EREVs are the way to go, IMO, if wanting to incorporate an engine in the vehicle.  Much safer than a PHEV.

But, with EVs with much better range than the BMW i3 these days, the need for PHEVs (for towing capacity) is fast diminishing.

Robert will likely disagree, I expect.🙂

It’s horses for courses. I chose a used PHEV 6 years ago because:
I sometime do long, >350 miles, journeys without a capability to recharge at the destination.
I need a larger vehicle.
I can’t charge an EV at home.
I wanted better fuel economy but not a diesel (I’m not anti diesel, I had a diesel Astra in 1983. In those days diesel cars were so rare they wouldn’t turn the pump on for you).
My work commute is within the EV range and I can charge for free at work.
I had a strong preference for an all wheel drive capability. I do use the vehicle off road a few times a year. Dual motor EV’s / PHEV’s provide AWD at no additional weight or transmission losses unlike ICE vehicles.

Note that public chargers generally and non-Tesla fast chargers in particular were not anywhere near as common 6 years ago as they are now.

I was very careful about the exact car I bought even after deciding on the model. It was one previous owner, low mileage, was a 2016 model year but registered in 2015 just a month before the zero road tax incentive ended. I will have to pay £10 tax next year but still a lot less than if it had been registered a month later. It also had all the options I wanted and none I didn’t like adaptive cruise control.
The only non routine maintenence issues I’ve had are a cooling system issue (on the electric system coolant circuit and a known issue) and I replaced the rear brake disks due to rust pitting. An easy DIY job. Almost certainly caused by using the manually operated dynamic braking too much. I now ensure I have a decent friction brake application every trip. Overall servicing cost is about the same as SWMBO’s focus.

I’m not “anti” any particular mode of transit* but some will suit a given situation more than others.

Dispite what the linked pundits say (Pulsar have no agenda – not) You CAN drive a PHEV as zero a

tailpipe emissions and they are not automatically heavier than an EV. Ceratinly not han an EV with the same range.

Robert.

* I do avoid helicopters unless required for work, it’s the only available mode of transport or I’m being medivac’d.

On 9 May 2026 at 01:42 not done it yet Said:

EREVs are the way to go, IMO, if wanting to incorporate an engine in the vehicle.  Much safer than a PHEV.

But, with EVs with much better range than the BMW i3 these days, the need for PHEVs (for towing capacity) is fast diminishing.

Robert will likely disagree, I expect.🙂

Most EV towing capacity is limited to the sort of trailer you get in Halfords 750KG max.

On 10 May 2026 at 15:18 not done it yet Said:

On 10 May 2026 at 11:09 Dave Halford Said:

On 9 May 2026 at 01:42 not done it yet Said:

EREVs are the way to go, IMO, if wanting to incorporate an engine in the vehicle.  Much safer than a PHEV.

But, with EVs with much better range than the BMW i3 these days, the need for PHEVs (for towing capacity) is fast diminishing.

Robert will likely disagree, I expect.🙂

Most EV towing capacity is limited to the sort of trailer you get in Halfords 750KG max.

Not so.  Many larger EVs will tow rather more than that.  Mine will easily tow double (and a bit) of your suggestion.  My Pogo 106 diesel was limited to 700kg, so nothing special, or different, about smaller EVs.

Some can tow the normal 3500kg, but I hope I will never need more towing capacity than l have at present.

Please don’t be vague ‘many’ says nothing as does including vehicles that cannot be driven in the UK.

As far as I am aware, based on 1800kg there’s the merc EQC and the bigger motor EQA or an Audi that I hate, both have a comparable tow range of 130 miles.

Borderline trolling.

List of UK available cars with towing capacity over 1te, couple over 2 te

https://octopusev.com/ev-hub/best-electric-cars-for-towing

Even the Octopus site lists the Polestar max ever calculated range and then drops it to 285 on the polestar page. So everyone is spinning as hard as a politician.

And has anyone ever managed to get the manufacturer’s quoted mpg on an IC engine car. Spinning is endemic in advertising any product, and don’t let’s mention politicians..

I’m not sure that it is spinning – if you use the figures as they are always labelled. More-or-less clearly, perhaps, but I have always taken these as “artificial” numbers obtained under carefully controlled and specified conditions. “Real world” fuel consumption figures, as often called for, are for most practical purposes useless for any kind of comparison. Which driver/driving style/road type/weather conditions/bunch of other uncontrolled variables come into play. Interesting but fundamentally pretty useless for anyone other than the person who obtained them. Back in my commuting days when I did a very regular journey (by motorbike, admittedly, but I think the argument holds) I could see a seasonal variation in fuel consumption when I applied an averaging algorithm of about 5% or so. But tank-to-tank values could vary by 10% or more. Pointless using any of those figures, and the variation could have been more if someone more interested in performance than economy had been riding. But the standardised test conditions give numbers that are at least potentially useful for car-to-car comparison, which is what they are intended for.

My previous diesel could vary easily from less than 35mpg to 45+mpg entirely depending on journey type. Which one is “real world” and which should be published as the car’s fuel consumption?

I have to admit to being disappointed by how far from the published WLTP range figures my current EV is managing, but again a lot of short in-town journeys, good from an energy recuperation point of view, mean that the start-up car heating has a disproportionate effect. When it comes to energy consumption (fossil or electrons) I think that the mantra is “your real world may vary”!

Plug-in hybrids are a particularly extreme version of this – short journeys entirely battery-powered are going to give very different answers to long journeys at higher speeds where the ICE is the major player.

very happy PHEV owner, on our 3rd Golf GTE. This one does about 60 miles in the summer about 40 in the winter (heater is a real drain) and is great fun to drive. Yes it is more complex than a pure EV but I do like the combined turbo engine and electric motor, very quick and makes the correct IC noise!
BTW All our local journeys are on battery and we charge over night on cheap electricity or during the day if its sunny. Works for us.

If you tow a caravan are there any places to charge the car without dropping off the caravan?