Plug-in hybrid cars

We have a Honda CR-V which is self-charging. The petrol engine doesn’t drive the car, it just recharges the batteries as required so it is always using the electrics. We don’t have to put petrol in very often. I don’t know if this is true of all hybrids but that is how the Honda self charging hybrids work. No worries about range or finding a charging point, or having to wait for it to charge. We have had the car just over a year and we’re very happy with it. I asked lots of people lots of questions before deciding on this option as some of the technology is all Greek to me! Asking other car owners is useful and What Car has some good unbiased reviews.

Hope this is an informative thread. I’m so undecided - not quite ready to change my car yet - but considering a Toyota C-HR when I do. My DDs live North of the Tyne and I’m South and there’s ongoing talk of a congestion charge to cross the river. Postponed once, but…..

After a lot of thought my friend got one recently after analysing her mileage Jaylou, because she realised that actually the vast majority of her trips were for distances less than 15 miles, which was within the capacity of the electric only mileage in a hybrid car. I think at the moment it’s quite a personal decision based on peoples individual driving habits, so it would be worth doing an analysis if you haven’t already.

Thank you for early replies (hope there are more). I also read that self-charging hybrids were better for short distances, as the petrol then takes over.
My driving pattern, is mainly short, but with a few longer trips once a month where that will be motorways.
I believe that plug-in hybrids still pay normal road tax (correct me if I'm wrong) but plug-in (as they have better electric range) may be lower on the scale depending on emissions.

I have a 4yr old Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV. It does about 30k average on the battery which is plenty for me to drive into town and back. I charge it with a granny charger in an ordinary outdoor socket. DS catches the bus to school so I’m not driving into town daily.

I only really use petrol when I’m driving into the city and I don’t do that very often, so it’s very economical for me.

I’d like to go fully electric but we don’t have many electric charging points locally so I’ll wait a bit longer before swapping. My brother gets all his electric from solar panels and consequently drives a fully electric VW and loves it. He’s on a waiting list for a new one.

I’m not sure how economical in comparison the non plug in hybrid cars are though, so it’s worth reading a range of reviews to get a balance. I wanted a plug in because I’m planning to get solar panels in the near future.

Unfortunately, a lot of car magazines are written by petrol heads who only seem interested in how fast a car can go from 0-60mph so when I was looking into it, it was hard to find a good balanced review that considered the things that I prioritised such as comfortable seats and ride. Also, I generally find car salesmen annoying as they invariably talk to DH who doesn’t drive and is clueless about cars. ?

Oh, hurray, a car thread!!

The oven is bleeping but I'll be back.

We have a RAV4 Hybrid on a pcp agreement as we too didn't know which way to jump. We didn't want electric as it costs so much to install the electric point for re-charging.

It doesn't run on battery and then change to petrol when the battery get low but switches continually from battery to engine, engine to battery and sometimes both at the same time, and recharges the battery every time you take your foot off the accelerator or when you brake. It's very clever!

It generally runs on nearly all electric at low speed so if you do a lot of urban driving it would be great. I knew that autumn had arrived when it was cold a couple of mornings ago and it started on petrol, generally I'm out of town before the acceleration at a roundabout means the petrol cuts in. The performance is great at all speeds so far. We've only been driving it a couple of months and so far it tells us it's running at 55 mpg but this is getting better all the time as we drive relaxed. It should make over 60mpg. Pretty good for such a big heavy car. Obviously a smaller, lighter car will do much better.

I’ll be watching this with interest.
we are probably downsizing to one car and I’d like to be more eco-friendly. Apart from driving to and from work, we visit my daughter and my sister-in-law both around 300 miles away, and when we go on holiday with family to France, we drive. Anyone with experience of using hybrid for usage like this?

We bought a nearly-new Ford Kuga plug-in hybrid a few months ago. We are very pleased with it so far. We have done 3k miles and the combined mpg is 59. We just plug it into a socket in the garage a couple of times a week. The range on electric is 30 miles, but on long journeys it does top up the battery when driving on petrol. We do mostly local driving to the shops, golf etc, combined with longer trips maybe once a month. I've noticed that the fuel tank is not as big as you would expect and presume some of the space where the petrol tank would be is taken up by the battery. Having said that, I think we've only had to fill up 4 times.

We bought a Toyota C-RV six months ago and love it.
We get 61 miles to the gallon and can drive to Brighton and back on half a tank of petrol.

Funnily enough we’ve bought a Toyota RAV4 plug in hybrid this afternoon to replace a 6 year old diesel SUV.
OH had done lots of research beforehand but wasn’t fixed on a hybrid - he had a list of possibles.
We prebooked a 90 minute test drive which gave us both plenty of time to drive in different road conditions - including very hilly countryside with lots of twists & turns as we were concerned about manoeuvrability due to the additional weight of the batteries.
We drove 40 miles & were very impressed at the performance in all 3 modes - electric only/hybrid/auto. OH does most of his driving locally so the 40 mile electric only range will suit most of his needs, but it’s great knowing the hybrid functionality means we can go as far as we like and not worry. We chose the plug in hybrid instead of the hybrid as we have solar panels which will minimise our recharging costs - OH needs to decide whether to install a charging point linked through our panels but at £800+ we may stick to a standard socket!

I must add that I’ve got a 3 year old petrol VW T-Roc which I love, it averages 40 mpg (45 on long trips), I wanted a Toyota CHR (hybrid) but the steering wheel and my legs didn’t get on together - a test drive convinced me we didn’t suit. It was a fabulous car otherwise.

Good luck with your research - get some long test drives booked to help you decide,

Thank you for your posts. Still not sure what make/model, but will start going round car-dealers and looking.