Interesting that our thoughts are similar @kezo
I can see that in your situation your daily school run makes a massive positive difference. In our case, I usually only have one journey a week (two max) that is 100% within the EV only range. I have another weekly journey that is about double the EV range and then I have, on average, one or two longer journeys a month where the (inefficient) petrol engine is doing most of the work.
I completely agree about the Hyundai setup. I would love to have a function that enables running the petrol engine only, with no simultaneous re charging, which I would use when the EV range is depleted. As well as the faff of having to charge the car after each use, I have to keep an eye on the EV range, which builds back up once depleted, in order to ensure that I force it back in to EV mode at a point where it will be depleted again before I get home. I did that too late today, so ended up arriving home with 6 miles unused EV range, which means I was driving 6 miles longer than I should have done on petrol. As I said to my wife when I realised, a normal petrol car is so easy compared to this, as you just get in, drive and never think about anything until you need a 5 minute fuel stop once every few weeks!
If we were in a financial position where every penny counted, and we needed to drive down expenditure regardless of the inconvenience, then it would all be OK but, in our case, the relatively modest improvement in running costs isn’t worth the downsides. Hopefully, like you, I may feel more positive about it in the summer when running costs should fall, partly as a combination of better battery range and also as the engine won’t need to be idling, even in EV mode, in order to maintain the cabin temperature. However, as it stands, it’s taken some of the pleasure out of driving that I had with the BMW.
Our annual mileage has dropped as my wife’s condition has worsened. We’ve had the car over 5 months now and only done 3,500 miles, so I anticipate we will only do around 25,000 miles max over the 3 year lease. With mileage that low it probably tips the scales more in favour of leaving the scheme and going down the private route. I think that Motability will need to pull a rabbit out of a hat to keep us in the scheme next time.