Hybrid petrol/electric cars are going to be more and more popular now diesel is viewed as coming directly from Satan’s pit. Fully electric cars are OK if you are only doing 40 miles a day and never go much further, and they tend to cost a fair chunk more than their petrol or diesel counterparts. A Tesla will do 250 miles on a full charge, but they are BIG money. Hydrogen is a long way off. That just leaves petrol/electric hybrid as really one of the few ways left to go.
Leasing costs
The Auris Hybrid on a four year 6 + 47 lease on 10,000 miles a year start at just £235 plus VAT a month, compared to the 1.3 petrol Auris at £201 plus VAT on the same profile. The hybrid is in fact cheaper by about a fiver a month compared to the equivalent diesel version, which will be a trend we will see more often. The plug-in hybrid VW Golf starts at £328 plus VAT a month by comparison.
Hybrid types
The ‘plug-in’ hybrid ensures you have full range to begin with, you plug it in overnight for a fully charged car in the morning, giving you a longer range on battery initially. With a standard hybrid car, (and once a plug-in car has depleted its charge), the battery is re-charged by the engine, or when going downhill or braking (both are converting the slowing down effect into charging the battery). That could mean you may have only a small amount of charge in the battery pack on the hybrid for a morning commute, but that is no problem as it just drives on petrol (it never goes completely flat).
Recently I have had the opportunity to spend a week living with a new Toyota Auris hybrid, using it to chauffeur my father to Penzance and back so he could go to a friend’s 80th birthday bash.
Starting off
So, was it any good? Should you fork out the extra for one? Well, first off what was so extraordinary was just how ordinary it was. Let me tell you more…
Let me get something off my chest first. I cannot stand these reviews that come back and say how dull the experience was, how lifeless the steering is, and how it didn’t handle, and how slow it was around the race track, yadi yadi yadi. Forget all that rubbish and let’s concentrate on a real-life 800 mile trip driven on standard UK roads by a normal 50 plus man and his 83 year old dad, both of whom do not want to do timed lap of the Nurburgring race track, but just wants to get from A to B in maximum comfort, reliability and ease.
All you do to start it is press the ‘start’ button, and absolutely nothing happens except the dash lighting up. It is utterly silent. Quite a thrill actually, you really feel like you are in something technologically impressive. Press the throttle and it moves off with no noise, except a slight wine that is very much like a small electric train in the boot. It is sublime. This car encourages you to proceed in a very stately manner, anything else seems a bit vulgar, although to be honest in the ‘economy’ mode it is sluggish off the line if you do need to hoof it.
No problem though, because it has a ‘Power’ button that does just that. Gives you POWER! Actually, it reprograms the throttle and steering response, and adjusts the engine/power management systems. The result is the car goes much better in Power mode. Quicker off the line and faster mid acceleration. It feels more ‘alive’ in Power mode, although it gets through both fuel and electricity quicker as you would expect.
Below 30mph the car always prioritises the electric power to get around, unless you stick your foot down, or the battery drops below a certain voltage, or there are hills. Then the engine cuts in, but to be honest on the move it is almost seamless and you struggle to tell what is powering you along unless you have the ‘Star Wars’ type power chart on the dash showing. Coupled with that automatic Constantly Variable Transmission (CVT), around town it is brilliant.
Automatic CVT
CVT? Yep, no gears that you would be familiar with, just a set of cones facing each other and a band going up and down them, so it never has those jerky gearchanges. Again, it is extraordinary in its ordinariness, the only noticeable different thing being the tiny gearstick, which is the Toyotas case had ‘D’ for drive, ‘R’ for reverse, and ‘B’ for engine braking.
On the motorway
The only real time I felt as though the engine was struggling was accelerating on the motorway. The car will use both power sources when cruising at speed, but mostly petrol. Whilst it cruises at 70 or so exceedingly easily and very quietly, you notice the engine noise when accelerating, which is a result of that gearbox allowing the engine to rev a lot.
We averaged 50mpg on the journey from Tunbridge Wells to Penzance (A21, M25, A3, M3, A303 etc.). That involved a lot of motorway driving with the cruise control set at around 70mph. I expected better but it was mainly on the petrol engine at 70mph, which would explain it. Around town we averaged 64mpg. I measured using the brim to brim method to give me an overall accurate picture, but the on-board computer was pretty accurate. Best readout was 79mpg, but there is a lot of hills down there so the engine was cutting in regularly.
Conclusion
I have only really concentrated on the drivetrain here, not the car, as almost all of the hybrids have the same set up (although it is a fine car that I would recommend to anyone).
To sum up, I would say if drive like you are the getaway driver, then don’t buy one. Ken Block You will be disappointed with the acceleration and the sluggish gearbox. However, if you are a normal person like me and just want to float around feeling all relaxed in a quiet, well built, squeak free car with loads of gadgets and a futuristic feel to it, then this will do nicely.
So, should you go hybrid? Well, it is smoother to drive, quieter, and cheaper on tax and fuel. In today’s climate, I would say there is no real choice. Hybrid will be the future until they can figure out better batteries or a different power source altogether.
Paul Rainbow is a Director of vehicle leasing specialists Troman Finance.