Hybrid's - to plug or not to plug

[RizzoTheRat]

Ankh87 said:

She's after one of those Toyota CHR things. Not a huge fan myself but for her I don't actually care. With the Toyota there isn't anything to plug-in which is better as she can't forget. So I'm thinking might be a better option than say a Mini Countryman Plug-in.

Can you get the Corolla Cross in the UK? Similar size to the CHR but less ugly and with more boot space.

[Ankh87]

Ken_Code said:

Well yes, of course it would be your fault.

Why don’t you stop trying to make her buy what you want and let her buy what she’d like instead?

For the price of the Toyota CHR we could get a VW ID3 which would be fine most of her use. I'm also not fussed what she gets but I'm more fussed about the cost. I'm more than happy for her to get a Toyota, I love Toyota's so that's good with me.

[Ankh87]

TheDeuce said:

Charging faff... You literally put a plug in a socket once a week. It sounds like a plug in hybrid makes the most sense given the minimal trip length, it'll be cheaper than a full EV and still do all it's miles on electric range.

The EV tariff thing is also hard to understand. Working from home adds minimal extra to typical home usage, probably less than 1kwh per day. But charging a decent range PHEV will take more like 30kwh a week, so you want that usage in the cheap hours. You can also move dishwasher, washing machine etc into the cheap hours.

Of course we'd need to discuss with electricity provider about the rates but we don't have a home charger. So charging via 3 pin would be the only option, hence we might be better getting a hyrid like the Toyota CHR. Personally I think that is more than enough and when she gets over this issue she has with EVs then its a good stop gap.

[Ken_Code]

Ankh87 said:

Of course we'd need to discuss with electricity provider about the rates but we don't have a home charger. So charging via 3 pin would be the only option, hence we might be better getting a hyrid like the Toyota CHR. Personally I think that is more than enough and when she gets over this issue she has with EVs then its a good stop gap.

Your poor wife. Listen to yourself, you’re not allowing her to choose the car that she wants, and treating her preference as an “issue” to be dealt with.

Do you express coercive control in other areas, such as what she wears, who she’s allowed to be friends with or what she eats?

[gmaz]

There's a new interesting non-plug-in HEV from MG, has twice the battery and power of most others from Toyota & Suzuki.

[TheDeuce]

Ankh87 said:

TheDeuce said:

Charging faff... You literally put a plug in a socket once a week. It sounds like a plug in hybrid makes the most sense given the minimal trip length, it'll be cheaper than a full EV and still do all it's miles on electric range.

The EV tariff thing is also hard to understand. Working from home adds minimal extra to typical home usage, probably less than 1kwh per day. But charging a decent range PHEV will take more like 30kwh a week, so you want that usage in the cheap hours. You can also move dishwasher, washing machine etc into the cheap hours.

Of course we'd need to discuss with electricity provider about the rates but we don't have a home charger. So charging via 3 pin would be the only option, hence we might be better getting a hyrid like the Toyota CHR. Personally I think that is more than enough and when she gets over this issue she has with EVs then its a good stop gap.

A 3-pin is all you'd need, if you plugged it in each evening you'd be fully recharging a PHEV battery for the following day.

PHEV is likely to retain value a little better too, they're very popular as people use them as a cheap EV alternative - specifically people in your wives position, for good reason!

I think you need to gently push getting on board with plugging a car in. You could start by unplugging the kettle as training, see if she can get it plugged back in and go from there

[TheDeuce]

Ken_Code said:

Ankh87 said:

Of course we'd need to discuss with electricity provider about the rates but we don't have a home charger. So charging via 3 pin would be the only option, hence we might be better getting a hyrid like the Toyota CHR. Personally I think that is more than enough and when she gets over this issue she has with EVs then its a good stop gap.

Your poor wife. Listen to yourself, you’re not allowing her to choose the car that she wants, and treating her preference as an “issue” to be dealt with.

Do you express coercive control in other areas, such as what she wears, who she’s allowed to be friends with or what she eats?

Reading between the lines I imagine she has sod all interest in car shopping, has asked the OP to sort it out so he's on here trying to do a decent job of that.

[Ken_Code]

TheDeuce said:

Reading between the lines I imagine she has sod all interest in car shopping, has asked the OP to sort it out so he's on here trying to do a decent job of that.

