@kezo Interesting that you mention the engine running at fast idle when heating the car. I reckon that the fan speed must influence that. I found the sound of the fan to be obtrusive in the Tucson (and a bit draughty) so I have mine set right down to the lowest setting (which isn’t audible). That generally causes the engine just to idle at a pretty much silent 1100 rpm when heating the car very gently. I guess that if the fan is cranked up the need to warm quicker is recognised and the engine may idle at higher rpm? Just a guess, but as mentioned I don’t hear the engine at 1100rpm when I’m driving.
Like you, I’ve had a decent period of lots of short journeys and no long journeys, so my petrol usage has been negligible and my mpg equivalent will have been quite high (it’s showing something like 170 mpg, but I haven’t worked out what it really is as I haven’t needed to put petrol in). I’ve also noticed a marked improvement in the EV range since the warmer weather has arrived. We have three holidays over the next three months that will unfortunately hammer the mpg but, as you say, if you only do short journeys and charge after every time that you use it then it can be very economical.
Re your comment about the engine loosening up at 7,500 miles, with our cars being PHEVs and the engine only running for a proportion of the time, do you think that we might not see that until a much higher mileage?