Hi @wonky Yes, the poor mpg when the electric range is used up is mostly down to the fact that the modest petrol engine is then lugging around a very heavy car (due to the battery). Other PHEVs may be different, but with the Tucson the car defaults into hybrid mode when the battery is depleted. This mode is very fuel inefficient as, in addition to the above problem, the petrol engine (which is only 1.6 litres) is also using additional petrol to recharge the battery, in addition to propelling the car. In the Tucson, this mode can return as little as 20 mpg. However, that’s not the whole picture, as you can then deploy the additional electric range that has been generated, but that still only equates to around mid 30s mpg overall.
Ride quality wise the Tucson PHEV is fine. It’s not as compliant a ride as the BMW X1 XLine that we had before, but certainly not an issue. We have 19” alloys. There are, however, several aspects of PHEV ownership that I’m not keen on;
1) In the Tucson PHEV, there is no option when the battery is depleted to make it drive in petrol mode only, without recharging the battery as well. I’d like that option. As it doesn’t exist, I have to keep an eye on how much battery range is building up on my return journey and, when that range equals my remaining distance to home, I have to switch the car into EV mode. This is essential, as the trick is not to arrive home with unused electric range if the petrol engine has been used, given how much cheaper electric miles are than petrol miles in hybrid mode are. This is not something that you ever have to consider with an ICE car or an EV.
2) Unlike ICE cars or EVs, which give you an accurate mpg or electric usage figure, the fuel computers in PHEVs (well, at least on the Tucson) assume that all mileage driven has been using the petrol engine only, so you get wildly overstated 3 figure mpg figures. This, of course, takes no account of the cost of all the electric charges (of which there are many, as you must recharge a PHEV after every single use for it to make any sense financially). Consequently you have to work it out manually. What a number of us on this forum who have PHEVs do, is add together the cost of petrol (when we refuel) to the cumulative cost of all electric recharges since the last petrol refuel. You can then divide that total cost by the total mileage driven to get a pence per mile. In order to compare that to an ICE car, you can then divide that pence per mile figure into the cost of a gallon of petrol (litre price x 4.546) to get an mpg figure that directly compares to the cost of running an ICE car. As this all has to be done manually, it’s a faff that you don’t have with an ICE car where you just look at the mpg on the cars fuel computer!
3) As mentioned above, you absolutely must recharge a PHEV when you get home after every journey, otherwise you won’t make the savings. This is obviously something that you don’t have to do at all with an ICE car and you don’t have to do it after every single journey with a BEV.
In addition to the above factors, whether or not a PHEV works for you entirely depends on how you use a car. First and foremost, you must be able to charge easily at home, as you have to charge it every time you get home without exception, or it doesn’t make sense. You don’t need a charger, just access to a normal 3-pin plug. The Tucson takes about 6.5 hours to fully charge a depleted battery (as long as the charge speed is cranked up from the default setting, which you can easily do on the control box built into the charger cable.
Secondly, as to whether it’s cost effective depends very much on what proportion of your mileage can be achieved in EV mode. Using the calculation explained earlier, mileage in EV only mode equates to around 80 mpg, so is very cheap (and that’s at my standard electricity prices – anyone with a cheap off peak rate it will work out a lot better than that). As a ball park, if well over half your total mileage can be achieved in EV mode, then a PHEV can give you cheap motoring. However, if you frequently do journeys that are beyond the EV only range, then those savings start to erode. In my case, I’m only saving £10-20 a month in total running costs compared to our previous BMW petrol car. In truth, that’s not a big enough saving to convince me that the hassle factors are worth it. However, your usage may be very different to mine, so it may work out better for you, or worse!
In summary, we didn’t want a BEV as the real world ranges aren’t enough for us yet and charging away from home on longer journeys or holidays is not something that we are prepared to do. However, as the choice of decent petrol SUVs through Motability is woeful, we thought we’d give a PHEV a go. As it hasn’t been a roaring success, next time I think we will either bite the bullet and get a full EV (BEV) as our longer trips are starting to lessen as my wife’s condition worsens, or we’ll leave the scheme and buy a used petrol SUV (a better car than available through Motability, such as a BMW X5. Hope that helps.