Newbie with 2019 model - the basics

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HappyChappy

New member
Joined
Nov 19, 2018
Messages
4
I'm new here. Just finished my first week in my brand new Outlander PHEV 4h (UK). Lovely car but frighteningly poor fuel consumption if not charged.

First tank averaged 38 mpg with 2 charges. Decided for second tank not to fill as an experiment and consumption seem to be heading towards 30mpg and that's being careful. Are these normal figures? My Prius+ managed 50mpg consistently without even trying.

The daft thing is it's a company car on which I have to pay 22p per private mile back to my company but yet I don't get my costs recovered for charging at home so there is no incentive to charge the car. I can't be the only PHEV company car driver facing these conflicting challenges and wonder how others deal with it. My life seems destined to be spent at filling stations at this rate!
 
If I do a long run to a destination where I can't recharge, coming back (starting with an 'empty' battery) I expect about 35mpg (mostly motorway cruising at 75mph/120kph), which is not bad for a two-ton brick (a PHEV is not a Prius!) - if you go faster (or up and down a lot of steep hills) you'll experience even worse consumption. The BBC recently ran a story on this topic of PHEVs that are rarely charged, and several commenters on here have reported the same.

Governments take decisions without really thinking through the implications (which ought to have been obvious, given a moment's thought) - who knew?!
 
My daily commute is 11 miles on single track roads descending from 700ft to sea level and vice versa on way home.so what you're saying stacks up.

It was a Prius+ I had which is the 7 seat estate version of the Prius with a 1.8l engine. Notwithstanding differences in vehicles a 20mpg difference is still significant and disappointing. I thought the 2.4l engine on the Outlander was supposed to be more efficient. I can't imagine what the previous version would have returned driving the same route.
 
Please excuse my ignorance of company car economics, I've never had to be involved in that mullarkey! But why are you not charging at home every night? Or am I mis-interpreting the way things work? What mileage/journeys are giving you your poor consumption figures? If you've had the car one week, doing a 22 mile commute, how have you got through two tanks of fuel? My brain hurts now, I'm going for a lie down!
Welcome to the forum, BTW.
 
New 4H owner here today (1week and 1 Day). Also a company car driver. My Commute is 8 miles each way. I charge at home every night. Used to run a BMW X3 for last 4 years.

Economics stack up hugely for me:

BiK Saving - £100/month saving as rough guess (actually will be more).
Petrol Saving - Not used any petrol in the week I had it yet. However on a long journey my BMW only did 37MPG on average anyway so not going to be much different. Another (not quite as) heavy 4x4.

With my company car I only claim business mileage back as I don't do that much business mileage. On my BMW being a 2.0l I only could get reimbursed 12p/mile which assumed 50MPG break even point. So it actually cost me to do business miles!!. Now with a 2.4 engine I will be able to get 22p mile which means I could hopefully at least cover the fuel I use now.

The usage for this model is supposed to under 30mile round trip commute and charging point at home at least. Then you have the petrol engine for the trips that take you further away when needed. If that isn't your profile at all it could become quite expensive to run. However the BiK saving should be huge enough to cover that problem too.

Oh and the Prius + example doesn't really stack up. The prius has a kerbweight of 1500KG the Outlander is 1880Kg. The Prius is streamlined and the Outlander is brick shaped. Also the outlander is 4WD which I don't think the Prius is...
 
Regulo said:
why are you not charging at home every night?
For some company cars the company also pays for the fuel. If this is the case, you wouldn't expect the owner to put in their 'own' electricity (that they're paying for). If the business doesn't provide charging facilities at work, you can end up with a plug-in hybrid that hardly ever gets plugged in, but (of course) all the tax advantages remain.
 
That does explain a bit. I'm glad I worked in London and commuted by train. I don't think I have the right level of maths to work out whether I'd be in the money, or down and out!! :)
 
ChrisMiller has hit the nail on the head. My company pays all petrol through a fuel card and at the end of each month I pay for my personal mileage only, at the HMRC rate of 22p per mile which is for petrol engines of 2 litres and above.

We are pricing car charging points at work. We have yet to work out a new scheme but I would well imagine I continue to pay the 22p per mile but the Company pays for power which will then serve to lower the Company's petrol bill.

In response to the other poster's comments on the Prius+ correct it is not 4WD. I am also well aware of the physical differences of the two vehicles but still - the Outlander's 28 mpg versus the Prius+ 50 mpg disappoints me greatly.
 
Regulo said:
Please excuse my ignorance of company car economics, I've never had to be involved in that mullarkey! But why are you not charging at home every night? Or am I mis-interpreting the way things work? What mileage/journeys are giving you your poor consumption figures? If you've had the car one week, doing a 22 mile commute, how have you got through two tanks of fuel? My brain hurts now, I'm going for a lie down!
Welcome to the forum, BTW.

Ray, thanks for the welcome. Economics have been explained by ChrisMiller. The commute is 22 miles return journey but I also visit sites within 30 miles of base almost every day which serves to increase the mileage.
 
Thanks for the further explanation. I now understand your misgivings. It's not easy for us non-business users to get to grips with the ins-and-outs of all that. SOOOO complicated!
 
Hi all,

I’m new to the forum and waiting for delivery of my 4h, I’m also a company car driver and am a little surprised by the idea of paying the company for the petrol at the hmrc rate? This all seems a little backward, I thought the idea of the advisory rates was a maximum which no tax would be payable on when reimbursing employees.
Our company simply divides the cost of fuel per month by the ratio of business to private miles and the employees pay back the cost of their travel. This I think is pretty fair.
However due to the nature of PHEVs and the cost of fuel if used incorrectly we simply get paid the 22p an mile for business miles which makes it worth my while to charge and drive as efficiently as possible. I was very pleased when I saw the new outlander had a 2.4l engine!
 
Though we’re also quite lucky in that we have a few 22kw AC chargers and a 63KW rapid.
 
I am a company car driver with just over 80,000 miles since Feb 2016. I can charge at work, but almost all of my journeys involve motorway or fast A roads to get to my destination town, where I can then pootle around on battery.

As I have commented many times here, the car is a near 1900Kg brick and I use sat nav indicated 70mph to set the cruise control, so my average of 35mpg is exactly what I'd expect. I start to look for my next fill up at 250 miles as a 70lite tank is on my wish list that will never be realised.

My reclaim rate is for the sub 2000cc engines (13, 14, 15ppm), which as others have said means you need to do nearly 50mpg to break even - it costs me over £1000 a year to put fuel in my car for work!

However, the fact that I can get in the car and travel 400 miles a day in total, quiet comfort is worth it and the view over the bonnet just adds to the pleasure.
 
I thought the reclaim rate for the sub 2l engine worked out at less than 40mpg? I know the 22ppm for above 2l is 26 mpg as this is the average set by hmrc. I think your doing better than you think, and still enjoying your car so bonus!
 
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