The industrial success of the hybrid car has been fairly a factor to witness over the previous couple of a long time. It has created a broad and diversified patchwork of fashions to select from for personal patrons and firm automobile house owners alike.
And it’s that diversified choice – on the extra compact and reasonably priced finish of the spectrum – that we’re getting in amongst right here. If you are after greater and extra luxurious electrified fashions, we rank these on our Best Hybrid SUVs web page.
As zero-emission gross sales legal guidelines tighten over the approaching years and we transfer nearer to the entire phasing out of combustion-engined new cars across the UK and the EU by 2035, it’s inconceivable to say how lengthy the hybrid powertrain will stay such a dominant drive – but it surely should already be thought-about to be on borrowed time.
Car makers are actually required by regulation to register an growing proportion of their whole UK gross sales quantity as zero-emission all-electric vehicles, on a sliding scale from 2024 onwards that’s set to rise to 80% by 2030 and 100% by 2035. And whereas PHEVs (plug-in hybrid electrical autos) and HEVs (hybrid electrical autos) could assist prospects put together for the concept of a completely electrified automobile, they gained’t assist their makers to keep away from hefty fines in the event that they fail to fulfill these deadlines.
For now, in fact, a hybrid powertrain could merely be the proper selection in your subsequent automobile – maybe as a result of it saves you cash on the petrol pump, or helps drive down how a lot benefit-in-kind (BIK) firm automobile tax you pay, or provides you a automobile with a low emissions score and a helpful electrical vary with which to entry a low-emissions zone, or to make most of your day by day motoring emissions-free. These are our favourites.
1. Mercedes-Benz C300e
Pros: nice electrical vary for the value, little practicality compromise, a number of digital cabin tech
Cons: would not deal with like a sports activities saloon, barely disappointing cabin high quality
Packing a drive battery twice the dimensions of a lot of its PHEV rivals’, the present Mercedes C300e has a claimed WLTP electrical vary of as much as 69 miles. That’s sufficient not solely to make the automobile notably tax-efficient, but in addition to make a giant distinction to the financial savings it might ship for drivers who pay for their very own gasoline.
The C300e’s powerplant contains a 2.0-litre turbocharged petrol engine and a 127bhp electrical motor and makes 308bhp in all, in a automobile that may crack 62mph from relaxation in simply 6.1sec. The mannequin is accessible in each saloon and property bodystyles with no important compromise to both passenger or boot area from its further PHEV {hardware}.
The C300e has impressed our street testers with its refinement and isolation, and likewise with its laid-back, luxury-first, Mercedes S-Class-in-miniature vibes. Keener drivers with much less of an eye fixed on their tax payments could most likely nonetheless choose to contemplate the likes of the BMW 330e or Peugeot 508 PSE, however for many fleet drivers and operators, the C300e’s glorious electrical vary is certain to make it a well-liked possibility.