@kezo and @Rene Thank you both for sharing such detailed explanations and filling in some of my knowledge gaps. Much appreciated. Clearly driving a PHEV is a different experience and mindset to driving an ICE car, but one that I am sure I would adapt to, as you both have.
One thing that crossed my mind is driving in the winter when it’s really cold. In order to warm up the interior of the car, does the petrol engine have to start, meaning that you couldn’t do complete journeys in EV only mode unless you were happy just having the heated seats and steering wheel on? During the coldest months I’d prefer (and my wife certainly would prefer) to have some warm air circulating as well.
@djenson I get the points that you are making. My current 2.0i petrol BMW is very fuel efficient, averaging 42 mpg, and petrol in our village is currently £1.409 per litre, which means that the car is currently costing me around 15p per mile to run. Running costs aren’t a major factor for me, so as long as any new car doesn’t cost significantly more then I’m not too worried but, based on kezo and Rene’s feedback, it sounds as though it might cost me less, even on my standard electricity tariff. I know that PHEVs were created with the company car driver in mind, as it was a dodge to achieve significantly lower benefit in kind tax and, apparently, most company car drivers with PHEVs never charge them! Also, the much higher acquisition costs rarely make them sensible for private buyers. However, as Motability customers we can get them for a modest premium over an ICE car and, as kezo has explained, the maths can work out in our favour on that basis.
I’ve had four BEVs on multi day test drives now and, as a result, know that they aren’t for me yet. The range, which wasn’t good to start with even on a full charge, was dropping considerably faster than the mileage I was actually doing, and we still do enough longer journeys for that to become a pain. I’d rather suffer much higher running costs and never have any range or charging issues. PHEVs could be a ‘best of both worlds’ for me. There aren’t any cars on Motability these days with such quiet, refined and economical engines as my 2.0i BMW (which really is whisper quiet, extremely rapid when you want it to be, yet very economical). Therefore, faced with a more ‘strained’ petrol engine or a car that can intersperse that with the quieter attributes of EV running (albeit with less power) may suit our driving pattern, whilst never presenting us with range and charging issues on long journeys. I stress that I haven’t driven one yet, so all this theory may come crashing down once I have, but I’m currently leaning that way in the absence of anything better.