Top 10 best plug-in hybrid cars 2020
PHEVs are fast becoming some of the most important cars on our roads, as more of us switch from pure combustion to electrified power. These are our favourites
The UK company car market is in the midst of a seismic shift right now.
The adoption of the latest WLTP emissions testing standard, combined with another tightening down of CO2-based UK company car rules, has really marginalised the suitability of conventional petrol- and diesel-powered cars for fleet use, and has shifted the spotlight squarely and unflinchingly onto the modern plug-in hybrid.
As many company car drivers will have already discovered to their cost, if you want to continue paying anything like the same benefit-in-kind tax on a company car in 2020 as you did in 2019, the only way to do it – if you haven’t already – is to move out of a petrol or diesel option and into a ‘PHEV’.
And these are the cars you should be considering for that big move. All are electrified hybrid options that’ll get you into the sub-50g/km money-saving benefit-in-kind club although, because some have greater certified electric range than others, some currently qualify for a tax liability at eight per cent of their ‘P11D’ list price, some at twelve- and others at fourteen per cent. Here’s how to choose wisely.
-1. BMW 330e-
BMW’s competitors have followed the German company’s lead so many times when seeking success in the UK fleet market over the last decade or more. It makes perfect sense, then, that BMW was the first premium brand to offer the market a really convincing plug-in hybrid executive option in the shape of the last-generation 330e; and also that it should continue to lead the field with the current one.
The 330e combines a 2.0-litre turbocharged petrol engine with an electric drive motor mounted upstream of the car’s gearbox, making it handle and behave much like any other ‘G20’-generation 3-Series. It imposes a relative penalty on boot space compared with its conventionally powered siblings, but it’s unlikely that typical business users will notice the shortage, and cabin space is unharmed.
With up to 288bhp of combined electric and petrol urge, the 330e has a fleet turn of pace and feels particularly responsive as well as slick-shifting. The weight of its hybrid powertrain can be detected only slightly, and only really in the car’s occasionally permissive high-speed vertical body control. Most of the time, the 330e just feels like an agile, entertaining, first-rate 3-Series in its sporting driver appeal.
The BMW 330e has a WLTP-certified electric-only range of 37 miles, putting it in the mid-range 12% BIK tax bracket for 2020-21.
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-2. Skoda Superb iV-
The Skoda brand may have been busting a gut to change perceptions of its brand of late, but when the opportunity to bring some simple metal-for-the-money value to the plug-in hybrid market presented recently, it didn’t blink. It launched the new fleet-friendly Superb iV: a car that uses the engine and hybrid drivetrain with which drivers of the VW Passat GTE have been becoming familiar these last few years, but packages them in a bigger family car, on offer at a lower list price.
The Superb iV is surprisingly normal considering it’s Skoda’s very first plug-in hybrid. It doesn’t promise a particularly exciting driving experience, nor is it loaded with ritzy onboard technology or clothed in novel styling features in order to advertise its electrified credentials. It drives, ride and handles pretty much like any other Superb – which means it’s fairly softly sprung and comfort-oriented, and is easy-going rather than alert and energetic in its pedal responses.
The sheer size of any Superb ought to be a selling point for some, and this one’s no different. Despite the fact that the car’s batteries eat into boot space a little, there’s still 485 litres of the stuff available in the hatchback version, and more still in the estate. Electric range is WLTP-rated at 35 miles, for a 12 per cent BIK tax rating.
If you’re looking for a roomy and cost-effective PHEV option that’ll feel normal, rather than novel (read ‘a bit funny’), to drive, look absolutely no further.
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-3. Hyundai Ioniq Plug-in Hybrid-
The Hyundai Ioniq ‘PHEV’ is one of this market’s better-established options. When, in October 2018, the British government removed the £1500 tax incentive formerly applied to plug-in hybrids, the ones that best combined usability, real-world economy and value suddenly stood out. And this was, and remains, one of them.
