Then there’s the outlandish mpg manufacturers quote for PHEV, especially if like me regulary do 350 mile journeys. If your pottering around town or going to the supermarket and you can do so in EV mode you might see those figures, but, you may as well jump straight to EV if thats all your using it for providing you can have an home charger fitted.
We managed about 130mpg in our first drive ever with the GTE, over a 90ish mile journey, mixed both carriageway and motorway, with small city bits at the destination. Still a bit off the advertised economy, but good enough. I’ll go as far as to say that people who struggle to break 40mpg in a PHEV simply don’t understand how to use it.
That said, PHEV SUVs are somewhat.. stupid.
Two things that you can guarantee about cars built in China. Build quality will be atrocious and crash safety will also be dubious!
MGs are exclusively built in china (and so will the Smart #1 be). While no BMW or Mercedes, they certainly aren’t “atrocious” or “dubious” in crash safety. NCAP ratings are just as good as any other manufacturer.
People like to forget that china has some pretty high end manufacturing, because they’ve seen a knock off rolex once. Shenzhen is one of the, if not the global technology hubs. Don’t underestimate chinese manufacturing just because they have sweatshops too. Bloody Foxconn is.. well, taiwanese, but they produce in china.
Volvo is btw owned by Geely, and so is Polestar. Oh, and of course, Lotus.
They know their stuff – and while there are plenty of knock-off companies (Landwind and whatnot), which are probably (never seen one) atrocious, the main manufacturers there are competing with VW, Audi etc, so have to meet standards.
On top, one should not forget that China builds more cars annually than the entirety of europe (not EU), USA and japan combined. They’re not building cars in old soviet brick buildings anymore, and we as “the west” would do good to not forget that (or “conveniently look the other way” as we’ve done for the past decade or two), or get kerbstomped in capabilities in the future.
On topic: i’d also like to the the Smart #1, maybe the Kia EV4 (though that’s probably more likely in Q2). The new Civic would probably fit well too, as well as the Renault Austral (if the Megane E-Tech is anything to go by, quality improved massively). Less realistic (=unrealistic) would be the new X1. Honda C-RV would be a nice re-addition, as well as new e-308.
Generally, i’d like to see some big chonkers return, rather than filling the list with small to at best medium sized vehicles.
My “if only” wish: Ionic 5. We’ve waited 13 months on our new Lease now, if that makes it to the scheme i’ll cancel it that very day and order that – but, unlikely.
I think the most “wished for” thing on my list would be a change of MBs rules, to allow for more cars (insurance groups, starting price etc).
Prior: SEAT Ateca Xcellence Lux 1.5 TSI DSG MY19, VW Golf GTE PHEV DSG MY23
Current: Hyundai Ioniq 6 Ultimate
Next: we'll see what's available in 2028.