The car industry’s rush towards electrified motoring has introduced plenty of different low-emission options for buyers to choose from in the last decade – some more economical and eco-friendly than others.
While the focus has inevitably been on the plethora of new EV models being launched on almost a weekly basis, there’s also growing demand for vehicles that combine internal combustion and electrical power – regular hybrids (that can’t be plugged into an external socket) and plug-in hybrids (which can be externally charged).
Over the last last few years, plug-in hybrids have been rather overlooked by both car buyers and car manufacturers, with most buyers preferring to either stick with a more basic hybrid or jump straight to a fully electric car. But this has been changing over the last 12 months.
Half-year data published by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) for the first six months of 2024 shows that new plug-in hybrid registration numbers are up by more than 30% in the UK compared to the first half of last year.
This does need to be taken in context – plug-in hybrid sales are less than half of fully electric cars, and about two-thirds of basic hybrids, both of which have surged over the last four years. But plug-in hybrids have overtaken diesel sales in the last 12 months and are growing more rapidly than any other form of power.
So, why is plug-in hybrid demand now rising, and would a new plug-in hybrid model be a good fit for you and your needs?
What is a plug-in hybrid?
With the sheer number of hybridised and full-electric car choices now available on the market, it can be pretty confusing when trying to differentiate between them on your search for a new set of wheels.
While there are some outliers that need further explanation – like Nissan’s ‘ePower’ hybrid system and the Mazda MX-30 R-EV – we can generally split new cars into five different powertrain categories. Simply put:
- Traditional internal combustion-powered car – A car with a petrol or diesel engine that runs on fuel alone, as we’ve all come to know over the last 100+ years.
- Mild hybrids – A mild hybrid uses that same petrol or diesel engine, but adds a small boost of electric assistance that usually slightly increases fuel economy and not much else. Often goes by the erroneous abbreviation of MHEV (mild hybrid electric vehicle) – this is nothing but industry propaganda, as a mild hybrid can’t run as an electric car.
- Regular hybrid – Again, a hybrid makes use of the same petrol engine (almost never a diesel engine) you’re used to, but also has an electric motor and battery as a secondary power source. It can drive on electric power alone for a few miles and only if you’re being gentle on the accelerator. You don’t plug these models in, they recharge using the engine and braking system. Again, often erroneously referred to as a HEV (hybrid electric vehicle), but it’s usually a petrol-dominated car in practice.
- Plug-in hybrid – These models pair a petrol (or sometimes a diesel) engine with a more powerful electric motor and a bigger battery that you can plug in to charge. Plug-in hybrids offer more electric-only driving range on full charge than a hybrid. Often called a PHEV (plug-in hybrid electric vehicle), but we don’t use this at The Car Expert because most of them are still predominantly petrol-powered in the real world.
- Electric cars – Remove the combustion-powered engine from the equation and you get a purely electric car. The battery is usually much bigger and the electric motor (or motors) more powerful, and these cars can travel the furthest on electric power.
A plug-in hybrid comes with both a fuel filler neck and a charging socket. The fuel tank feeds petrol or diesel to the combustion engine, while the battery charged by the charging socket powers up the electric motor, which works in tandem with the engine (or on its own if you choose) to power the car.
When the battery is charged, it makes the combustion engine more efficient and charge can be used to power the car’s stop/start, so you don’t burn fuel in slow moving traffic. The electric-only range won’t come close to matching the travel distance a full fuel tank can provide, usually anywhere between 15 and 50+ miles depending on the model.
Why opt for a plug-in hybrid?
The rising demand for plug-in hybrids reflects both the increasing interest in battery-powered vehicles from consumers and the manufacturer’s need to sell more eco-friendly models. When compared to petrol and all-electric cars, they offer several benefits.
A half-way house between petrol and electric motoring
Interested in swapping your petrol car for an electric one but not entirely convinced? Plug-in hybrids are a good half-way house that allow you to drive on traditional fuel or electric charge (or both at the same time) at your discretion. Opting for a plug-in hybrid is also a good choice if you live in an area with limited public electric charging infrastructure.
Good for long-distance journeys
Most new EVs on sale offer a real-world battery range of 200-ish miles, and there are a growing number of models that can do more than 300 miles. But for some drivers, that’s still not enough.
If you rack up hundreds of miles on a regular basis, choosing a plug-in hybrid model means less planning trips around petrol pumps and charging stations, while still enjoying electric power for local driving.
Cheaper to run than traditional combustion-powered cars
The average daily commute in the UK is around nine miles – it hasn’t really fluctuated much over the last 20 years – and a plug-in hybrid can handle these shorter trips on just electric power. If you can regularly charge your car using the electricity grid at home, it means fewer trips to the petrol pumps and large annual travel cost savings.
The usual default drive setting for a plug-in hybrid pairs the engine and electric motor to work in tandem, which makes the car more fuel efficient for out-of-town journeys too.
Quiet driving experience
In electric mode, a plug-in hybrid drives just like a full EV, which means near-silence and significantly smoother travel than while running as a petrol or diesel car.
Most plug-in hybrids use only the electric motor when setting off and while driving at lower speeds, with the engine only kicking in later as you get up to speed or require more power – assuming you have enough electricity in the battery, of course.
Tax benefits
Plug-in hybrid cars benefit from personal and business tax cuts because of their lower environmental footprint when compared to traditional fossil-fuel cars. Both road tax and benefit in kind (BiK) are lower for plug-in hybrid vehicles as they’re based on CO2 emissions.
Highest-ranked models available as plug-in hybrids in our Expert Rating Index
Disadvantages of a plug-in hybrid
Beyond the advantages, there are some drawbacks, starting with the higher upfront purchase or finance deal cost when compared to a traditional petrol-powered car.
And while the plug-in hybrid can offer the best of both worlds – EV driving around town and petrol power for longer journeys – it also has the flipside of giving you the worst of both worlds. Usually, that means you’re either driving around in an electric car and dragging around several hundreds kilograms of engine/gearbox/exhaust, or conversely driving a petrol car and dragging around several hundreds kilos of dead battery and electric motor. Obviously, neither of these situations are very efficient compared to either a pure petrol or pure electric car.
Plug-in hybrids have a smaller battery than a fully electric car, which means its electric driving range is much less. That means that you need to put the battery on charge after pretty much every journey to get the most out of the potential running cost benefits of an EV. By comparison, you might only need to charge a full EV once a week or even once a fortnight.
Any buyer looking at a new plug-in hybrid should also consider installing a proper wall box at home – which will cost you about £1,000 – as a regular household three-pin plug charges the battery at a much slower rate.
Unlike fully electric cars, plug-in hybrids generally aren’t compatible with fast public chargers (though some are), and therefore electric cars are almost always faster to charge.
Finally, as we covered here, full-electric cars are nearly always cheaper to service, and opting for a plug-in hybrid comes with the same combustion-powered engine maintenance costs as a standard petrol car.
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