Is a plug-in hybrid car right for you? The CompleteCar.ie team answers the basic questions that all car buyers are asking today as more consider switching to a PHEV. Video created in partnership with Peugeot Ireland.
Foreign hybrid or a phev as they’re sometimes called is a car that combines both petrol power well sometimes diesel but it’s usually petrol with an electric motor and a rechargeable battery in theory this gives you the ideal halfway house between a fully electric car and a conventional combustion engine one no if a car maker refers to a self-charging hybrid that
Means they’re referring to a conventional hybrid one that doesn’t plug into the mains to recharge a plug-in hybrid as the name suggests can charge from an outside source foreign is that a plug-in hybrid has two field flaps one for a petrol and another for the electric connection so you can plug it in charge it up and then can drive on just the battery under zero
Local emissions power for short journeys when you need to do a longer journey then the petrol engine kicks in and you just drive normally and fill up a fuel when you need to that will depend on the hybrid you’re talking about but in general most will go for an official 50 kilometers on one charge as a minimum you’ll see much less than that if you’re including any
Main road driving say around 30 to 35 kilometers or thereabouts the larger and heavier your car is the shorter the distance you’ll be able to cover again that will vary from car to car but in most cases you should see around 600 kilometers from a tankful and most phevs aside from the biggest and heaviest suv models will do around 6.5 liters per 100 kilometers on a
Long journey yes or no you won’t get the fully zero emissions driving of an all-electric vehicle and the weight and complication of a plug-in hybrid model means that they can get quite thirsty if you’re not plugging them in regularly having said that you really do need a driveway or other osprey parking so that you can charge up every evening ready for the next day
The bonus of course is that you can come to remote places like this and not have to worry about finding a charging point again it depends on the size of the battery from a home charger one with a 7.4 kilowatt output most phevs will charge from flat in three to four hours some will do a little bit quicker models with larger batteries will take a bit longer obviously
It can be can but the answer really depends on how you drive your phev if you buy one and just drive it around on the engine and never charge it up then the extra weight of the car means that you’ll be burning more fuel than you would be in an ordinary petrol or diesel car on top of that you’ll have a battery on board which has its own carbon impact because mining
The raw materials and making the battery causes carbon emissions but if you’re at least reasonably diligent charge up regularly preferably at night you can do a huge chunk of your regular driving on electric power and save the fuel for longer journeys which is when you’ll really need it if you can do say three quarters of your regular driving on the battery then
You’ll have made a significant reduction in your carbon emissions but you’ll still have the flexibility of a petrol engine for when you need it and you won’t need to plan journeys around public charging points foreign do you drive mostly short journeys with an occasional but regular long-haul do you have a driveway or other off street parking where you can fit
A charging point and are you the sort of person who pays enough attention to remember to charge up every evening if so then yes a phev is well worth considering
Transcribed from video
Is a plug-in hybrid right for you? By CompleteCar.ie
