Hi,

 

The Superb iV is on a shortlist of mine, with caveats.

 

If you were to use one without plugging it in for charge, how well does it behave in normal use?  Will it otherwise act like any other non-plug in hybrid?  Is there a significant impact on overall mpg?

 

I ask because the benefits of the plug in function seem limited vs cost of installing a home charger.

 

Thanks,

 

I have plugin superb iV and use home charging all the time. To me the only point of a hybrid is for plugged in at home charging to support local daily driving ... and we rarely do >20 miles on a typical day.

 

But then we have option of the petrol engine for "big trips" where, to me, the battery plays little role ... yes there is braking leading to regen charging in the battery but its very limited ..think of that as just a more efficient petrol engine. It is very inefficient to have the petrol engine deliberating running in order to recharge the battery and the sensible use cases for that are very limited. If you never fully charge the battery you'd be pointlessly driving around with a massive deadweight in the boot. I have had 60mpg on some mostly petrol trips but generally its high 40s, low 50s mpg. You can play with the settings and tell the car, in hybrid mode, to leave 10% or 20% say in the battery in order to give you some electric driving when you get near your destination after a long motorway (for example) but thats a pain and rather adhoc.

In our case we can drive around locally for a month without visiting a petrol station and charging overnight is cheap ... 70p to fill up an empty battery ...so for 20 miles thats ~3p per mile for "fuel" and in the summer with better range or even free electricity from the solar PV then much less.

 

--> PHEV gives you the best of both worlds (i.e. cheap electric travel and the backup of longer range from the engine) but also the worst of both worlds... more weight to carry around, twice as many engines to break down and a smaller petrol tank.

 

As always, it all depends on your circumstances and driving pattern/requirements -- if you routinely do more than 30 miles a day for commuting or travelling I would say the hybrid wasnt worth it ... go for a full EV or stick to ICE.

 

And another factor to consider, is if you get a home charger you can get an EV electricity tariff and depending what else you have in your house you can get cheap electric for whole home use in the off-peak period.

 

 

You're effectively pulling 200kg of extra battery weight for no good reason, so it seems a bit pointless to have the PHEV and not plug it in. There used to be some advantage for business tax, but I think that may go away soon from what I've read. You also lose some boot space, because the batteries are under the boot floor. Otherwise it behaves like an ordinary hybrid.

I have one, always plug it in, and do find it cheaper to run for short trips to the shops etc because I can do most of them on pure electric mode, although I didn't sign up for a special EV tariff, it wasn't worth it for my use pattern. For longer journeys the fuel consumption seems acceptable, but I have nothing equivalent to compare it with. I'd certainly expect it to be worse than a standard hybrid due to the extra weight, but whether it's better or worse than a pure petrol non-hybrid I couldn't say.

You don't need a dedicated charger - I don't have one.  I just plug into a regular 3-pin plug.  A full charge takes about 5 hours, as opposed to (I beleive) 3.5 for a dedicated charger.  Like robinrottier above, most of my mileage is local, and therefore fully electric.  My electricity provider is OVO, who have a Charge Anytime app that monitors how much the car is using and discounts the rate to 7p per kWH.  I believe Octopus have a similar app.

Same here, on a granny charger for the last year, have done 3k+ electric miles on that, no need for a charger as max charge speed for a home charger is 7kWh Vs 3ish kWh on a granny plug.

+1 for the above posts. 

We had Mercedes GLE hybrid & also charged it only from the 3pin plug. 

 

What I will say is that the drivability of the car when the battery was at 0% was quite poor compared to when it was charged. 

Pull aways and gear changes were jerky etc. 

 

Probably not something you'll notice if the car was only petrol but once you get used to the smoothness of the hybrid/petrol combination you noticed it when it wasn't available. 

 

Just thought I'd add some info and corrections.

The battery isn't under the boot but under the rear seats. The fuel tank would normally be in that spot so that is moved to the boot. If you normally keep the boot floor in the upper position you don't lose any space. However, the space under the false floor is about ⅓ the volume compared to a regular estate.

Next is the use of the granny charger. This really is only designed for occasional use. If intended for prolonged use you definitely should look into at least an inspection of the ring you plan to plug it into. Maybe even a dedicated feed. This is a far cheaper solution than a charge point but should in theory cover you for fire risk. That risk is real and shouldn't be sniffed at.

As for charging speed, the granny is max 3kw but does all sorts of throttling resulting in the 5hr+ charge time. A proper charge point will kick out 3.6 consistently (7kw is for a full EV) which is where you get the 3.5hr charge. They are more flexible. Make the house more attractive for buyers and you can even take it with you if you move.  Oh yeah, much safer too.

 

As for the original question, unless you get some sort of kick back via company lease scheme etc, the running costs will likely be similar to a regular non-hybrid car. The handling will be worse with the added weight. The car is actually about the same weight as the 2.0 4x4 version but without the benefits of power to all wheels. If you are absolutely never going to charge, I wouldn't bother with the additional cost of the car. You need to charge as often as possible to get the most from these cars.