Plug In Hybrid Cars Fuel Efficiency Misleading

[barry1010]

This is a huge difference according to Which? "The worst performer was BMW’s X5 plug-in hybrid SUV. It achieved 188.3 miles per gallon in official tests, versus only 52.8 miles for Which?"

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/mar/02/plug-in-hybrid-cars-burn-more-fuel-than-tests-record-says-which

I would not be a happy bunny if I had bought one of these cars and can see yet another round of compensation claims against car manufacturers for massaging data.

Has anyone here got one? If so, it is as fuel efficient as the manufacturer claims?

[Karolina82]

Buy one in anticipation of a compensation pay-out.
I don't like PHEVs. They are economical when used for very gentle short journeys of around 30 miles and the battery is fully charged.
Many owners don't charge their batteries at home and lose the benefits.
Fully electric vehicles are the way to go.

[sunny-dave]

I've got a PHEV (a Kia Niro) - it's a brilliant vehicle - any local journeys can be done on pure electric power (up to about 30 miles round trip) and the equivalent economy for these is in the 180mpg range.

When I need to go further I manage the electric power to save it for urban/congested parts of the journey and let the petrol engine kick in for the rest. Even if I have to set off with an empty battery (eg if I'm away overnight with no charger available) it still turns in about 70mpg. The crucial thing for me is the total absence of 'range anxiety', as I live way out in the sticks and public chargers are a rare sight.

Most of my journeys are a mix of battery/petrol and (for example) a 100 mile round trip will use about 4 litres of petrol and one full charge of electricity - total cost about the same as a gallon of petrol - so 100mpg equivalent.

Anyone who thinks they'll get 180mpg all the time is kidding themselves (or only ever does 30 miles or so between chargings).

The salesman was very careful to explain all the figures (which are in the Kia brochures) - there certainly was no mis-selling.

I think The Graun and Which are effluent-stirring in search of a catchy headline - not very useful at all.

[gingejbee]

...and I think that Which? is testing vehicles, publishing the results and highlighting discrepancies with manufactures' published claims.
No "stirring" required.

[barry1010]

Which? is usually reliable in its reports. I'm not changing my car yet - I'll wait until it's on it starts costing me money, it is not very environmentally friendly to ditch a perfectly good car for a new one - it takes a lot of energy and materials to build a car and scrapping an old car creates a lot of waste.

Hopefully fully electric will be much better in a few years and the batteries not so expensive.