Not really, Tharg. Using an ICE engine to charge a battery is very inefficient. The lower the electrical load on the engine the better the fuel consumption will be. An ICE uses energy to accelerate and that energy is wasted in friction and heat under braking. Any system that recovers and reuses that energy has to be good. A battery is just a convenient way of doing it. In fact my non-hybrid (of an sort) X1 puts energy back into the battery under braking in Eco Pro mode. I’ve no idea how it does it but the eco gauge shows it happening.
When running our Outlander PHEV in ICE mode any excess torque for ICE is use to charge the batteries. to date I have towed a 1500 kg caravan for approximately 1200 miles averaging 28.5 mpg (our Ford Kuga 2.0 diesel Powershift achieved 29mpg) the Outlander PHEV has proved capable of towing 200 miles without fully depleting it batteries down to the 30% reserve ?
Unfortunately I have suffered a brain injury and occasionally I get confused and often say the wrong thing.