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Anyone had any experience of these ? Real world MPG etc. Are you getting quoted range on electric only ?
Looking to change company car at the moment. I had been looking at full EV's , but to struggling to find one that ticks all the boxes without costing silly money. At the moment, journeys are fairly short , which would suit the full EV, but as lockdown begins to lift, the 500 mile round trips will be back on the cards, and I tend to prefer just cracking on home rather than wait for hours to get it charged.
So I have broadened the horizons to look at PHEV's and that one catches my eye.
I had a 2005 Octavia Estate about 10 years ago, and did 100K in it trouble free so if the new ones are as reliable that would be a good thing.
Also noticed that the Seat Curpra Estate was pretty much the same car with a different badge , if anyone is running one of those.
Why not just a regular diesel one? Adding hybrid stuff makes it less reliable and lowers the resale value. Probably.
Powertrain looks to be identical to the Golf GTE I had. The biggest factors for electric range are speed and heating - 20 miles easy on a warm day at slower speeds but could halve that with the heating on.
It worked really well for us, lots of short local trips and charged every day, preheat in the morning through winter. Still did fine on longer trips - the inefficiency of the heating on electric is less of an issue once you’re running the engine too.
Hard to look past the BIK advantage of a full EV if you’re a company car driver though - if you can get one of the 200+ mile, 100+kw charging EVs on your scheme then it’s not really a big hassle. The other side is that if you’re doing the shorter trips it saves you needing to plug in all the time to cover the everyday stuff.
We switched to an eGolf and it’s noticeably quicker, a smoother drive (PHEV runs the electric motor through the DSG gearbox in case it needs the petrol engine), and less charging. It just means some extra stops on the long trips, although in something like an ID3 now that’d be much rarer and quicker when we would.
Oh, and mpg starting on an empty battery was about 45 on a long trip. If you start full it gives 15-20 “free” miles. Didn’t seem to matter much how you used the battery up as long as you ended the journey with it empty.
I had a look at the Superb PHEV last year but it was about 10 grand dearer than the equivalent petrol and worked out that would buy loads of petrol not to mention the price to charge it plus the loss in economy lugging a big battery and motor about. Ended up with a 1.6 diesel Octavia SEL as it was about half the price of the Superb PHEV (TBH it is predominately used for going to work and taking the dogs out)
Oh, and mpg starting on an empty battery was about 45 on a long trip. If you start full it gives 15-20 “free” miles. Didn’t seem to matter much how you used the battery up as long as you ended the journey with it empty.
Well, 45 mpg would be an improvement on what im driving now .
The BIK for the PHEV is a lot less than the standard octavia, enough to make the difference in initial cost being higher.
I had a look at the Superb PHEV last year but it was about 10 grand dearer than the equivalent petrol and worked out that would buy loads of petrol
Why not just a regular diesel one? Adding hybrid stuff makes it less reliable and lowers the resale value. Probably.
The point of this couldn't have been missed any more clearly!
Looking to change company car at the moment
Company cars are almost always leased, purchase price isn't a consideration usually, the BIK tax certainly is... A diesel car, even a super efficient modern one, will command a 28-33% BIK tax typically... The equivalent petrol car will be 4% lower like for like... A PHEV will be much lower at around 12-14% like for like, and a full electric equivalent is usually 1% BIK...
It doesn't take a genius to work out that 1% (or even 12-14%) BIK tax on a £40k vehicle, is significantly cheaper than 24-33% BIK tax on a £30k vehicle! 🤷🏻♂️
The BIK for the PHEV is a lot less than the standard octavia, enough to make the difference in initial cost being higher.
If/when they remove the preferential rates for commercial vehicles entirely (like they did with "Kombi" type vans with 2 rows of seats and no bulkheads recently), I'll be going for a full electric no matter the inconvenience...
The sad fact of the matter is I have to pay the BIK tax on a company vehicle whether I appreciate the benefit of it or not. I know of people who ordered VW T6 Kombi's before the change in BIK tax rules, and went from the static 20/40% of £3430 (depending on your income tax bracket) per year (so £686 or or £1372) to approximately the same tax figure PER MONTH!
