GOLF GTE without charging?

[JagJag363]

Hi All,

Due for a new company car and because of the BIK i'm seriously considering getting a PHEV, probably a Golf GTE as i've currently got a Golf GT and It ticks all the boxes I need in a car without being ridiculous.

Does anyone run a Golf GTE without charging it at all? I know this kind of goes against the point of them, but it's going to save me a decent chunk a month in company car tax. I live on a road lined with terraces, so no off road parking to charge it up.

If anyone runs it like this can you answer whether it would cause any problems? And would i get a really poor MPG figure by not charging? (Taking into consideration the extra weight from the batteries.

Also does the Golf have regen breaking to charge the battery or is it purely plugin?

Thanks for any help

[Big GT]

If your commute is town / city then yes its worth it. If you can charge at work then bonus!

If your commute is motorway 15K+ miles a year then like most hybrids all your doing is dragging around a lump of lead with a small 4 pot and mpg will be lower than a GTD. If so, calculate your BIK savings outweigh the extra fuel cost.

I drive 30K+ per year hence I chose a VRS Diesel.

The missus drives <10miles per day and I have ordered the GTE.

The GTE is a great car BTW.

[JagJag363]

Big GT said:

If your commute is town / city then yes its worth it. If you can charge at work then bonus!

If your commute is motorway 15K+ miles a year then like most hybrids all your doing is dragging around a lump of lead with a small 4 pot and mpg will be lower than a GTD. If so, calculate your BIK savings outweigh the extra fuel cost.

I drive 30K+ per year hence I chose a VRS Diesel.

The missus drives <10miles per day and I have ordered the GTE.

The GTE is a great car BTW.

Thanks for the reply, my commute is 6.5 miles each way start stop traffic. I Estimate I might do 5-7k miles on motorway a year so it will probably worth it!

Cheers.

Edited by JagJag363 on Saturday 7th October 20:11

[Big GT]

Great.. if you can charge at work then you probably wont use any petrol in the commute.

If not the car still has regen

[andburg]

pretty much the defacto company car here.

most people seem to get about 45mpg on average, those with company fuel cards gets less.

pretty much noone charges them

[CooperS]

Why wouldn't you charge it whilst at the shops. Theres still plenty which are free.

[JagJag363]

Thanks guys.

I've seen on another forum that the Golf GTE's BIK Rate will be rising from 9% to 13% in the next tax year.

Although I can't seem to find that info anywhere online?

[JagJag363]

CooperS said:

Why wouldn't you charge it whilst at the shops. Theres still plenty which are free.

I would do, but there aren't loads of shops with charging points near me, and I wouldn't have thought the small amount of charge the car would get in the short space of time that i'm in shop would make massive amounts of difference

[jonobigblind]

JagJag363 said:

Thanks guys.

I've seen on another forum that the Golf GTE's BIK Rate will be rising from 9% to 13% in the next tax year.

Although I can't seem to find that info anywhere online?

HMRC set and publish the rates but they’re readily available on the Government sites. They also publish them on loads of car websites including places like this one https://www.fleetnews.co.uk/fleet-faq/what-are-the...

Yes they’re rising but still only 13%, as opposed to my current Merc which is 22% and rising to 24%. I’m not losing any sleep over my new hybrid arriving next month, I’m still quids in.

[oop north]

13% from April 2018 and 16% from April 2019, then 14% from April 2020 or a bit less if more than 30 miles electric range see http://www.parkers.co.uk/company-cars/2016/governm...

[herewego]

It seems the car is capable of about 150mpg when regularly plugged in. This is why it gets a tax break isn't it? What is the mpg roughly if never plugged in?

[Russ T Bolt]

JagJag363 said:

Thanks guys.

I've seen on another forum that the Golf GTE's BIK Rate will be rising from 9% to 13% in the next tax year.

Although I can't seem to find that info anywhere online?

http://www.nextgreencar.com/company-car-tax/calculator/

You can select the car and it will give you tax liability for next three years.

[jonobigblind]

herewego said:

It seems the car is capable of about 150mpg when regularly plugged in. This is why it gets a tax break isn't it? What is the mpg roughly if never plugged in?

The tax breaks aren’t measured on MPG, it’s all based on the co2 output (which is about as reliable as the MPG calculations). It seems to all be based on ‘best case scenario’ so doesn’t matter from a tax perspective what you do with it after it’s delivered. They’ve no way of checking if you’re plugging in or not so the only real detriment will be to your MPG. If you’re one of those few that still have a company fuel card there’s really no incentive to plug in at all.

The co2 output isn’t always the same for each model as adding larger wheels, panoramic sunroofs etc can have an impact and push up into the next bracket (e.g from 49g to 54g) - no arguing the toss with HMRC there.

[MrOrange]

jonobigblind said:

The tax breaks aren’t measured on MPG, it’s all based on the co2 output (which is about as reliable as the MPG calculations). It seems to all be based on ‘best case scenario’

Lowest CO2 output would surely be 0 when running on battery. But the published output, and hence BIK bracket is based on a much higher CO2 figure. So not really best case, more “defined by a standardised test”.

[BlueHave]

herewego said:

It seems the car is capable of about 150mpg when regularly plugged in. This is why it gets a tax break isn't it? What is the mpg roughly if never plugged in?

Knowing and owning a VW's it will be about half the quoted figure.

[jonobigblind]

MrOrange said:

Lowest CO2 output would surely be 0 when running on battery. But the published output, and hence BIK bracket is based on a much higher CO2 figure. So not really best case, more “defined by a standardised test”.

And those standardised tests produce results that aren’t really comparable to real world driving which produce an artificially low figure. The tests involve firing up the engine so I’d say that the figures they achieve are the ‘best case’ for that car type, otherwise if they managed to just run it on battery for the test cycle then a Phev could have a zero score.

[cannondaleallthe way]

Yes I have a golf gte and find that If I start from a full charge it on a 100 mile trip I get around 57mpg average
but unable to charge on the return trip due to lack of charge points.
So you get around 55 in hybrid with no charge from start but find that to goes down to 48 over 40miles on recharge you lose 7mpg and gain a full charge.
The battery is not the full story as most trips I get 40 % to 50% emissions free due to when in hybrid mode and not on the throttle it free wheels and its this that saves the fuel.
So it cost you 7mpg to get a full charge of 22 to 27 miles

[herewego]

cannondaleallthe way said:

Yes I have a golf gte and find that If I start from a full charge it on a 100 mile trip I get around 57mpg average
but unable to charge on the return trip due to lack of charge points.
So you get around 55 in hybrid with no charge from start but find that to goes down to 48 over 40miles on recharge you lose 7mpg and gain a full charge.
The battery is not the full story as most trips I get 40 % to 50% emissions free due to when in hybrid mode and not on the throttle it free wheels and its this that saves the fuel.
So it cost you 7mpg to get a full charge of 22 to 27 miles

Are you saying you can use the engine to recharge the battery? What's the point of that?

[Shilvers]

herewego said:

Are you saying you can use the engine to recharge the battery? What's the point of that?

So you don't need to plug it in. A nice option to have surely?

[99dndd]

Shilvers said:

herewego said:

Are you saying you can use the engine to recharge the battery? What's the point of that?

So you don't need to plug it in. A nice option to have surely?

Also useful if you have to make an unexpected diversion to Olso City Centre's Zero Emission Zone and your battery's low.

That may get more useful if more city centres go the same way.