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AllKnewToThis

New member
Joined
Aug 3, 2015
Messages
4
Hi there everyone...

This site has been of great value already to me as a lurker, but time has come to change my car and I was hoping to get some input on my individual circumstances.

My daily commute is from rural Co.Derry in Northern Ireland into Derry city (around 3/4 miles of small hills and then 7 miles dual carriageway and finally 2 miles of city traffic-not to heavy in Derry compared to say London :cool: ), this is approx around 13-15 miles one way. I can (hopefully) charge during the day whilst at work in the free e-car charge points around the city centre so would be hopeful of using very little petrol. So far so good, as from what I've read this phev is made for short journey's. Now at the weekends I would do quite a few more miles, either to Belfast (approx 140 mile round trip) or into Donegal and I know I wouldn't get much more than 35mpg.

Does anyone else have experience of doing similar mileage and would they recommend the phev? Off-road capability is also of inteest but not a deciding factor. Thanks for any input.
 
Looks to me like the PHEV will be ideal for your pattern of usage. Although I don't have to commute any more (laughs uncontrollably), I do tend to do about 20-25 miles piddling around, with the occasional 240 mile round trip at weekends on a mix of dual and single carriageway A roads. 35 mpg will be about right, depending on whether you're right foot is heavy or light. Thrash it around and you're looking sub-30mpg, drive like an angel and 40-plus is possible.
 
Regulo said:
Looks to me like the PHEV will be ideal for your pattern of usage. Although I don't have to commute any more (laughs uncontrollably), I do tend to do about 20-25 miles piddling around, with the occasional 240 mile round trip at weekends on a mix of dual and single carriageway A roads. 35 mpg will be about right, depending on whether you're right foot is heavy or light. Thrash it around and you're looking sub-30mpg, drive like an angel and 40-plus is possible.

Thanks Regulo, I'm hoping my right foot might lighten if I get a phev :) this may seem like a silly question, I may have asked the dealer this but can't recall the answer (I was enjoying the drive too much)...on average when would the engine kick in? is there a certain speed? or would it be more to do with incline hills etc?

Again thanks for the help.
 
Your running costs will be heavily influenced by the weekend usage. You are not going to see the very efficient headline figures overall, but it will compare favourably with other large, conventionally powered estate cars including soft-roaders. A lot will depend on how much you like the car for its other characteristics apart from fuel efficiency and how much you need a large car - your total cost of ownership taking into account both purchase price and fuel costs will almost certainly be higher than it would be for a modern small to medium size saloon - particularly if this is a private purchase. If it's a company car, then the sums are significantly different. If the alternative is to buy something like a Discovery or RR Evoque, then the PHEV will compare well; if a Skoda Fabia would be acceptable, then it probably makes more sense than the PHEV.
 
AllKnewToThis said:
Regulo said:
Looks to me like the PHEV will be ideal for your pattern of usage. Although I don't have to commute any more (laughs uncontrollably), I do tend to do about 20-25 miles piddling around, with the occasional 240 mile round trip at weekends on a mix of dual and single carriageway A roads. 35 mpg will be about right, depending on whether you're right foot is heavy or light. Thrash it around and you're looking sub-30mpg, drive like an angel and 40-plus is possible.

Thanks Regulo, I'm hoping my right foot might lighten if I get a phev :) this may seem like a silly question, I may have asked the dealer this but can't recall the answer (I was enjoying the drive too much)...on average when would the engine kick in? is there a certain speed? or would it be more to do with incline hills etc?

Again thanks for the help.

The car is capable of getting up to around 70mph on electric power if you have charge in the battery - though the battery will not take you very far at those speeds. Assuming that you are within battery range, then the engine kicks in in response to demand for additional power - significant acceleration or climbing a moderate hill. You do have to drive it quite gently to avoid ever burning petrol.
 
maby said:
Your running costs will be heavily influenced by the weekend usage. You are not going to see the very efficient headline figures overall, but it will compare favourably with other large, conventionally powered estate cars including soft-roaders. A lot will depend on how much you like the car for its other characteristics apart from fuel efficiency and how much you need a large car - your total cost of ownership taking into account both purchase price and fuel costs will almost certainly be higher than it would be for a modern small to medium size saloon - particularly if this is a private purchase. If it's a company car, then the sums are significantly different. If the alternative is to buy something like a Discovery or RR Evoque, then the PHEV will compare well; if a Skoda Fabia would be acceptable, then it probably makes more sense than the PHEV.

