|
The article does not say what sized Petrol tank, what sized battery and what the EV only range is, all tree of those is needed to really know how useful the car is. The only really useful figure is 2.9L/100km after the battery is flat which is a very good figure.
I assume batteries will continue to improve and end up lighter, smaller and give more range but for now I feel the PHEV is a good choice for people who plug them in. My Mitsubishi Outlander now has over 12,000km on it and has only been in a petrol station about 6 times, really I have filled it up when about half full just because it was convenient at the time so probably 3 full tanks of petrol. I could potentially still be on the one tank if I had not done a couple of trips away but I feel that is the great thing about the car, I can charge it at home and use an an EV around town but I can go on a long trip with no worries about range, broken chargers etc. My only concern is lack of a spare wheel. On a trip it recharges itself down hill and will drive a surprisingly long time afterwards in EV mode even though the battery was flat before the down hill section.
I did a trip a while ago and noted when the battery was flat, the car then averaged 7L/100km for the rest of the trip which is the same as my Skoda Octavia would have done on the same road, and pretty good for a large AWD car, but a lot more than the 2.9L100km the article says this new BYD will get.
However I think most new EV's and PHEV's in Australia are leased to get the tax savings and then the petrol is either paid for by the company or paid for in pre tax dollars as part of a salary package. I know people who never plug theirs in because their employer pays for petrol so why waste their electricity that the employer doesn't pay for.
| 