Even now you’ll look long and hard for a plug-in hybrid available with a less price of less than £30,000 – and, really, bargain-hunters needn’t look beyond this. At the time of writing, Hyundai UK was even offering finance incentives worth £2000 on the car, the likes of which you rarely see on in-demand electrified cars.
The Ioniq Plug-in Hybrid offers usable cabin space for four adults, plenty of boot space, and a viceless driving experience which, while neither particularly polished or exciting, won’t offend either; it mixes combustion power with electric pretty seamlessly most of the time.
The car has an electric-only range of 32 miles on the WLTP cycle (putting it in the same BIK tax bracket as most of its opponents in this chart) and runs economically enough the rest of the time; not with the frugality of a Toyota Prius or the performance of a Mini Countryman Cooper S E, admittedly, but well enough, and with competent ride and handling.
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-4. Mercedes E300de-
Mercedes is the only player in the ‘PHEV’ segment offering the combination of a diesel engine and hybrid-electric propulsion. In the E300de it also allows you to choose between saloon and estate bodystyles, which is another advantage that isn’t as widely available as you might imagine. For those reasons, and others, the E300de makes the top half of this chart.
Electric range only just scrapes a WLTP-certified 30 miles, although that will depend on optional specification; so the car may well miss a 12-per-cent BIK banding if you opt for bigger wheels or sportier trim. The fact that it’s easy to add options and turn this into a £50,000+ prospect will also have an impact on its tax-efficiency, of course.
In the real world, our testing suggests that 22- to 25-miles is as far as the car will run without rousing its four-pot diesel motor. And yet considering it’s ‘only’ got a four-pot diesel engine, the E300de’s performance is impressively swift. Clever power management makes it easy to capture and recycle energy without realising you’re doing it, and handling is quietly deft and fairly precise for what is, after all, a two-tonne car.
Mercedes’ hybrid battery installation does take up some boot space, but it doesn’t prevent the E300de being a supremely practical car – particularly in estate form – as well as a smart, desirable and real-world efficient one.
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-5. Audi Q5 55 TFSIe-
That Audi’s first plug-in hybrid cars came with ‘etron’ badges makes it a little bit confusing that the very latest don’t; instead Audi calls them ‘TFSIe’ – and there are several headed to market throughout 2020. The one that’s already in showrooms is the petrol-electric Q5, the 55 TFSIe, which combines a 2.0-litre turbocharged petrol engine with an electric drive motor, and gives this car ‘total system’ peak power output of 362bhp. Performance is predictably strong, but not as impressive as the general smoothness of this car’s powertrain in day-to-day operation, which reeks of the kind of attention-to-detail for which its maker is known.
The car’s disappointments, beyond a high purchase price, are slightly disappointing real-world economy (think 35mpg on longer-range journeys); a slightly remote-feeling, carefully filtered and heavily assisted driving experience; and the fact that it misses a 30miles+ WLTP electric range and so can’t get below a 14 per cent UK benefit-in-kind tax band.
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-6. VW Passat GTE-
After a temporary suspension of sales, the Passat GTE returned to UK sales last year – and in updated form. The design has come in for a nip and a tuck, the biggest changes are under the surface.
The car’s battery pack has been enlarged to 13kWh, increasing the car's electric range to as much as 36 miles on the WLTP cycle. The list price has also fallen, which will please the quarter or so of Passat buyers who will opt for this plug-in hybrid version.The powertrain itself consists of a reasonably refined 1.4-litre turbo petrol engine mated to an electric motor, with both elements combining to deliver up to 215bhp to the front wheels through a six-speed DSG gearbox.
Admittedly, this isn't the quickest or the most exciting PHEV option to drive by the segment’s latest standards, but in terms of breadth of appeal and understated VW-brand desirability it has plenty to recommend it.
