EV or PHEV

[seangee]

I mean for 4 wheelers.

Idly sitting at home following minor surgery and my boredom led me to start browsing new cars. Always a bad sign as action often follow curiosity quite quickly.

I quickly discounted self charging hybrids as little more than a gimmick, my old oil burner regularly returns 50mpg (UK) on the motorway and 800 miles to the tank. And the 3l V6 is no slouch when I'm not getting 50mpg  . None of the sensibly priced mild hybrids get anywhere close in either department. Truth is 95% of my driving is sensible and on motorways so the performance is not that big a deal - I have 2 bikes for when I want to have fun

The journeys I do most often tend to be between 150 and 250 miles each way with the return usually happening a few days to weeks later and of course I need to get around while I am there. So I started by looking at plug in hybrids with the idea that I would always have a fallback when I ran out of juice. Last time I bought a car I was talked out of electric because of the high motorway miles, and in those days (2015) EVs were still thought of as primarily city cars.

But things have changed a lot in those 7 years and now I'm wondering if I really need an ICE and gearbox just as backup...
So for those that have made the switch to less reliance on fossil fuels

Which way did you go?
What were the main factors?
What would you do differently next time?

FWIW a small car is not really an option - we are usually accompanied by a labrador and 2 large cats, oh and Mrs Gee needs more luggage for a weekend stay than most people take on a 2 week holiday 

[indytiger1050]

IMO your only long term option while being allowed to burn the new spawn on the world petrol is a hybrid. 
Fuel runs generator running charges small battery's that run the motors. 

Seems no one considers the amount of energy it takes to make a EV vs a Hybrid to the point of being a wash but it makes you feel better not having a engine. The pollution from the power plant doesn't count.   

How are you doing on the mend?  Hope it's quick and complete. 

[tiggerii]

I have now had a BMW X3 30e M Sport Plug In Hybrid for 12 months, changed to that from a BMW X3 30d M Sport which I had for 5 years and loved.  I changed because I needed a new car and with Bristol where my son lives saying they were planning to ban diesels in the city centre (even EU6) I looked at petrol cars.  As I loved old BMW X3 and have a wife who is very similar to yours in terms of luggage I went for the X3 again but the petrol engine chioce was 2.0 or 4.0 litre in the UK.  The latter is a fabulous engine but fuel economy is very poor, hence I went for the 30e which combines a 2.0 lite turbo petrol engine with an electric motor.

It's proved to be very practical, I've only done 7.5k miles in the last year but as I do a lot of local journeys 3.2k miles have been on electric which at about 28 miles per charge has been cheap motoring as I have a charge point at home with a very good tariff (not looking forward to when that ends in a years time).

it's great knowing I'm not dependent on electric which is just as well as the charging infrastructure in the UK is rubbish and the fact that the car takes about 3.5 hours to charge up as it can't fast charge.  Holiday on Dartmoor last year, no chargepoints for miles, recent trip to the NEC at Birmingham no charge points, recent holiday in Dunwich, Suffolk meant no charge points for miles but luckily there was a 13 amp socket where I could charge the car each night for a week and I paid the cottage owner £20 for the electricity (actual cost was £17.50).  Ended up that week doing just over 600 miles and used 32 litres of fuel plus £20 of electricity so saved about £25 compared to a car at 50 MPG.

So for me it's swings and roundabouts, I love the car, I love performance - combine the Electric and Petrol motors and I have 288 bhp which is fun but to be honest on long trips in Eco mode it's still great to drive and keeps up with everything else.  I've already decided that in 2 years I will get another hybrid (good resale is another consideration) though I will be sticking out for one with a better battery range.