I had a Vauxhall Ampera for 4 years, I used it for a daily commute from Gloucester to Swindon. I charged overnight at home on Octopus go, and then charged at work when I arrived. So for my 70 mile a day, 350 mile a week commute the fuel cost was effectively zero. I never once had to wait whilst charging as it was either charging whilst I was sleeping or at work. When we went on any road trips/holidays there was never any range anxiety. Very comfortable car, I now have a Tesla Model 3 Performance but I do miss the Vauxhall Ampera.

There used to be a couple of Amperas in my locality. They struck me as attractive and practical cars that were ahead of their time. They also fostered my interest in EV drivetrains which led to me buying a BEV last year.

I had the 'pleasure' of driving the i8 that chargemaster used to loan on points for a week. It's proper wide, you can not park in a car park in case any other car parks alongside as you have to wait for them to come back as you can not open the doors. It also has the odd issue of getting in if you are over 40, you end up with a massive bruise on one leg since you have to put your leg in and just drop into the seat hitting the sill on the way down. I think I'll stick with high up seats from now on. I thin the Tesla is probably actually quicker too :) but not as theatrical. Excellent video - my kids are going to learn to drive soon and we'll need to look at good cars for them - I wonder what the insurance would be like on some of these.

Just changed my 2021 MB A 250e to Polestar 2 because I wanted full electric but it was really a really nice car, I drove it 99% just by myself so I didn't need that much space and I could do my commute full electric even in Finnish winter (unless it was over -15C)

Love my Ampera. Probably still has the best electric range of all the PHEVs despite its age. My only slight regret was getting the Earth model that doesn't have all the "Toys". But it was a nearly new and had very little mileage on it, and I was still ignorant about the longevity of EV batteries. The battery itself is totally over engineered and should last longer than the bodywork 😁 Try and get a Proton or Electron model. Mostly use it for local travel on electric and can get 25mile in winter up to 35-40 in summer. Long journeys about 45-50mpg. Also consider Chevrolet Volt which is basically the same car. Only issue I have had is replacement of the CV boot joint cover twice so far. Although only done just over 30k miles

We have a BMW 225XE. It might be a bit ugly but it is awesome. Destroying hot hatches from a standing start is absolutely hilarious.

We've recently purchased a high mileage BMW 330e. For us it works out brilliantly. 95% of our trips are under 10 miles so we average 90mpg which is brilliant.

Can you please do more driving ohm podcasts im working my way through them and love them. If you mention the podcast at end of each vid im sure your podcast would grow alot. Cheers for all the info and hard work.

Thanks to your video the Vauxhall Ampera and BMW i3 are now firmly on my radar. The i8 is a great looker but somewhat underpowered supercar-wise. As for £40k price tag choice a used Tesla M3P would be my choice.

I can't afford a long range battery only car, yes I could do without the big range but I have charger anxiety (getting to them and they're knackered) so it's a PHEV for me! There's also not many EV's (even BEV's) out there that can preheat/cool the interior on battery alone, which is important to me in Wales. And not too many older EV's have lane keep and distance control (let alone AP1 like control). So it's a GTE for me. They're about the same price as an Ioniq 28kwh but I'm fearful of turning up to the charger and being stuffed for a while - as in Andy's recent video looking at charger availability! It also, of course, a Golf and once you go German it's difficult to move away! If I had £20k I'd get a Kona EV as it has the range, tech, boot space (ish) etc - but I haven't got that much money and finance is at silly prices at the moment!

I just replaced my 2020 Leaf with a 2020 IPace. Full warranty. You can find them as low as £30k now. Exceptional vehicle if you do your due diligence. Pay Jag the repeat warranty for long term protection (up to 100k miles). Real world range, 262 unless your foot is super heavy (220-240). Fill up on Octopus Intelligent for £9.00.

Lovely cars! Thanks for sharing/ highlighting. I was hoping to see Skoda Octavia iV or Superb iV. I love those cars.

It looks like the rules around PHEV and ULEZ zones keeps changing, so they may not be an ideal long term investment. Probably worth explaining this in your video.

Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV, as the reason I have one, you can fit a towbar on it, a plus point people forget

Got to admit, although I hate SUVs I'm tempted by an early Outlander - just about scraping under £10k with heated seats 😁 Only downside is I've heard battery capacity isn't great due to a BMS issue so maybe 20 miles, and petrol consumption without charge is terrible 😑 The E-Class estate is also tempting but the lowish prices (for what they are) make me nervous that when something bad happens it will be £££ and hence no-one wants to touch them after the warranty period...

A phev does not become a normal petrol car once the battery is depleted it becomes a normal hybrid. I've had two Prius Phev's , 25 miles on average for EV alone, once battery has run out it reverts to a Hev it could still manage 70 mpg on the motorway around 65 mph.

I love the Vauxhall Ampera but cant find one anywhere near me but glad to see it on your list...

what about Land Rover discovery sport 2021 1.5 plug in hybrid ?? it is the best option :)

I’ve had ev’s and gone over to phev I had a BMW 530e and what a great car I was better over 100 mpg. I now have a 2023 BMW 2 series active tourer, coupled of weeks ago did 80 mile trip with 56 mile electric range and used just 20 mile of petrol. While uk charging is so hit and miss and for peace of mind I’ll stick with my phev. Must say you need a home charger which I’ve got.

I love what EVM said abt this Toyota Prius phev 2017. Toyota's Prius reliability is legendary 😁

If you are making lots of long journeys yes phev is a good!

