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Long time lurker but first time actual poster here, I do appreciate all the posts I read here!
Possibly too soon to begin the speculation but with my new car order deadline being the end of April I have a few cars in mind I’d like to see come onto the scheme (cough BYD Seal cough) and another couple I wouldn’t mind seeing an AP drop on!
(Oh what I’d do for an i5 for a somewhat semi reasonable AP haha!)
Has anyone else got any wishful thinking or educated guesses about what we may see appear?
Have a nice day everyone!
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I wouldn’t mind the Kia ev3/ev4/ev5 on the scheme, but to be honest I think I’ve already chosen my next car even though I still have over six months left before I can order.
well hopefully the next year will see some improvements. so far the hrv and all minis have gone both were on my long list. at the moment the symbioz is doubtful due to ride reveiws, the new kona i need to sit in as the old one didnt work and this one is supposedly a bit bigger. so pretty much all thats left at the moment are the nissans, juke, quashqai and xtrail otherwise its a 2k ap or more which i refuse to pay.
i should say i get wpms so the aps are different and i am aiming for a hybrid, electric or phev wont work.
i may be reduced to going back to ice if the mpg is 40+.
For those who like EVs and can cope with a small hatchback, the new Renault 5 EV looks good and is getting great reviews (check out Harry’s Garage review of it). Given Motability’s obsession with EVs, and their increasing emphasis on smaller cars, I would have thought that this was a dead cert to join the scheme. Whether it would be as soon as Q2 I don’t know.
Another one here hoping for the Renault 5! Seeing as the Inster has a low AP and is a similar price, I’m hoping the R5 will be too.
A PHEV can be treated like a hybrid – just don’t ever plug it in. It will still charge the battery while you are driving.
If you can find a way to plug it in though, even with a granny cable, it will cut your fuel bill.
A PHEV can be treated like a hybrid – just don’t ever plug it in. It will still charge the battery while you are driving. If you can find a way to plug it in though, even with a granny cable, it will cut your fuel bill.
With respect (and I speak as someone who has a PHEV), that is poor advice. PHEVs only make sense if you charge at home after every time that you use them, and if the majority of your journeys are within the EV only range of the car. PHEVs are heavy cars with generally modest petrol engines. If you are lugging around a heavy car with a depleted battery, fuel economy isn’t brilliant and when the petrol engine is also being used to recharge the battery as well as propelling the car, fuel economy can be very poor. If people want a hybrid but don’t want to charge at home, it is far more sensible to get a self charging hybrid, which is lighter than a PHEV.
Is a self charging hybrid really much lighter than a PHEV? unless I’m mistaken, the only difference is the (lack of) charge port and maybe an electric module or two.
self charging hybrids are lighter probably because they have much smaller batteries, which means worse economy.
Is a self charging hybrid really much lighter than a PHEV? unless I’m mistaken, the only difference is the (lack of) charge port and maybe an electric module or two. self charging hybrids are lighter probably because they have much smaller batteries, which means worse economy.
On the Tucson, the difference in battery size alone between the self charging and plug-in hybrid adds 10% to the entire weight of the vehicle. If you never charge it, that extra weight is a liability that will cost you at the fuel pump. Keep in mind that a PHEV is more expensive to start with, so getting one with the intention of never charging it would be a bad move IMHO.
@MattyM Just after posting my last response I remembered that I did an experiment on this last year with our PHEV, so I can give you a real world example of how not charging a PHEV affects mpg.
We have had our PHEV (Tucson 4WD) for almost 7 months now, and in that time have driven 4,000 miles. For 3,600 of those miles I charged the car after every time that I used it. The total costs (petrol plus charging costs) over those 3,600 miles work out as 13.15 pence per mile, which if you equate that into an ICE car mpg equivalent based on current petrol price is 46.6 mpg.
For the 400 miles that I deliberately didn’t charge the car, allowing the car to regenerate the battery using the petrol engine whilst it was also powering the car, the running costs were 18.17 pence per mile, which converted to an mpg equivalent is 33.7 mpg. So by not charging the PHEV at all, running costs increased by 28% compared to charging it after every time I used it. I should add that I am on a standard electricity tariff with no cheap off-peak period, so for someone who has cheaper electricity than me, their pence per mile cost (if charging regularly) will be a lot lower than mine (especially if they do a greater proportion of local journeys than I do), so that gap would be even wider!
That’s why I maintain that unless you charge the car after every time you use it, a PHEV can be a costly mistake.
Is a self charging hybrid really much lighter than a PHEV? unless I’m mistaken, the only difference is the (lack of) charge port and maybe an electric module or two. self charging hybrids are lighter probably because they have much smaller batteries, which means worse economy.
The self charging hybrid, will be far more efficient, if your can’t charge a PHEV at home. Also, how you going to charge the much bigger battery in the PHEV to its full potential, if your not going to charge it? There’s a reason self charging hybrids have abattery under 2kWh.
I have a Yaris self charging hybrid and easily get circa 60mpg around town. No way it would do that if it was a conventional ICE engine.
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