[HandyAndy]

What's the position re driving into London with a diesel/petrol powered car? Ar you going into the centre, or into a zone where cars producing emissions are likely to be targetted for high fees/bans? Plenty of cities are starting to get fidgetty about allowing any ICE cars into them. Personally I wouldn't buy a diesel if you tried to give it to me - I hate the smell that even supposedly "new" ones make. And the sh*t/smoke that comes out when they have to purge/recycle the DPF stuff is appalling. Add to that the unreliability of dual-mass flywheels, EGR valves clogging up, I'd take a Phev over a diesel any day. In effect you get a "nearly free" gallon of petrol at the start of the trip, plus the ability to fill the battery en-route up the motorway, if it's empty, enough to give you 15-30 miles EV driving when inside the populated area. London air's bad enough imho without adding any more pollution there.

The non-plugin Hybrid EVs just don't have the battery capacity to do that, so I'd rule those out completely, myself. Maybe look at Hyundai Ioniq PHEV? Golf GTE? etc.