenience of waiting for a charge - twiddling your thumbs at a services for an hour isn't exactly feasible if you're on a business trip somewhere or running late for a meeting!

If you do lots of miles, but in (relatively) short journeys where you have time to charge at home then you can save quite a bit of money (depending on your electricity tariff), and you won't really notice the inconvenience of having to charge. The other bonus here is that you don't ruin your ICE engine doing lots of short trips and never giving the engine a chance to warm up!

For me, the Zoe is ideal, I have a 25-30 mile round trip commute every day, plus about 20-30 miles/week of driving around locally ferrying girlfriend/kids/shopping etc. On top of that the odd ~100 mile day out, or visiting family (where we often stay overnight, so can top up on a granny lead). The only trip which is going to be a pain is a 400 mile round trip to visit my mum, which we only do 3-4 times a year, and tend to stop a couple of times anyway for toilet/stretch legs. That's probably going to take an extra 60-90 mins each way to charge en-route, which I'll concede isn't ideal!

Given my usage, almost all of my charging is going to be at home, based on my electric tariff, my ~15k miles/year is going to cost me ~£220, which is close to what I was paying monthly in petrol before!
 
Associate
Joined
28 May 2008
Posts
132
Long time no see folks!

Done some searching but not found anything... we don't appear to have a thread...

Any PHEV owners? EV owners alike welcome too!

My Volvo XC60 T8 is on order at present and really looking forward to its arrival in all its 390bhp Glory :D:D

A couple.. do you have a home charger? If so do you notice much of a difference to your Electric bill? I'll be charging mine at work (once bored of the power anyway...)

Feel free to discuss away anything!


What trim level and spec did you go for please with your XC60 T8? I would be interested in knowing how you find the car when it arrives as I am also looking at the XC60 T8 for the next company car.
 
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