Are People Really Charging Their Hybrid Car?

Claims are circulating that thousands of PHEV company car drivers aren’t charging their hybrid car! That they haven’t even taken the recharging cable out of the boot, for that matter. Our fleet showed over 90% of ULEVs drivers regularly recharged their cars and used them for the intended purpose. By monitoring fuel and power usage.

The BBC reported thousands of government plug-in car grant plug-in hybrids may be burning as much fuel as combustion-engine cars. ​The report said that the Miles Consultancy data suggested plug-in hybrids on corporate fleets averaged just 40 miles per gallon. When, in actuality, they could have done 130. Miles Consultancy said many drivers have never unwrapped their charging cables and most chose the car for lower tax benefits.

“This Simply Isn’t the Case”

Insists Andrew Leech, our managing director. He says this based on our experiences, with forward order banks from customers now compromising almost 50% of EVs. In our experience, there is a very good reason why the three-pin charging cable remains in the boot. We provide free home chargers to all our ULEV drivers so that they can charge at home.

They come with a fast charge cable, which the drivers pay for. This is so they can recharge at rapid charge points at service stations, car parks and supermarkets. That means they never need to use the standard cable that comes with their car. Andrew has a Mitsubishi Outlander as his company car. He claims the cable is still in the wrapper in the boot, but he charges it every day.

Andrew uses his car to commute to work every day, a 21-mile journey, which is all under electric power.

I do around 30,000 miles a year. The car switches to petrol when the electric range has been reached. Although, by driving sensibly, I achieve 45-50mpg of petrol power, which is what the car was intended to achieve.

It’s a myth that these cars are simply gas-guzzlers. I would contend that this is the experience of the overwhelming number of ULEV company car drivers on our fleet.

We at Fleet Evolution offer guidance on how and where to recharge our drivers’ vehicles. On top of this, we show how to get the best performance from them. We understand that sometimes the idea of having a different car can be daunting. So, because of this, we’re always on hand to offer help and advise our drivers.

We believe driver education is very important. It is the key to ensuring that drivers are using their cars correctly. Recent figures show that 50% of drivers have access to the perfect charging infrastructure: a drive or garage at home. So that means many people can charge their cars without ever visiting a public charge point.

However, for those that need to…

There were 17,701 public charge points in the UK from September 2018. This is a whopping 27% increase from the previous 12 months. Also, 80% of motorway services now have rapid charge points for drivers to charge their vehicles at twice the speed.

A lot can still be done to encourage the uptake of low emission vehicles. Which isn’t discouraging drivers from selecting PHEVs by abolishing the plug-in car grant for hybrids. The Government announced this last month.

Despite the sales of ULEVs growing, they still represent a small percentage of new cars bought in the UK.

Like many in the fleet industry, we were dismayed by the abolition of the plug-in car grants for hybrids. We feel that we need clear Government policies that encourage the take-up of the cleanest cars.