Petrol v PHEV

crisco10

Curious as to thoughts on this one, currently have a Fabia estate and love the huge boot. But the back isn't big enough for 2 rear facing car seats (cabin is too short).

So have about 30k budget (Inc trade in of fabia) and we seem to be between 2 cars (both new), live in Dublin, mostly short trips bar the holidays. Do about 15k km a year. Single car family.

Octavia Estate 1.0 tsi - nice and big, defo future proof from size perspective. Soft on petrol relatively.

Or

Kia ceed sportswagon PHEV - only a bit bigger than the fabia but more future proof due to Plugin element. Seem to be discounted because end of line too.

Obviously the space of octavia is hard to argue with, but given our strategy is buy new and hold for 8 - 10 years, is the ICE a silly choice??? From what I see, a PHEV would be perfect for our usage.

With getting the crystal ball out, is a small petrol engine going to be a crazy idea in 2030?

ELM327

Both will be crazy ideas in 2030. Petrol (especially such a small engine in a large car) will be old hat, and short range plug in hybrids will be super outdated.

If I were you I'd be choosing between a non plugin hybrid or a proper full electric. It's very difficult to see what the motoring space will be in 10 years time. You'd get a lot of car for 30k new so to be honest I'd spread the net a lot further.

bazz26

Personally I don't see a PHEV or any other hybrid being any more future proofed than a regular ICE car to be honest. They both still have a combustion engine that requires fossil fuel to run that will be targeted by the Greens or any other Government over the next decade or so. Hybrids are just a stop gap or compliance for car manufacturers to get around more stringent emission regulations that are only going to get more stringent to a point where they just won't make them anymore.

Another few things worth thinking about:

1. If you have a PHEV then you need a home charger imo otherwise it's pointless having it. You just cannot rely on public charging infrastructure in this country. So if you are setup for charging at home then surely a full EV is worth considering at this point?
2. If your buying a PHEV to mainly benefit from the electric aspect then why the need for a combustion engine at all? Or do you also travel frequently far enough to rely/depend on the combustion engine? If not then why again go hybrid? Surely a regular petrol car will do?

So imo, hybrids are only going to be around in the medium term, they are not going to be a permanent alternative to the current range of petrol engines but they might help some bridge the gap between moving from ICE to full EV a lot easier. I wouldn't be buying one though if the main reason is to try and outwit future proofing or depreciation.

crisco10

Exactly the kind of thoughts I was hoping for. Thanks. A few answers to points above...

We have a house, so if going PHEV we would of course get home charger in drive to use the car like it should.

EV is not out of running (would need to convince my wife it would work for longer journeys tho) but the main issues (maybe unfounded) we have with EV at the moment are

-the summer holiday. We like to drive down to bordeaux from cherbourg, and fully EV would be a little too novel for us at this point for a 7 hour drive (at ICE pace) with 2 young kids. We'd also need to either sort out a charger in the house there or look at compromising with trickle charge / public charging while there.

- boot space (for our budget) seem to be quite a step down from the 500l of the Fabia. E.g. eNero boot is about 60% of the boot size.

- re just mild hybrid, we did look at corolla Estate, but I didn't see value in the mild hybrid. Its basically still ICE powered, but made a smidge more efficient with Elec engine on board. Am I missing something?

Re spreading the net...where do you mean? We've looked at various estates; focus, leon etc and browsed the MGs EV online but nothing grabbed us. For example, the slow charge on MG was off putting for a single car house.

Re the future proofing element, I was really thinking that the lower emissions figures and petrol consumption would shield us somewhat from changes in policy/tax/fuel price increases as we all go more green. But yeah, who knows.

PaulJoseph22

Get a diesel

POBox19

Go EV. It'll do your everyday motoring for everything bar the trip to Bordeaux. Although the French charging network is improving rapidly. If you are really worried about the long journey why not just hire an ICE vehicle for a week or two. Gone are the days when you'd buy a big car for the annual trip with everything on board and then spend the remainder or the year driving an enormous empty car.

You’ve provided your own answer in your opening post.

you want to buy new and keep for 8-10 years

your budget is 30k

you have a family and a need for a large boot.

so, a new EV is out based on budget and needs.

in 8-10 years time regardless of petrol or hybrid your car will have lost 80- 90% of value

So, if running costs are a concern buy the car that meets your needs, has a good reliability record so to keep servicing costs down and also has the best MPG

best of luck with your decision and do let us know what you decided

Lantus

It's the tough choice as we face into growing ev and dwindling ice sales. But in your case pick the car that meets your needs. The octavia ticks lots of boxes and if your overall mileage is low fuel prices won't impact on you.

I would add can you pay off the octavia and save some money for your next car in the 8 year ownership period? That will give you a flying leap into a market where EVs are prevelant.

kanuseeme

Get the phev, 45 km range on battery and only 2 hours to fill up again, make a note of your trips and total it all up, you will probably find most are with in that 50 km range, it won't be any worse on longer trips than a regular petrol car probably even better as it will function as a normal hybrid.

I am on my 2nd phev, it can be months between fills if you plug in at home and when the opportunity arises out and about,

I would imagine in 2030 a hybrid would be the minimum requirement, as of this year registered cars are 33% diesel, 33% petrol and 16% hybrid and 8% each for phev and ev.

45 km a day is 16000 km a year. you will get a grant for the charger and reduced tolls also for the phev.