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I thought it may be useful to someone out there who may be considering a PHEV to inform them of my experience as a newbie, particularly anyone living in the Glasgow area.
It’s been around 6 weeks since taking delivery of my first ever PHEV and the car itself has been an absolute pleasure to drive. I do around 60-70 miles p/wk city driving and normally a 300 mile round trip once a month. When researching new vehicles, my thoughts were that a PHEV would suit my needs perfectly with all town driving being exclusively in EV mode alongside increased efficiency and performance on my monthly trip. I did not however research public charging facilities in Glasgow as had wrongly assumed that these would be relatively cheap and accessible.
There are very restrictive charging times in place within the city, parking fees are applied and charging costs are not the cheapest. In the city centre, there is a two hour charging limit and this extends to 3 hours beyond that boundary. A £40 penalty is automatically applied if there is an overrun. Charging costs are £1 connection fee and 40p kWh. Although blue badge holders can park for free on street chargers for a limited time period, fees apply in council run multi-storey car parks and range from £5 to £25 depending on parking times. If you use your car daily, then it may be useful to know that there are no time restrictions on street chargers between 8pm and 8am.
I’m charging during daytime for a maximum of 2.5 hours on a street charging facility which provides around 20 miles of pure electric driving at a cost of around £3 – with a £40 penalty after 3 hours it’s best to err on the side of caution. Without a blue badge then parking fees of £3.20 per hour would also apply.
I have found that there to be a reasonable number of rapid charging facilities in the city, however these are DC and not compatible with my vehicle nor, as far as I am aware, most if not all PHEV’s. Aside from a few supermarket charging points, PHEV drivers are pretty much limited to the ChargePoint Scotland network detailed above. Availability of these is fairly good at all times as EV drivers will utilise the rapid charging facilities.
Living in a flat, I am unable to have a home charger installed and as such am dependent upon the public charging network. This has proven to be fairly inconvenient given that it has not been possible to fully charge my vehicle and thus requires fairly frequent visits to a charging point to keep a usable charge in the battery. Anyone with home or workplace charging facilities would of course not face this issue at all, though given the population density within the city where the majority of people live in tenements or modern flats, this would apply to a minority of householders.
All things considered, although I am very happy with the performance of my PHEV, I would not recommend this as an option for Glasgow residents without charging facilities. A mild hybrid would be more practical and most probably economical.
I hope someone may find this useful.
I have a Road Tax query which I hope someone can help me with.
I’m a new Motability customer and placed an order for a PHEV a couple of weeks ago (still awaiting delivery from stock). I own my own car, though this is getting old and at the point where it’s costing more ££ to keep it on the road, hence the attraction of a Motability lease.
I had claimed Road Tax exemption on my own car last month and am aware that the exemption cannot be applied to both vehicles. My question is that the Motability vehicle has a 1st year Road Tax exemption, presumably due to its low emissions, and as such I’m unsure whether I will now need to tax my existing vehicle before I dispose of it in the coming weeks, likely by private sale?
Thanks
