Another is the "PHEV for me" question....

[Pezky]

Coming up to company car change time....
Obviously there are sizeable BIK savings compared to my current 2.4ltr XC60.
Currently, my thoughts are to get an estate car ie Skoda Octavia/Superb possibly Ford S-Max, we have a big German Shepherd dog to carry.
A number of my work collegues have got or are test driving the PHEV.
I work from home 90% of the time, so the car will sit on my driveway most of the week - ocassional short trips for dog walking.
Every other week I make a 80mile round trip to pick my children up - mix of a-roads & dual carriage way + running them round to football & rugby matches again 80-100 mile round trips, mixed driving.
When I do travel for work, generally 100-200 miles done in a day with no chance of being able to plug the car in to charge.
We drive to France in Feb each year to go skiing - 750 mile trip each way - all motorway and trips to the NW of England to see family.
Would the Outlander suit my requirements or am I better sticking to the diesel estate car?

 

[maby]

Our pattern of usage is quite similar to yours and we are averaging around 46mpg. A diesel estate car would probably do a bit better, but if you are looking at it as a company car, the BIK savings on the Outlander should more than compensate for the fuel economy. The cost difference will not be massive, so it really comes down to a question of which car you actually prefer.

I find the Outlander PHEV a lovely car to drive. My only reservation is some niggling doubts about build quality and life expectancy. For most company car drivers, that is not really a consideration - you'll hand it back before the warranty expires. Ours is a company car, but we own the company - in two or three years, we'll sell the car to ourselves (hopefully with significant depreciation) and then run it as a private car till it dies. I'm hoping that will be ten years, but I'm not terribly confident of that.

 

[user 816]

I would totally agree with Maby's advice. The PHEV could well suit you.

I presume when your fetching kids and going up the NW that is at your expense and when you go out on a job its at the companies expense?

It then makes a difference in how your reimbursed. If your on a fuel card and the company pays the business miles proportion and you pay the private proportion then its gets tricky because the effort you make to get the best mpg (such as plugging it in!) also get apportioned out, you can end up subsidising your company by your own electricity bill.

Now if your company just pay you a standard rate for the business miles claimed your laughing. Effectively they are paying their share of the petrol/electricity you use for them. You run around in the week locally for yourself mostly on cheap electrical power. Combined with the tax saving you should have plenty of money left in reserve to cover the longer trips and still be better off.

And remember you don't have to do all a trip on battery to benefit, even a quarter the way on battery will lift your overall mpg quite a bit.

Mine is a company car and I am out and about for work a lot more than you and to me its best aspect is the comfort, ride and refinement - really effortless way from A to B, makes work a lot less like, well work!

 

[maby]

If your company will not pay for the electricity, don't plug the car up - let them pay for the petrol.

 

[user 816]

If your company will not pay for the electricity, don't plug the car up - let them pay for the petrol.

That is what I do (although I top up a bit) as I do very little private miles and lots of business miles on a company fuel card its fine by me.

But it does sound like Pezky does a fair proportion of private miles vs business miles. Its fine to run only on petrol for his business miles on a fuel card but he doesn't want to be doing all that private at 35mpg too.

 

[maby]

If your company will not pay for the electricity, don't plug the car up - let them pay for the petrol.

That is what I do (although I top up a bit) as I do very little private miles and lots of business miles on a company fuel card its fine by me.

But it does sound like Pezky does a fair proportion of private miles vs business miles. Its fine to run only on petrol for his business miles on a fuel card but he doesn't want to be doing all that private at 35mpg too.

Certainly so, but the EV range of the car is sufficiently short that it is easy to make the decision the night before to not charge if you are going to be doing business miles the following day. It's only really an issue if there is a clear split in your pattern of usage with all your private use being on EV and all your business use being on petrol. I burn plenty of petrol on private use and I only get paid by the company for fuel used on business - pro-rata on my total fuel consumption. I could end up burning some electricity on business use for which I cannot claim, but the company will simply end up paying for some of the petrol that I burn on private use.

 

[Regulo]

Glad I'm retired - I don't think my poor old brain could cope with all this!

 

[jcandmorag]

Surely that is what the "save" button can be used for... Business miles petrol, private miles elec ?

 

[maby]

Surely that is what the "save" button can be used for... Business miles petrol, private miles elec ?

It would do - if it worked - but it does not really, does it? You try fully charging the car, pressing Save and driving a couple of hundred miles with a few stops along the way - you will arrive back with a significantly discharged battery.

 

[Neverfuel]

You could always press charge and top up your EV range whilst on company business. You will probably find that the split between your cots and your employers will even themselves out in the long term.

 

[Pezky]

Thanks for the replies chaps.
I do have a company fuel card and pay a percentage based on private/business mileage - generally 10k miles private & 5K miles business per year.
HR have been approached about the cost of installing chargepoints at home and cost of electricity to run it - not holding my breath for that one!

There is the possiblity that my partner will use it ocassionally to travel the 60 mile round trip to her work but as she is er...not patient with technology she may not get the best mpg out of it :lol:

 

[Neverfuel]

You might be better ditching the fuel card and claiming back business mileage with that percentage of private miles, bearing in mind the BIK.

 

[Pezky]

Company I work for have ditched fuel cards for hybrid engined cars, we claim business mileage at the company rate of 18p/mile.

I'm also told the lease company will install chargers at our home address.