As Glos pointed out correctly, you don’t really charge your PHEV on journeys, the intent is to either drive it within the electric range and charge at home, or use the petrol engine. Now of course Glos didn’t mention that it’s HIS PHEV in particular that is awful on petrol: ours does 55mpg on petrol alone despite the added weight, we have an EV tariff and a home charger, and can do a lot of our journeys in electric mode only – we only refuel once every 2-3 months, for around £50 (Momentum). The average recharge costs us a whopping 63p for roughly 32 miles of range average.
My view is as electric-only ranges continue to increase, 70-90 miles are currently achievable, as are charging speeds increasing at both the maximum AC rate and into the DC range depending on the PHEV in question. It’s becoming much more practical to charge on the go and have a decent chunk of range in as little time as a piss stop. Hyundai/Kia missed the trick here when they facelifted the car last year; as such, it remains the lowest range of its main competitors. That said, I see a calculated 47 mpg on a hybrid run. In defence of @Glos-Guy, he doesn’t use any regen settings.
Oh i agree, with more modern PHEVs (the current GTE has a e-range of 60 miles, almost double that of ours), that all changes – but these PHEVs are few and far in between on the scheme, and cost a pretty penny. Be it the 250e from Daimler, or the bloody £7500 GTE etc.
They still only (for the most part) charge at 7-11kw max unless you get lucky or spec a 22kw charger for extra cash (relatively rare option in the first place). Charging 30 minutes gives you then somwhere around 20-25 miles. Not worth it, considering how expensive most public chargers are – it actually would be cheaper/similar in price to run the petrol engine in our case. I understand that it’s different for the Tucson, but as i said, it’s not the Tucson PHEV that is thirsty, it’s the Hyundai 1.6 that’s thirsty regardless of what they pair it with.
I also don’t see why Glos would need defence, he doesn’t make an effort to actually utilise the PHEV properly, so it’s moot anyway. There’s plenty of options to increase the economy even on Tucsons, if you deliberately chose not to, then that’s cool but not representative of PHEVs in general, especially on an outlier like the Tucson that isn’t great on economy even in the best case. Add to that the sorta ridiculous AP for PHEVs on the scheme.. The new GTE would be perfect for us, but even with all the savings we did with the current GTE (and that already was £3250 AP), it wouldn’t add up at £7500 AP.
Generally speaking though, the important point is: if you can’t charge at home, don’t get a PHEV. There’s no use case where that makes sense.
edit: for a reference, we recently did a road trip from south wales to Elan Valley, toured all dams, and then back through black mountain pass. Three chonky people in the car, 75 where i could, otherwise always at speed limit or slightly above – ended up at around 240 miles, 64mpg.
Prior: SEAT Ateca Xcellence Lux 1.5 TSI DSG MY19, VW Golf GTE PHEV DSG MY23
Current: Hyundai Ioniq 6 Ultimate
Next: we'll see what's available in 2028.