Buying a plug-in hybrid car is an excellent way to slash your motoring costs – especially if you can charge it up at home. That’s because, unlike a regular hybrid car, a plug-in hybrid comes with a battery that’s large enough to let you travel for significant distances between charges. In fact, that distance will in most cases be enough to cover your weekday commute without using a drop of fuel.
There’s plenty to consider before deciding if a plug-in hybrid car is right for you, though, and whether you might be better off with a regular hybrid which you don’t have to plug in, or a fully electric car. So, to help you decide, here we’ll go through some of the considerations you might wish to make if you’re in the market for a plug-in hybrid.
Can you plug in your car at home?
Keeping the battery of your plug-in hybrid car topped up is the best way to enjoy the lowest running costs – indeed, if you drive around with the battery empty all of the time, it’s akin to driving with dead weight in your car.
Of course, the easiest and most cost-effective way to charge your plug-in hybrid car’s battery is by charging up at home, where you can take advantage of cheap EV tariffs. Indeed, some of the latest home chargers will let you schedule your charge to utilise the lowest possible rates.
If you can’t charge at home, or have access to a charging point at work, then it’s worth assessing whether a plug-in hybrid can fit into your lifestyle. Relying solely on the public charging network could be more expensive – and time-consuming – than you might think.
It’s also worth looking out for any offers from car makers when you’re shopping, since many have partnered with charging point suppliers to offer a home charger for a reduced fee when you buy a plug-in hybrid or electric car.
What sort of electric range do you need?
Think of a plug-in hybrid car as a halfway house between a regular hybrid and a fully electric car. It can travel further on electric power alone than a regular hybrid, for example, with most modern plug-in hybrids being able to cover more than 30 miles between charges in real-world conditions. Some are able to cover far more than that, bear in mind. On the other hand, no plug-in hybrid car will be able to match an electric car in terms of range.
Still, what you’re getting with a plug-in hybrid car could be considered the best of both worlds. You get the zero-emission range which could make for very favourable tax rates if you’re a company car driver, as well as excellent fuel economy, but you also get the convenience of a traditional combustion engine for longer trips.
Do you need a seven seat plug-in hybrid?
It used to be the case that there weren’t many seven-seat plug-in hybrids to choose from, but these days some of our favourite seven-seat cars are also available as plug-in hybrids. These include the Hyundai Santa Fe, Kia Sorento and Land Rover Defender – models which don’t compromise how much space is on offer to third-row passengers, either, so nobody should feel short-changed if they’re relegated to the third row.
Seven-seat plug-in hybrids can make a lot of sense for bigger families, especially if they rarely travel further than the local area. That’s because they can maximise the amount of time spent driving on purely electric power, which in turn maximises your fuel economy.
On the other hand, if you regularly travel with seven people over long distances, you’re unlikely to see the kind of stellar fuel economy that you might hear about from other plug-in hybrid drivers, due to both the weight being carried in the car and the miles it’s covering.
Do you need a big boot?
If you regularly load your car to the gunwhales with luggage, then it’s worth thinking about how much space you might lose if you opt for a plug-in hybrid. That’s because, in many plug-in hybrid cars, the battery sits underneath the boot floor which raises the height of the boot, leaving you less storage space.
The impact this can have depends on the size of the car you’re buying, but can be as much as 110 litres of difference – and that could mean you’ll have to leave one of your carry-on suitcases behind.
It’s worth not only comparing the size of the boot in the plug-in hybrid you’re thinking of buying with its regular combustion-engined sibling – if it has one – but also with other plug-in hybrids, so you can decide if the sacrifice to battery space is one that you’re willing to make.
Where can you store your charging cables?
Most plug-in hybrid cars will come with a dedicated place to store those all-important charging cables. After all, if you lose those, you’re severely limited in where you can plug in if you need to.
Some plug-in hybrids will come with a bag to store your cables in, but you’ll still be placing them in the boot alongside the rest of your luggage. And while those cables might look like they neatly stack in said bag, the same might not be true after six months of use when they’ve been dragged along the ground in the rain.
Other plug-in hybrids go one step further with a dedicated storage compartment for your cables. This might be either underneath the boot floor, or in a side compartment as part of the boot itself. This gives you somewhere to store your cables without having to worry about storing them away neatly.
Of course, if you know you’ll only be charging up at home, you might decide to leave your charging cables there and not worry about taking them with you. Just be warned, though, that if you’re caught short, you might be limited as to the public charging stations you can use, since you’ll need to find one with a cable you can plug into your car.
Should I buy a plug-in hybrid?
Buy one if:
You want the convenience of a combustion engine for longer tripsYou want to lower your running costsYou can easily charge at home or at work
Don’t buy one if:
You have no easy access to chargingYou regularly cover long distancesYou regularly travel with a full boot
