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There is no industry that I know that surrounds itself more with mystery and ‘smoke and mirrors’ than the motor and associated finance industry. Emissions, fuel consumption, APR, PCP, warranty the list goes on. These are all provided by manufacturers, dealers and funders in ways to totally mislead you.

We are now being fed a pile rubbish as we see the growth in plug in hybrid cars. We are told that they are great for the environment and you get a zillion miles to the gallon, as a result the Government gives you a chunk of money off the new car cost as they ‘apparently’ create less carbon dioxides than diesel and petrol engine cars.

We are told that the Government applies a grant of £2,500 if the electric part of the drive unit can achieve a range of up to 70 miles. More than 70 miles and you can have a grant of £4,500 but you have to bear in mind that the hybrid car is much more expensive than its petrol or diesel equivalent in the first place, certainly much more than the grant provided as an incentive.

Plug in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV) look very impressive, low fuel cost and tax incentives are grabbing the attention of fleets as well as consumers but the problem is that not all drivers are driving these cars as they should be. The most common omission is the recharging of the car on a regular basis. This in itself can increase the whole life cost by 15% according to Wayne Millward, Fleet Consultant at contract hire company Arval.

For fleets the low benefit in kind tax is very attractive to employees but equally the employees aren’t that interested in efficiency. Even more so if fuel is provided as part of their employment package so they don’t ever plug in their cars to an electric charger. There are of course others who don’t have regular access to charging points, either at home or in the street where they park, making it virtually impossible to charge the batteries using the plug in option.

Either way, when the car moves over from the electric motor to the petrol engine, fuel efficiency plummets and CO2 emissions increase. So unless you or your company drivers use the cars as intended you could be vastly out of pocket. From a running cost point of view if a PHEV is not used as was intended the costs soar and the atmosphere suffers. You would be better off driving a normal diesel or petrol.

So why don’t the car manufacturers do anything to address this issue? I’ll tell you why, because the more hybrid cars they sell the lower the declared average CO2 emissions of all the cars they provide across Europe. In 2015 they had to get the average emissions down to 130g/km which most did.

However, this was based on the manufacturer’s claimed CO2 emissions for PHEV’s being included in the mix, assuming that the cars were regularly plugged into the mains. The fact is that very few were and is yet another con trick perpetrated by the car manufacturers as they know this is what happens! By Graham Hill

How do you fancy driving an executive car that achieves 148 miles to the gallon? Well you can with the new BMW 330e M Sport which we just happen to have on offer at the moment. It is BMW’s entrée into the Plug in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEV).

Whilst the new tiered Government Grant scheme has dropped the grant from £5,000 to £2,500 it is still good value for money on a lease. You will need a means to re-charge the car from an electric charge point that can be installed in your garage (grants available) or via charging points now available at services on motorways, some hotels and on certain streets.

The electric motor starts you up and moves you off whilst the 2.0 petrol engine takes over to boost power or take over when the 87bhp electric engine starts to flag. In EV mode the car has a top speed of 80 mph but switch across to petrol and you increase the top speed to 140 mph. The car has all the usual refinement of a 330i but with all the economy of a hybrid, the general consensus is that the car is a definite winner leading the way for other hybrid cars across the BMW range.

Oh and another piece of breaking news, Transport Secretary, Patrick McLoughlin has announced plans to allow PHEV vehicles to have access to bus lanes in the eight Go Ultra Low cities across the UK as part of a £40 million investment plan in readiness for electric and hybrid vehicles. Some of the investment will be used to provide rapid charging hubs and plug in points at street lights. Time to make the move? If not we are certainly getting close. By Graham Hill

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It would seem that the motor industry is doing quite well over the pond in the US as their economy continues to grow mildly. Low interest rates and the need for many to replace cars that they have retained through the recession have been credited for the slight increase in sales over October last year. The sales of ‘light vehicles’ (cars) last month rose Read more »

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We seem to know precious little about electric vehicles which may well be the reason why so few are being sold. It can’t be so much about cost as they are subsidised by the government in order to encourage ownership, or is price the reason? The price of an electric vehicle compared to its equivalent petrol or diesel version is spectacularly high. The Read more »

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No sooner have I reported on the new association between General Motors and LG to develop new electric cars than I’m told of the new association between Volvo and Siemens to do the same. It very much looks as though this will be the trend. Apparently Siemens have been having discussions with several car manufacturers but decided upon Volvo Read more »

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We know that the cost of the battery pack that will be fitted to the new electric vehicles will be more than a pack of 12 Duracell AA’s but up until now we have all been speculating as to the true cost. £1,000, £5,000 or even £10,000? If Read more »

Electric vehicles are too quiet! I mentioned this in one of my very early articles about the introduction of electric vehicles. With no engine, only a fairly quiet motor, electric vehicles could pose a danger to pedestrians and cyclists. Modec, manufacturer of electric commercial vehicles has said that of all the vehicles built over the past 3 years, only one customer, Royal Mail, has asked for noise awareness equipment to be fitted. They say this is because the vans are being used in large hangers so Read more »

We all understand that we need to replace vehicles driven by fossil fuels with alternatives as we are running out, that’s a fact. The answer certainly seems to be electric vehicles as we can create electricity from natural renewable sources such as wind, light and sea movement so we can see the benefits of developing this technology. Something that was understood by the government when it was labour led who Read more »

Considering the latest announcements relating to electric car production and the government emphasising its efforts to support electric cars by increasing incentives it was a bit of a surprise to hear Bosch announce that petrol and diesel cars will be by far the most dominant vehicles for the next 20 years. They went on to explain that this would be due to planned improvements that are due to take place in the internal Read more »

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