Thread: Hybrid cars what to look for.

Originally Posted by No.3

Well, to be fair I thought they were the go to as well and was seriously looking into one when we replaced the wife's car a year and a half or so ago (almost two years...). The neighbour had the same as we were looking at, but what the proven fuel consumption worked out at was actually really unimpressive on the PHEV. We live semi-rural up a fairly big climb from town and straight into 80 and 100Km/H roads. In practice, this meant that the hybrid system only worked in the driveway, and the combined power systems were required on the open road even though the trip to town was downhill. The only practical saving was a short amount of driving off the highway into town, and around a parking area before shutting the vehicle down...

On the way home the reverse was in practice, a short amount (5km or so) on battery followed by highway driving where it was back to combined power. In effect there was no requirement to plug the thing in, as it was arriving home at 80-90% charge or better due to being run on self-charge and dual power mode virtually all the time... Real world consumption figures off that PHEV were 6-6.5L/100Km - the non-hybrid is returning an average of 7-7.5L/100Km in exactly the same (or maybe slightly worse traffic) driving conditions.

The economics of it were that the PHEV version was basically $19,000 more expensive to purchase, and due to the extra weight consumes tyres, suspension and joints at a higher rate. Servicing costs are similar. The extra $19,000 procures a LOT of fuel, even at $3 a litre (circa 85,000Km's of travel equivalent to 6 years for us).

...by which time your ICE has devalued but still does close to the fuel consumption it did when new, but the PHEV now has a rooted battery, the devaluation on the vehicle is enormous, and the P...EV part of the equation is adding no utility to the car running, and you have the equivalent of two fat mates sitting in the back of your car, having to haul them everywhere you drive.