“ Tried my best to convince her but not happening”

[Ankh87]

TheDeuce said:

Ken_Code said:

Ankh87 said:

Of course we'd need to discuss with electricity provider about the rates but we don't have a home charger. So charging via 3 pin would be the only option, hence we might be better getting a hyrid like the Toyota CHR. Personally I think that is more than enough and when she gets over this issue she has with EVs then its a good stop gap.

Your poor wife. Listen to yourself, you’re not allowing her to choose the car that she wants, and treating her preference as an “issue” to be dealt with.

Do you express coercive control in other areas, such as what she wears, who she’s allowed to be friends with or what she eats?

Reading between the lines I imagine she has sod all interest in car shopping, has asked the OP to sort it out so he's on here trying to do a decent job of that.

Exactly. Her interest in cars is very little, if at all. If it goes point A to point B, that's all she cares about. So it's not about controlling, it's more about finding her a car she'd like and be cheap enough to run. She has said she doesn't want fully BEV but then again, would be possibly cheaper to buy and run over a hybrid.
I see the pro's and con's with both so I'm not overly bothered. My main thing is understanding which is better, plug-in or non plug-in. If she got to run on full EV mode doing the school run in the morning (under 3 miles), then brilliant.

[ajprice]

There are varying levels of non plug in hybrid, from 'mild hybrid' which is a step above stop/start systems, to the current Honda Jazz where the engine is a generator and only powers the wheels by a clutch engaging at high speed.

[Phil.]

Ken_Code said:

If the motor isn’t propelling the car then what is it doing?

Most mild-hybrids don’t have an electric motor. The relatively small 48V battery drives the turbo or supercharger to enhance performance/economy. The battery removes the need for a starter motor so starting is almost silent.

Whereas the Toyota hybrid is the full monty with an electric motor and petrol engine both of which provide drive to the wheels, all managed by some impressive tech which ensures the battery is charged and economy maximised with 60mpg+ a reality.

[TheDeuce]

Ankh87 said:

TheDeuce said:

Ken_Code said:

Ankh87 said:

Of course we'd need to discuss with electricity provider about the rates but we don't have a home charger. So charging via 3 pin would be the only option, hence we might be better getting a hyrid like the Toyota CHR. Personally I think that is more than enough and when she gets over this issue she has with EVs then its a good stop gap.

Your poor wife. Listen to yourself, you’re not allowing her to choose the car that she wants, and treating her preference as an “issue” to be dealt with.

Do you express coercive control in other areas, such as what she wears, who she’s allowed to be friends with or what she eats?

Reading between the lines I imagine she has sod all interest in car shopping, has asked the OP to sort it out so he's on here trying to do a decent job of that.

Exactly. Her interest in cars is very little, if at all. If it goes point A to point B, that's all she cares about. So it's not about controlling, it's more about finding her a car she'd like and be cheap enough to run. She has said she doesn't want fully BEV but then again, would be possibly cheaper to buy and run over a hybrid.
I see the pro's and con's with both so I'm not overly bothered. My main thing is understanding which is better, plug-in or non plug-in. If she got to run on full EV mode doing the school run in the morning (under 3 miles), then brilliant.

Just get a plug in hybrid, you can plug it in if that makes life easier

It's plainly going to be the cheapest to run because you'll never put fuel in it.

Full EV would probably be more costly to buy for an equivalent car, and it sounds like you simply don't need more range than a PHEV offers anyway.

[Jakg]

HTP99 said:

Many people seem to think it is this magical electrically powered car where the electric is there all of the time with the back up of a petrol engine "just incase" but they don't actually think "Mmm I wonder how it actually does that, it sounds to good to be true", or they think the self charging element of the system is far, far greater than it actually is, giving many, many miles of pure electric driving.

To be fair, they do exist - e.g. i3 REX

Ankh87 said:

Another issue with going fully EV would be the fact she works from home during the day, so going on an EV tariff might actually cost us more money.

You don't *have* to swap to an EV tariff.

[Ankh87]

TheDeuce said:

Just get a plug in hybrid, you can plug it in if that makes life easier

It's plainly going to be the cheapest to run because you'll never put fuel in it.

Full EV would probably be more costly to buy for an equivalent car, and it sounds like you simply don't need more range than a PHEV offers anyway.

With the Toyota CHR, would that not just work the same way apart from the plug part?

She mostly likes the Toyota but is open to other cars as she isn't really sure what is out there. She saw a blue Toyota CHR and really liked it most recently but I'm sure if she saw another car, then that would lure her in as well.