Put it this way... I'd rather drive whatever I had to for work and have the option of leasing a BMW M3 if I wanted to, than simply pay stupid amounts of tax for the privilege of a van with a 2nd row of seats!
As and when it happens, I'll have whatever is cheapest please... It's a work vehicle, a tool for the job. I'd rather minimise my tax and choose to spend my money on whatever else I saw fit, than the government charge me through the nose for something I don't really need!
I was think the VRS iV would be very much on the shortlist for my next car, then realised you can’t fit a tow bar. I don’t know if that’s a common feature of plug-ins, but seems a bit of a bugger.
but as lockdown begins to lift, the 500 mile round trips will be back on the cards, and I tend to prefer just cracking on home rather than wait for hours to get it charged.
Sigh, not this nonsense again. It really doesn't take hours to charge a BEV.
Sigh, not this nonsense again. It really doesn’t take hours to charge a BEV.
How longs a piece of string ? Different cars charge at different rates. I’ve done a fair amount of research on them as I was seriously considering one. As I said at the start, the ones with the longer ranges / quicker charging / and all the other boxes I want ticking are way up the price levels. I looked at the Eniro, which I liked, but was ultimately too small for what I want I.e there’s no way of carrying a bit of luggage and the dog in the boot at the same time. That one takes around 30 mins to get 100 miles on a 50kw public charger. If I fully charge it, then it’s got a range of around 250 -300 miles, so I’m going to have to stop at least once on the way out, then a couple of times on the way back. I don’t know about you, but I just want to get home and not have to keep stopping.
Not ruling one out , and I might wait to see what the skoda Enyaq is like before deciding.
Up until now, I prefer to buy my vehicles outright (commercial) , but this would be first car I have had through the company , so I believe I would be able to claim back the vat if I lease , but not if bought outright.
was think the VRS iV would be very much on the shortlist for my next car, then realised you can’t fit a tow bar. I don’t know if that’s a common feature of plug-ins, but seems a bit of a bugger.
Annoyingly, it is an option on the superb phev and the lower spec octavias (SEL phev)
I have a corolla hybrid sportswagon. Its not a plug in but does a few miles on electric qnd has a 2.0l petrol.
Same size as an octavia and i have a tow bar, vrs being a no tow bar due to the rear bumper(i think) put us off that.
Its got a chunk less power though (only 180bhp) but goes plenty and is a nice place to be.
I was think the VRS iV would be very much on the shortlist for my next car, then realised you can’t fit a tow bar. I don’t know if that’s a common feature of plug-ins, but seems a bit of a bugger.
I think that's just a VRS thing, a friend had the same issue with an ICE Fabia VRS.
I think that’s just a VRS thing, a friend had the same issue with an ICE Fabia VRS.
Posted 33 minutes ago
With the Octavia it is specific to the iV VRS. Tow bar is a option for petrol/diesel VRS.
I dismissed the vag cars when choosing my company car. They only had the 1400cc engine which meant I could only claim the lowest fuel rate.
No experience of fuel economy etc. but I have ordered an Octavia SE Technology hybrid. All of the reviews said the VRS is a worse car than the 200bhp versions. The VRS is more expensive on company car tax, I think mine works out at less than £70 per month this year but the VRS is still cheap of course. The tow bar not being available on the VRS would have been a no go for me.
I have had the Passat GTE for 3 years now and it's been great. As above though my company changed the fuel rates "to bring them inline with HMRC guidance" and as 1399cc I went from nearly 19p a mile to 10p...
Been looking a lot and am waiting for the ID4 or Enyaq to be added to the list so I can order one. I'd like it to be a bit quicker and have another 50 miles range but you can wait forever and I don't really want another ICE. You can spec a retractable towbar with them. Also in the fortunate position that 3 or 4 colleagues have the GTE estate and would swap for a few weeks if we were going on holiday and it looked like too much faff with charging locations. Would rather plan a bit and take the EV though
My furthest work sites are just over 100 miles away so anticipate having to do a splash and dash on the motorway on the way home in winter, for about £150 a month saving I can live with that. If regularly doing 500 mile trips I'd probably be looking at PHEVs too though.
You can get a BMW 330e Touring with a towbar if that's an option?