7 mins read
The short answer to the question above is; yes. Yes, a plug-in hybrid might just be the ideal choice for your fleet. OK, I accept that there’s a touch of measuring the length of a piece of string about that, and you’re certainly going to have to do your homework when it comes to making a decision, but the fact is that a PHEV (the acronym stands for, to give these cars their full and correct name, plug-in hybrid electric vehicle) might just be the ideal choice.
Now, as soon as one mentions PHEV as a possible vehicle choice — private or company car — there’s usually a howl from the gallery as the critics wade in and claim that PHEVs are (a) thirsty, (b) pointless, and (c) more harmful to the environment than they claim.
Can those howls of derision be true? Well no, not even if there is — as with much in the way of rumour and hearsay — a kernel of truth.
PHEV Utilisation Best Practice
One of the most-often raised criticisms of PHEVs — that they are bought by company car buyers and fleets to benefit from their lower taxation figures, but then no-one is actually using them as they’re intended, and instead is just running them as a petrol-powered car — has some basis in fact. There was a recent survey by the Fraunhofer Institute in Germany that showed that, in real-world use, company car PHEVs were indeed being driven without being plugged in and charged up much. Case closed?
No, case very much open. Go back to the Fraunhofer figures, and examine the fact that private PHEV buyers are, going by the figures, using their plug-ins properly, and spending a lot of time charging them up and making full use of their electric capability. Clearly, then, PHEVs can work as advertised, it’s just that there’s a job of work to be done when it comes to company car fleet management, and educating and encouraging fleet users to make the fullest and best use of their cars’ talents.
The fact is that a properly used PHEV can be transformative from a costs points of view, as well as an emissions one. With careful use of home charging, especially making use of off-peak electricity costs, a PHEV can be driven for many, many kilometres each week on just its battery, and that can lead to a significant saving on fuel costs. Of course, it’s also important, from an employee point of view, that the cost of charging — which of course will almost certainly have to be mostly done at home — can be easily recouped on expenses, but there are programmes and systems available to make that process much easier on both the employee and the fleet manager, so don’t despair.
Long Range PHEVs
It’s also a good thing that more and more long-range PHEVs are now entering the market. You can buy a VW Golf with a 120km electric range, for example (around 90km of that is eminently useable in real world conditions, and it can be fast-charged for top-ups on longer journeys) and the Fraunhofer data shows that, in both company cars and privately-owned cars, the more range that a PHEV offers, the more likely it is to be used in electric mode.
Range-extender Vehicles
Then there’s the rise of the range-extender car. These are sort of like PHEVs, but the other way around. A traditional PHEV is essentially a petrol-powered hybrid, but one with a battery that can be charged from the mains giving it an extended electric driving capability. A range extender — and the newly-introduced Leapmotor C10 REEV is a good example here, but many more are on the way to the market — is the reverse of that, an electric car with a relatively short range, but with a petrol engine on board to act as a generator, keeping the battery topped up on longer journeys where charging options might be sparse — even though the charging network in Ireland really has improved out of all recognition in recent years.
PHEV Commercials
While there’s less of a tax benefit when it comes to PHEV commercial vehicles — thank Ireland’s outmoded tax system for that — there is a use-case benefit for such pickup trucks and vans. They’re quieter and smoother in operation, and emit fewer harmful pollutants than diesels — potentially critical in city-centre usage. Equally, while most have relatively short electric-only range (van and pickup bodies are bigger and heavier than car or SUV bodies, hence the shortfall) PHEV commercials offer great versatility as their batteries can be used at mobile power-banks for tools. The new Ford Ranger PHEV, for example, has two three-pin sockets in the load bed for just that purpose. Think of the generator emissions you’ll save.
Getting back to passenger cars, PHEVs represent a potential cost saving. Their lower taxation means lower pricing (as an extreme example, the current PHEV BMW M5 is some €60,000 cheaper than the old petrol V8 version, and all of that is down to lower VRT) and, when used properly, they can dramatically cut your fleet’s fuel costs, as well as making a real dent in your emissions.
It’s really all about making sure that choosing a PHEV isn’t just about the up-front tax savings, but that it forms part of an overall corporate policy to begin the move towards electric motoring. And that works — Hyundai, Toyota, and Volvo all believe that plug-in hybrids represent a critical ‘bridging’ technology, which offers company car users the chance to get used to plugging in, but with the safety net of petrol to keep range anxiety at bay.