The best luxury electric cars of 2024: Premium electric cars in detail
Electric cars are
becoming the norm—and for good reason. The best hybrids offer better fuel economy than diesel cars (on
paper, at least) and enough range on electric power alone that most drivers can
complete their daily commute without burning a drop of gasoline.
This means that the
running costs of a hybrid car can be significantly reduced compared to a
comparable petrol car. However, they are more expensive to buy and if you opt
for a plug-in hybrid car , you won't get the fuel saving benefits unless
you have a suitable place to charge the car regularly.
We wanted to take a
closer look at hybrid technology, so we spent some time in both a petrol and
a plug-in hybrid version of the latest Opel Astra . The question is: will you always save money with the PHEV , or can you get just as good a ride by opting
for the cheapest petrol car and driving carefully?
Purchase costs of the
Opel Astra: petrol vs. PHEV
A higher purchase
price is one of the strongest arguments against plug-in hybrid cars - and the
Vauxhall Astra is no exception. At the time of writing, the most basic Vauxhall
Astra with a 108bhp, 1.2-litre three-cylinder petrol engine costs £ 26,960 , while
prices for the cheapest PHEV start at £37,935.
That's a difference of
nearly £11,000. If you buy the 108bhp petrol Astra and use the extra money as a
fuel budget, you can expect to get around 70,000 miles. Admittedly, that
assumes you're regularly getting 45mpg - but we've found such figures to be realistic
in our testing.
Vauxhall justifies the
Astra PHEV's higher purchase price with some excellent WLTP fuel economy
figures. The brand claims fuel economy will be 256mpg - but it's important not
to take these numbers at face value.
Gasoline vs. PHEV:
Fuel consumption in practice
We found the 108bhp
petrol Astra to reliably manage 45mpg. The PHEV Astra is more efficient but
just can't live up to Vauxhall's official claims. During our time with the car,
we averaged 83.1mpg in hybrid mode.
However, we were only
able to achieve these figures when the battery had some charge. After using up
the Astra's power reserves, our average fuel consumption dropped to 41.7 mpg.
That said, if you forget to charge the Vauxhall Astra PHEV's battery (or don't
have the ability to charge it), it will be less efficient than the
non-electrified petrol model.
For this reason, the
plug-in hybrid Astra is not for you if you spend a lot of time on the motorway.
If you drive from London to the Scottish border, the battery will be dead
before you're halfway there. That means you'll be driving inefficiently for most
of your journey, unless you're prepared to find a spare charger at a motorway
service station.
To get anywhere close
to Vauxhall's 200+ mpg fuel economy figures, you'll need to make plenty of
short journeys that are within the battery's maximum range and within reach of
electric vehicle charging stations, allowing you to spend as much time as possible
on electric power alone.
But therein lies a whole other problem. Vauxhall claims that the most efficient Astra PHEV can run up to 42 miles on electric power alone. Spoiler alert - it can't. In the winter months we managed a maximum of 17 to 23 miles on electric power alone.
Gasoline vs. PHEV: Tax
“But wait a minute,”
we hear you say. “What about road tax? Road tax is calculated based on CO2
emissions, and PHEVs emit less CO2 than petrol cars, so they are cheaper to
tax, right?” While that is certainly the case, the difference is not big enough
to offset the higher purchase price of a PHEV – even when you factor in the
fuel savings at best.
At the time of
writing, road tax for a brand new Astra with a 1.2-litre petrol engine and
108bhp was £210 in the first year. From the second year onwards, the annual
price was £180. The cheapest Astra PHEV, on the other hand, was tax-free in the
first year and cost £170 per year from the second year onwards, as it emits
less than 50g/km of CO2 in the official WLTP test. That's only a marginal
saving.
But you can use the
tax system to your advantage in other ways. The most sensible option is to buy
an Astra PHEV as a company car. As with car tax, the amount you pay in benefits in kind tax is calculated based on your car's CO2 emissions -
and you can save a lot of money by opting for an eco-friendly car. Consider the
example below.
We compared the FTC
rates of two versions of the Vauxhall Astra GS for 24-month/20,000-mile company
car contracts. The only difference between the two cars in terms of spec is
their drive method - one is powered by a 128bhp 1.2-litre petrol engine and the
other by Vauxhall's 178bhp 1.6-litre PHEV powertrain.
The P11D value (that's
the cost of the car and VAT, excluding the cost of the first year's road tax
and registration) of the petrol Astra is £29,590. As its CO2 emissions are
125g/km, it falls into the 30% BiK tax bracket. We'll spare you the boring details
- the bottom line is that if you pay 20% tax, you're paying £1,775.40 a year to
have the car in your driveway.
The PHEV Astra's P11D value is £37,880. It's a much more expensive car, but because its CO2 emissions are much lower at just 23g/km, it falls into the 8% company car tax bracket, so if you pay 20% tax, you'll only pay £606.08 a year for the car. The discounts become even more attractive if you upgrade to the all-electric Astra , which will only cost you £160 a year
Costs for hybrid cars:
the verdict
For most drivers,
petrol is still the best choice. PHEV cars are much more expensive to buy and
less efficient in practice unless you can charge them regularly. We found that
the Astra PHEV's consumption was lower than a petrol-only car after the battery
was discharged because we had to lug the weight of the electrical system around
with us.
Gasoline cars are
still good all-rounders. They get reasonable fuel economy in the city, better
fuel economy on the highway, and decent performance on the country road. PHEVs
only make sense if you make a lot of short trips and have easy access to a charging
port - that way you can use the electric power more often and reduce your fuel
costs.
The only exception to
this rule is if you rent the Astra PHEV as part of a company car contract. Due
to its lower CO2 emissions, it will cost you less money each year than the
petrol model, but you will have the benefit of driving around in a more expensive
and faster car.