Private purchase. The wife drives a 1 series diesel, so significantly long trips we could take this, I've 2 small children though and the car is more like a removal van when going to visit parents etc so the big boot etc will be needed. I currently drive a Kia sportage 3, to be honest it's not great even though the mpg wasn't too bad compared to the 3 series I had before that. Overall mpg during the week is my main priority and going from what I've read (mostly) on here, my small commute seems ideal?

I would need to purchase the extra charging cable though is that correct? as I'll be using the public charging points most days.
 
maby said:
AllKnewToThis said:
Regulo said:
Looks to me like the PHEV will be ideal for your pattern of usage. Although I don't have to commute any more (laughs uncontrollably), I do tend to do about 20-25 miles piddling around, with the occasional 240 mile round trip at weekends on a mix of dual and single carriageway A roads. 35 mpg will be about right, depending on whether you're right foot is heavy or light. Thrash it around and you're looking sub-30mpg, drive like an angel and 40-plus is possible.

Thanks Regulo, I'm hoping my right foot might lighten if I get a phev :) this may seem like a silly question, I may have asked the dealer this but can't recall the answer (I was enjoying the drive too much)...on average when would the engine kick in? is there a certain speed? or would it be more to do with incline hills etc?

Again thanks for the help.

The car is capable of getting up to around 70mph on electric power if you have charge in the battery - though the battery will not take you very far at those speeds. Assuming that you are within battery range, then the engine kicks in in response to demand for additional power - significant acceleration or climbing a moderate hill. You do have to drive it quite gently to avoid ever burning petrol.

This is maybe the one sticking point for me as I've read hugely different mpg for what seems like fairly similar journeys. As mentioned, I would climb maybe 3 moderate hills over 3 miles (at 40-50mph) on my way to the flat dual-carriageway (60-70mph for 6-7 miles). I'm hopeful of using very little petrol during the week, am I being a little optimistic :lol:
 
AllKnewToThis said:
maby said:
Your running costs will be heavily influenced by the weekend usage. You are not going to see the very efficient headline figures overall, but it will compare favourably with other large, conventionally powered estate cars including soft-roaders. A lot will depend on how much you like the car for its other characteristics apart from fuel efficiency and how much you need a large car - your total cost of ownership taking into account both purchase price and fuel costs will almost certainly be higher than it would be for a modern small to medium size saloon - particularly if this is a private purchase. If it's a company car, then the sums are significantly different. If the alternative is to buy something like a Discovery or RR Evoque, then the PHEV will compare well; if a Skoda Fabia would be acceptable, then it probably makes more sense than the PHEV.

Private purchase. The wife drives a 1 series diesel, so significantly long trips we could take this, I've 2 small children though and the car is more like a removal van when going to visit parents etc so the big boot etc will be needed. I currently drive a Kia sportage 3, to be honest it's not great even though the mpg wasn't too bad compared to the 3 series I had before that. Overall mpg during the week is my main priority and going from what I've read (mostly) on here, my small commute seems ideal?

I would need to purchase the extra charging cable though is that correct? as I'll be using the public charging points most days.

If you don't do the long weekend runs and can take on a bit of charge midday, then you'll use very little petrol. You'll see an effective fuel cost around 150mpg - that's converting the cost of the electricity to petrol purchased. That may worsen if the public charging network starts to charge (in the financial sense) - those that are currently running as profit making companies tend to charge at a level that is not economical for PHEV owners.

If you also do the weekend runs, then I would estimate that your overall fuel consumption taking into account both petrol and electricity will come out around 60 to 70 mpg - still good for the size of car, but you can get comparable from diesel estate cars which will cost a lot less to purchase.
 
AllKnewToThis said:
maby said:
AllKnewToThis said:
...

The car is capable of getting up to around 70mph on electric power if you have charge in the battery - though the battery will not take you very far at those speeds. Assuming that you are within battery range, then the engine kicks in in response to demand for additional power - significant acceleration or climbing a moderate hill. You do have to drive it quite gently to avoid ever burning petrol.

This is maybe the one sticking point for me as I've read hugely different mpg for what seems like fairly similar journeys. As mentioned, I would climb maybe 3 moderate hills over 3 miles (at 40-50mph) on my way to the flat dual-carriageway (60-70mph for 6-7 miles). I'm hopeful of using very little petrol during the week, am I being a little optimistic :lol:

I think your petrol consumption will be low, but certainly not zero. It will also be quite a lot higher in the winter. Driving on urban roads in the summer, I see around 25 miles on a charge but in the winter this drops closer to 15 miles. You really do have to drive very gently on flat roads in warm weather at around 30mph to get the headline figure of 32 miles on battery.
 
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