2nd hand Ecar, EV or PHEV under €20k

There is some confusion on that B class, from what I know, it charges at 3.6 kW or maybe 7 kW per hour only, a fast charging car could get 40 kW or more per hour.

The BMW would do 20 to 30 km on a charge and probably 40 mpg or 7 L /100 km on petrol.

This car would have the same efficiency https://www.donedeal.ie/cars-for-sale/mercedes-c350e-sport-hybrid-278bhp-phev/28386105

The ioniq came in 3 different drive trains, hybrid like a toyota, full ev like a leaf, and a plug in hybrid like the 2 linked above, but with greater efficiency.

Ioniq PHEV charges at 3.6kW max, I have one :)

So the car you tested is a straight up hybrid like a Toyota Prius. On pure electricity, the battery will probably last you 2 or 3km but if you use the "pulse & glide" method you might get a little more. I would not assume you can make every short trip on electricity alone.

The car will charge the battery either using the petrol engine or by regenerating using coasting or the brakes. How long this will take depends on a lot of factors as it is not a steady recharge you will get from these methods. It could take 50kms of motorway driving to recharge the battery and if it is mostly town driving, you may never see a full charge. With a "normal" hybrid, the car will manage the charge cycles by itself and you have very little input (in the Ioniq, you can flick the gearbox to SPORT mode and this will recharge the battery for you but it will use quite a bit of fuel in doing so).

Battery life on a standard hybrid should be a non-issue. We live in a temperate climate, so extremes of temperature are not going to affect it here. I got 9 years from a standard hybrid and over 170,000 miles without a noticeable drop in electric only range (which was only 2 or 3kms anyway when new). Replacement battery cost would be a couple of thousand for a hybrid in any case but I doubt you will ever need to worry about it.

If you are stretching your budget to 25k, you could get a plug in hybrid or full electric version of the car you test drove (Ioniq), a reasonably new Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV (2017 or thereabouts), all manner of BMW, VW or Mercedes plug-in hybrids. For full electric: a good used Nissan Leaf 40 (I imagine), lots of BMW i3s to choose from and a few VW eGolf models at around that price on Carzone. I doubt any of the newer 64kWh cars will have dropped to the 25k mark yet.

Thats the earliest one. Chap had one at work and in 2019-20 (ie before covid) he reckoned 20-25km was the best electric only range in the real world.

Nice car, but for me I'd prefer the 530e in touring spec.

Lovely car, I'd seen that a while ago. Pricey for the spec but it would be my pick of Ioniqs.

If you are looking to save money then you need to state or asses your annual mileage. Secondly you need to be honest re your normal budget for the next car. 'stretching' can be an awfully dangerous game if you overextend and borrow to hopefully get a predicted saving in x years time.

Well at that annual mileage an ev would be good if you can get one within budget and you accept you use the other car for longer trips. At 8l per hundred km it's 2.5k a year on fuel so if you take an average 5 years ownership and can get a home charger and an ev for 20 something k then it could well suit you.

I'd avoid a phev as it's a halfway gimmick especially as already have a second car.

Well take your night tarrif rate per kWh which is the best way to charge an ev and multiply by the kWh of the battery being charged.

Generally you are not charging all of it anyway.

just FYI: Drove past Hogans yesterday and saw that the Ioniq has a sold sign on it

20,000km per year at 16kWh/100km (fairly worst case for an Ioniq) is 3200kWh per year

At the cheapest night rate available right now (Energia EV plan, 5.23c/kWh) that gives an annual cost of €167.36

Cheaper than walking 😁