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Volvo XC40

Ideally the hybrid would need to do 20 miles real world driving so she can get too and from work solely on electric

We’ve got some time at the back end of the week so will head out to the dealers for a look
 
Seeker_UK said:
If your daily journeys <35 miles and you have a driveway, plug-in hybrids make sense. Otherwise a full hybrid is the better option.
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Fortunately my daily commute (if I ever do such a thing again) is <30 miles, and we have a driveway so yes, I'm very much a potential plug-in hybrid customer.

That might reduce your choice - a lot of hybrids use them for efficiency.
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Yes, though happily for me, plug-in hybrids mostly don't seem to. Most of the CVT ones are what you describe as full hybrid, usually Japanese, mostly Toyota/Lexus AFAICT. They seem, to me, to be the main brand(s) which have kept the CVT faith. And I'm afraid I can't get too excited about any of them, either from a styling, utility or driving perspective.

And I'm not sure I agree your distinction in the names. 'Full' hybrid should, it seems to me, allow the gamut of driving/charging options, but your 'full' hybrids don't offer the plug-in option, nor extended electric-only usage. So I might describe them as 'original hybrid', as 'plug-in' hybrids are 'fuller' in terms of their hybrid uses.
 
Lexus/Toyota's "Self-charging hybrid" is a phrase that really annoys me, as it insinuates that these are somehow electric vehicles. They aren't. Yes, it has an electric power-train that "charges itself" by recovering kinetic energy during braking, but every single Joule of energy harvested by this "self-charging" system was originally produced by burning petrol in an internal combustion engine. While Toyota is to be commended for reducing the fuel consumption if its petrol cars this way, they are not in any meaningful way "electric" cars: if the only thing you are able to put into your car to make it go is petrol, then what you have is a petrol car.
 
KrisW said:
Lexus/Toyota's "Self-charging hybrid" is a phrase that really annoys me, as it insinuates that these are somehow electric vehicles. They aren't. Yes, it has an electric power-train that "charges itself" by recovering kinetic energy during braking, but every single Joule of energy harvested by this "self-charging" system was originally produced by burning petrol in an internal combustion engine. While Toyota is to be commended for reducing the fuel consumption if its petrol cars this way, they are not in any meaningful way "electric" cars: if the only thing you are able to put into your car to make it go is petrol, then what you have is a petrol car.
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Thanks, this is my beef with the terminology, too, but you put it more clearly than I did.
 
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