[paralla]

I have a Mazda CX-60 PHEV which I'm in charge of, so I plug it in at home and it charges on cheap overnight leccy. It will oficially do 39 miles on the battery but actually does about 32 miles on the battery. 32 miles is enough for 90% of it's use. On Friday/Saturday I'm driving it 870 miles to Cap Ferret, France for a hgoliday. I won't have to worry about where I can plug it in because I don't have to plug it in at all. It does 40mpg all day long on it's petrol engine when the HV battery is "flat".

My husband used to use it for a 100 mile round trip commute, he couldn't be bothered to plug it in at his office to charge there even though it wwas free, it is easier to put petrol in than plug in.

I just bought him a Toyota CH-R 2.0 GR Sport Hybrid. Basically a Prius SUV. It does an easy 60mpg, in use it's a petrol car. The hybrid bit means it actually gets close to its claimed mpg rather than it being wishful thinking.

If you get a PHEV make sure the charging arrangements are as convenient as possible if you are to have any hope of her plugging it in. If she normally parks front in but is required tro reverse in to align the charge port witrh the charge plug it's never going to happen.

[Phil.]

Ankh87 said:

With the Toyota CHR, would that not just work the same way apart from the plug part?

She mostly likes the Toyota but is open to other cars as she isn't really sure what is out there. She saw a blue Toyota CHR and really liked it most recently but I'm sure if she saw another car, then that would lure her in as well.

Yes. Get a Toyota and you won’t regret it. Resale should be good too.

[MrBig]

FeelingLucky said:

I'm guessing at no actual experience.

I ran a GTE for two years and in my experience it was the best of both worlds. With a fully charged battery, 70-90 mpg was possible, once discharged about 50 on a run. Shorter trips could be done on electric only. As you'd imagine range was excellent with such good economy.

There's a lot of that on here. Usually easy to spot by the phrase "worst of both worlds". Winds me right up as I have a lot practical experience with a PHEV and that's the polar opposite of the reality.

I was actually seriously considering a move to a full EV from the GTE, but I changed jobs and now sell engine parts for a living, so that wouldn't go down well with the customers

[paralla]

Ankh87 said:

With the Toyota CHR, would that not just work the same way apart from the plug part?

She mostly likes the Toyota but is open to other cars as she isn't really sure what is out there. She saw a blue Toyota CHR and really liked it most recently but I'm sure if she saw another car, then that would lure her in as well.

The white 2024 Toyota CH-R 2.0 PHEV that I had as a loaner for two weeks and 1600 miles was nice, it got plugged in (by me, not my husband) every night at home. It was faster and more refined than a non plug in hybrid CH-R because it's almost silent on the 40 miles of battery range (I saw 65 miles once) but it cost £42K and the safety systems and driver airs were infuriating



The red Pre-Registered 2023, 0 mile Toyota CH-R 2.0 GR Sport Hybrid that I bought for my husband to commute in. It does 65mpg just by putting petrol in it. The driver aids and safety systems stay off after they have been turned off and it cost £12K less than the 2024 PHEV. The difference in econimy between the two isn't going to cost me £12K in extra fuel over the time we have the car and I don't have to go out every evening and plug it in because he can't be bothered.



It's super smooth and quiet (post 2019 facelift ones are quieter and more refined) , easy to see out of and generally a pleasure to use. It's driveline refinement puts my Mazda CX-60 to shame. Not massive in the back seat though, test drive with your kids to see if they are ok back there before buying.

My advice, get a normal hybrid and accept the fuel consumption or get a PHEV and accept that it will be used as a non plug in hybrid unless you are happy to do all the plugging/unplugging yourself.

[otolith]

A normal hybrid is just a more efficient petrol car. It runs on petrol all the time, even if the engine isn't running, because the energy in the battery came from petrol.

A plug in hybrid runs on mains energy until it runs out, then runs on petrol.

The "self charging hybrid" stuff is marketing bks.

[paralla]

otolith said:

A normal hybrid is just a more efficient petrol car. It runs on petrol all the time, even if the engine isn't running, because the energy in the battery came from petrol.

A plug in hybrid runs on mains energy until it runs out, then runs on petrol.

The "self charging hybrid" stuff is marketing bks.

Some of the energy in the battery of PHEV's or normal hybrids also comes from regen when the car is decelerating or braking. When this energy is powering the electric motor to drive the car it's not running on mains energy or petrol.