I get 50% more in the car and 20% more in the van 
I know, the mpg is pretty crap locally - not sure why. Maybe thereās a trick to driving a hybrid and getting the most out of driving on battery power that we havenāt mastered yet.
I think that the old hybrids that donāt plug in are a bit silly. Sure it can divert pollution from urban to rural, and increase fuel efficiency somewhat, but you really want a battery that does 20 miles+ and can be plugged in.
The Lexus I had shared the same powertrain as the Auris. It was economical around town and in stop-start traffic, but on country roads and motorways it was no better than a normal petrol. Low speeds, lots of braking and accelerating with the electric motor rather than the petrol engine are the key factors. At cruising speeds the hybrid bits arenāt doing much at all.
Just about what I have found.
i was reading about the zoe and you can hire a battery . only 89 quid a month !!! i guess people must think its worth it . my mother in law wanted to buy a VW up at 24k [ can`t remember if that was before or after the govt grant]
i nearly died of shock as you can but a decent audi for that . she loves being eco friendly !! she could not find a dealer in devon to sell her one though so gave up .
There are many ways you can charge them for free. Thereās something to be said for free driving with low pollution.
New Opal Ampera. Over 300 miles on one charge. Vauxhallās next.
2 Likes
very nice , love vauxhall stuff . very well equipped and comfortable
And clunky as fuck after two years.
well had about 7 plus and all but one have been pretty damm good fortunately . an awful lot of folks i know have them especially the zafira which is extremely popular in our community group
one chap though has had a lot of aggro with the zafira engine , think its on its third engine and its not that old [8 years i think!]
1 Like
Zafiras are good for a burn up at the lights apparently 
'bout right
2 Likes
What sort of mpg did it manage on the motorway at 70mph, 40+?
What did you think of the seats and ride quality?
Im sort of tempted to replace my POS mazda 6 with one.
Surely not! 
always admire those tesla when I pass the garage , walked past it the other day on the way to look at a 2008 crossover which I thought was funky but you hit your head when you get out and big pillars at back so big no no
surprised to read above but there are a lot of surprising things like the Nissan pulsar is very unreliable in 2 studies and the bmw i3 is also prone to more faults than it should according to which
Reading the fine print, the analysis assumes the Model S is sourcing its electricity in the US midwest with whatever balance of fossil/nuclear/renewable electricity generation applies there. They also factor in the impact of mining the lithium for the batteries. While the number of electric cars is still small and relatively few of them have reached end of life there will be little recycling of the batteries going on. Once thereās significant recovery of lithium from old batteries the mining impact will fall.
Doing a proper job on the energy budget calculations is important (otherwise we can learn a lot of stuff which actually turns out to be wrong). But doing a proper job is also complex - sometimes very complex.
VB
I believe the lithium mining industry in cornwall is experiencing a revival due to the demand so thatās good news
Lithium salts are conveniently soluble in water so itās not usually sourced by āminingā in the conventional sense. Itās more a matter of finding a lithium-rich spring and then evaporating the water to leave the lithium salt as the feedstock for the refining industry. In the recent past most of the lithium came from South America where the brines are unusually rich, the land is cheap and the sunshine is plentiful and free. So they just pool the brine and let the sun dry it out. The cheapnesses do give them an economic advantage which will be tough to beat. Against that are shipping costs and security of supply of course.
VB