A further point, without using a home charger, don’t expect better than 35MPG. After all, without the EV motor, it is a two tonne 2.5 litre petrol car and without electricity any PHEV has poor efficiency and poor emissions.
My (half price via Mazda) pod-point home charger will charge the car in two hours costing about £3. That offers me good economy between 30 and 50 miles EV, dependent on weather and whatever else is running (like heating). Tip, on cold days, pre-heat the car remotely whilst still connected to the mains using the APP remote control to help preserve range.
I find it best to use only Normal mode and allow the car to decide between EV and petrol (or both) power. Around town in slow traffic, it is inevitably all EV. This also hugely improves transmission smoothness (which some moan about) as the car computer knows far better than our right foot. On longer journeys, in Normal, it will repeatedly switch between EV and Drive mode over perhaps 60 to 100 miles. Here, I make optimum use of radar adaptive cruise control. It’s great for fuel economy.
Once I run out of EV battery, I then use the charge button facility to repeatedly allow the petrol engine to recharge the battery to 80%, unless I am close to my home charger. In Normal mode, this extends the EV percentage on long journeys. I spent weeks experimenting with this function, and frankly if at motorway speeds, petrol consumption with or without the charge facility in operation is little different. It’s then like running a petrol hybrid, but with a credible 17.8 kWh battery. However, if regularly doing 200 miles every day, the PHEV probably isn’t the best economy choice compared to the diesel, albeit lower emissions.
I found this car, my first PHEV, had a huge learning curve, plus the driver assistance tools needed tweaking as the defaults are over sensitive. The best investment is to properly read the manual, something I had never done with any previous car. Frankly, its sophistication is like stepping from a Ford Cortina into a fighter jet. So much more to learn, but it is rewarding.