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-7. Volvo XC40 Recharge PHEV T5-
Volvo was one of the first premium brands to move into the plug-in hybrid field, but it has waited to get involved with a car priced to appeal in a big way to fleet operators. With the XC40 Recharge, however, it has crossed that threshold; this is a compact SUV with only a three-cylinder petrol engine and yet it has combined ‘system outputs’ of 259bhp and 314lb ft, and a starting price of only just above £40,000.
Like the Audi Q5, the XC40 narrowly misses passing the 30-mile mark for WLTP-certified range, and so isn’t as cheap on UK benefit-in-kind tax as other options here. It’s driving experience also leaves a little bit to be desired, delivering neither the authoritative turn of speed to make you sit up and pay attention, nor the slick refinement and polish to ease your passage. Rolling refinement is only okay, with an edge of firmess and brittleness afflicting sport-suspended R-Design-spec cars in particular.
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-8. Mini Countryman Cooper S E All4-
Mini is growing and maturing as a car brand, and that’s evident in this second-generation Countryman – a car that is more practical and multi-faceted than before, and is also available as an impressive, if expensive, plug-in hybrid with around 27 miles of electric range on the WLTP cycle.
Like all Minis, the Countryman Cooper S E is characterful, desirable, quite firmly sprung and spirited to drive – but it also offers decent space for passengers and luggage, four-wheel drive, a combined 221bhp of peak petrol-electric power, 284lb ft of torque and the potential for sub-7.0sec 0-62mph sprinting.
The car’s off-road ability is to be taken with a large pinch of salt, but if its value for money is considered in light of everything it offers, Mini-brand desirability included, it’s an appealing option.
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-9. Vauxhall Grandland X Hybrid4-
Vauxhall is looking to become something of a mover and a shaker in the new-age plug-in hybrid fleet market, just as it once was in the company car scene 20 years ago when the Vectra was in its pomp. The car it’s looking to for success isn’t anything like a traditional family saloon, however, but its first petrol-electric crossover SUV: the Grandland X Hybrid4.
Sharing its platform and its all-paw powertrain with a number of new Peugeots and DS Automobile models, the Grandland X certainly has the stats to catch your eye. Between its 1.6-litre turbo petrol engine and its twin electric drive motors, it produces 296bhp and 383lb ft, and can accelerate to 60mph from rest in less than six seconds.
That’s quite of a lot of performance on offer in a car that, thanks to the government’s new tax rules, might cost a company car driver a similar monthly BIK outlay as he was previously paying for his mid-range diesel Qashqai. A shame, then, that the car’s driving experience struggles to deliver against such a top billing; the car’s quick in outright terms but can be unresponsive and clunky when switching between power sources, and it also a little short on handling finesse and engine-on mechanical refinement.
Unlike the Audi and the Volvo, the Grandland X does beat 30 miles of electric range (although only in the lab, and not out on the road in our test experience) and so it does qualify for benefit-in-kind tax at 12 per cent of list price.
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-10. Mercedes A250e EQ Power-
As the premium makers move to incorporate plug-in hybrid power into their line-ups, it was only a matter of time before the Mercedes A-Class sprouted a plug socket. We've only driven this car – which combines a turbocharged 1.3-litre petrol engine with an electric motor for 215bhp in total – briefly on German roads and in bad weather – and it didn’t impress us much. But we’re hoping for a better showing in the UK.
The reason for that hope? A 15.6kWh battery pack, which is large for any PHEV and gives the A250e an electric range of up to 42 miles on the WLTP cycle: allowing it to be the only car in this list qualifying for UK benefit-in-kind tax at just eight per cent of list price.
You get the same luxuriant interior here as in any other A-Class and excellent onboard infotainment technology, which both distinguish the car amongst its peers no matter the powertrain. It remains to be seen if the car’s engine and gearbox will improve on the disappointing smoothness and drivability, on UK roads, that we encountered in a pre-production car last year on German ones. If it does, expect it to move up this list by a fairly long way.
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