[kojenci]

I'm thinking of buying a Passat GTE (2016) but I couldn't charge it at home/work yet.
Does anyone have any experience with the fuel consumption in only hybrid mode and how this would affect the car? (I commute 30 km a day mainly in the city)
I don't like the hybrid solutions from Toyota and there is enough space for the family only in Passat-size cars.

 

[BruceH]

I can't give you a very accurate view of city driving with no battery charge, but a 350 mile mostly motorway journey without charging gave me 40.9mpg a couple of months ago; the same journey in the other direction which started with a full charge was 45.6mpg. Looking back through the data in WeConnect app I did also make a short 2 mile / 10 minute city journey at 25.9mpg with no battery charge, so I'd hope you would find something between the two for 30km, probably nearer the mid-thirties mpg (but sorry, I can't convert to l/km for you!). However with so many variables, especially in urban driving, a good comparison might be hard.

 

[phproxy]

You'd be better off with a petrol-only version surely? Are you wanting one to avoid some kind of congestion charge?

 

[dk6780]

You'd be better off with a petrol-only version surely? Are you wanting one to avoid some kind of congestion charge?

Agreed. The GTE is not designed to be a self-charging hybrid in the way that (say) a Prius is, so you'd be carrying a large amount of extra kit around for little purpose and at greater initial cost. Unless you plan to have access to a charge point in the near future, or are avoiding a congestion / emissions charge, I'd agree that a normal 1.4 Tsi for petrol or 1.6 TDi for diesel is a more suitable and lower cost to buy, run and maintain option.

 

[80698]

Basically to back up what is already being said. Unless you are soon to be able to charge regularly at home/work/both it makes no sense to spend more money on a vehicle for a feature you can't use, driving around the extra weight of an unused battery and making repairs more expensive and complex if something was to go wrong.

I Don't imagine that driving around leaving the battery sitting discharged at all times will do it much good either and potentially cause you to end up with a reduced electric range should you opt to use the battery in the future. This was the case with some of the early plug-in Prius cars I have seen that were bought to avoid the London congestion charge but never actually had the battery charged. The already tiny battery capacity was reduced by a little more than a quarter after ~3 years if my memory serves me correctly.

self-charging hybrid

The forbidden phrase. Boo!

 

[dk6780]

The forbidden phrase. Boo

Pass me the Weobley, I'm going outside.

 

[kojenci]

Thanks for the responses!
Previously I used a Ford Focus 1.6 petrol and it consumed 9l/100km (26 mpg) in the traffic. I hoped that the Hybrid mode could be better.
The 1.4 TSI petrol version is not cheaper than the GTE in the current used car market, and I hope it could be charged at my workplace in the future or in 2-3 years if we move to a new place with my family.
But this 2-3 years could be too much for the battery to use it near empty. My biggest problem is that I like the addition extras in the GTE version which are not present in the standard petrol versions. Probably I should buy an other estate for this temporary period.

 

[cdlb]

Just to add to this, just before I ordered my GTE, the sales person told me that it isn't worth having unless you can charge regularly. Given that he works on commission and still says that, I would be inclined to listen to him on this point.

 

[phproxy]

If you do end up owning a GTE without the ability to plug in, I'd probably say you're better of starting it in GTE mode every time. Keeps the battery around 50% charge, and stops you getting single digit mpg on short journeys if the battery is empty..

 

[mrdr_ev]

The Focus 1.6 petrol is way off the pace compared with modern ICE efficiency. (Though they are also way off the pace with real BEV/hybrid, obviously.)
Any modern small TSi type engine will do up 50-55 mpg even in a Passat. The Focus 1.6 barely scrapes 40 mpg in a best case scenario, and drops from there when you're stuck in traffic (I know, I dragged one up and down the M4 road works at 50mph for two years - pretty much as good as it gets for allowing a car to be efficient).

Saying all the above is it really the case that you'd never be able to charge your GTE at any time during your ownership? 30km a day is well within range of even the lowest cost all-battery EVs, and frankly if you bought a Tesla model 3 for example you'd be able to pop down a supercharger for 15 minutes once a week and that would do for your charging requirements. And in the future when your workplace/home is able to offer charging you can move on to that.

 

[Enor]

30 kms a day? That's short enough for you to be able to do it all on electric.

 

[Neilto]

If you don't plug it in its not worth having. But if you can't plug in at home or at work just plug in at the nearest public charging point - they are everywhere, always available and free. Oh sorry you are not in Scotland!

 

[proddick]

I don't like the hybrid solutions from Toyota

And yet their "self charging" hybrids are more efficient vs a GTE that you don't plug in. And more reliable than a "worse than average" VW. If you like German makes then Mercedes do a C Class Hybrid Estate.

2019 What Car? Reliability Survey: electric and hybrid cars

To help you choose the most dependable car, we've crunched the data on more than 18,000 vehicles, spanning 31 brands and 218 models to give each a unique reliability rating

www.whatcar.com