I want an electric estate (200ish miles of range) or a phev estate I'm interested in either a Volvo V60 D5 or D6 diesel phev or the VW Passat estate GTE, but discounting anything over 100k miles or euro 5 examples of the diesel Volvo you're looking at £14k and £16k respectively minimum which is still quite a lot for a used car Cheaper models have recently hit the market: Seat Leon, Skoda Octavia/superb & Renault Mégane so I'm thinking if I wait a year or two I could get into one

Andy, what we really needed to know about a plug in hybrid is how many miles these cars might travel without the engine cutting in - and this is also relevant in estimating mpg if run in auto hybrid mode with a full battery. With even Tesco now wanting money to charge up an electric car, phevs are more expensive per mile than cheaper to buy petrol-charging hybrid cars, if you can't charge at home every night. And, if us poor people can't afford a brand new car, it means any car we buy will need to have affordable insurance, plus no silly monthly/annual sat nav fees, or subscriptions to keep heated seats working, or whatever BMW are up to this week. Information on insurance bands would have been helpful, especially when young drivers are wondering what they should buy. Any of us can go through AutoTrader like you did to see what's available for a price, but we don't necessarily have your knowledge with cars to know if a phev goes far enough on electric to warrant the cost over a simpler pure hybrid, or that those BMWs you showed needed insurance payments equal to the HP each month :)

I still think a PHEV is the best option for me, as I can do 70% of my journeys with 25 mile all weather. The other 30% is multiple 100 miles also need a roomy car for work. EVs don’t cut it for me as the charging highway is the issue. Having said that the EVs I have driven are great. The issue always is when using your own money to buy.

Hi there. Some advice please. I'm considering the exact car at 13.04 mins (Toyota Prius Plug In. 22,500 miles. £20.5k). Two things: 1. Are these cars too low to the ground and easily damaged? 2. Are the light fittings and bodywork especially expensive to repair if damaged? I really appreciate any advice.

39k what a car .I remember Clarkson driving one on Top Gear

The older PHEV's and EV's [2019 or older] tend to have the NiCad, rather than the Lithium-Ion phosphate batteries. These older batteries were heavier and less reliable, and had a shorter service life. So for the battery, you are looking at 8-10 years, perhaps a little more, before you have to replace the battery, which is expensive, about $8K to $20K, depending on the size, specs, maker, etc of the battery. So with a 2012 model for example, has the battery already been replaced? EV's with a 7 year warranty really means that the manufacturer does not expect it to be as efficient, or maybe not work years after that date. With a pure EV, of course, battery replacement is mandatory, or you just have a lump of metal that does not go anywhere. With a PHEV, you might get away with not having to replace the battery so urgently, but then the battery just becomes a dead weight and fuel efficiently will plummet.

I read a DM article recently, where the owner of a PHEV got fined for leaving his car charging for 2 hrs at a supermarket. Having looked up what it was capable of, it had an 8.8kwh battery which only charged at a maximum of 3.6kw AC. It seemed the owner didn't have home charging, as there would be no point sitting for 2hr at a charger. I really hope PHEV don't get sold in large quanities if this sort of charging speed is typical. I can't believe people would put up with public charging at 3.6kW, so do people not know when they are buying them?

I can't figure out why they don't sell Plug in Hybrid Golf here in North America? :(

🤩14:30 no, it's a HYPERcar! 🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂 or HYPED up car? 🤔

i8 is a cool car.

I was going to go for a new Mazda CX60 as my first plug in but after reading about the awful goings on in Indonesia with IMIP the clearance of thousands of acres of rainforest, pollution of the sea and the deaths of poorly paid workers I am in good conscience seriously thinking of avoiding any battery powered car at all. I found it quite appalling, to be honest. I have the link to this if ts OK.

Phevs work well despite what some EV evangelists say. If your driving style suits cheap to run and clean. My Outlander is used mainly short runs in summer charge via solar. 90% of my miles are ev from the plug/solar. Why would I want to blow 40k to make the remaining ev.

I wouldn't consider a hybrid, but then a friend asked how he could go electric for short distances and as cheap as possible. But then he wants very occasionally to go long distance....Thanks, that'll give me something to tell him.

Hi Andy, if you want to feature an Ampera on the channel hit me up. I'm in Preston LANCASHIRE

I like the i8, but man, just like all BMW PHEVs (other than the i3) it's got TERRIBLE range. Like 20km real world, IIRC. Not very usable. Sexy though. I'd have one 😉👍

When’s the Genesis GV70 review coming😬?

Buy cheap petrol instead. Run into the ground and buy a new model 3 for £25k in five years.

Don’t like Volvos then?

BMW I8s have notoriously bad reliability. The constant repairs will cost more than the purchase price. And so they lose value quickly.

Best used terrible car. In the UK all you need is a BEV.

Point of order on the Ampera - it has a crazy complicated gearbox that can drive electric only, but can also hook the petrol engine up if you really want to operate as a regular hybrid (and if you utterly drain the battery, I think it can operate on petrol only) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GM_Voltec_powertrain . Also, only a limited number of Vauxhaull dealers would service them when they were new - I don't know if that's resolved now. The i8 is super cool, but don't think it has the performance to justify being called a supercar. When they were new, my boss' boss had one (can't remember whether it was alongside his California or if it replaced it), They look utterly amazing in that electric blue colour.