I also suspect that unless the hybrid is capable of plug in with adequate battery range it is going to struggle to materially beat an ICE simply because of the additional weight of battery, control systems and motor.

That was definitely the case a few years ago. My 2013 1,4 TSi Leon would average about 45mpg overall and do about 53mpg on a long run. At the same time a work colleague with an Auris Tourer Hybrid could only get mid 50's on a long run if he kept his speed down to that of the HGV's and used their slipstream. He hated the car as a car but loved the low business user tax he paid.

But things have definitely changed. During our recent car search 2 of the cars I drove were a Volvo XC40 2 litre petrol 190 PS auto and a Toyota Rav 4 hybrid which is CVT and 215 PS. Over a similar test route both performed about the same but even though the CVT was better than any box of that type I had drive previously I still preferred the conventional auto in the Volvo. What I did like about the Rav 4 was the mpg. We had both for about an hour and the Volvo reported 28mpg on the dash, the Rav 4 38mpg. Still not great but over 10,000 miles that a saving of nearly £500.

The Toyota Hybrid system in the Prius shows records of 700k miles being passed by taxis without any major component failure. I think many people fail to understand the simplicity of the system. Watch some of the YouTube videos it is overall a proven and mechanically straightforward package.

If you do 10-20 thousand miles a year and are keeping the car many years, these cars make perfect sense. And the thing everybody forgets is the retained value - they have much better depreciation rates, so yes they cost you a bit more, but you get more when you come to sell.

Bit of a double argument there - if you are keeping the car many years you probably aren't thinking about selling ? Both your points are valid, but they don't seem to go together.

Hybrid might be more exempt from future governmental stick waving.

That is driving electric scooter adoption here in Taiwan since they are exempt from parking charges. Scooters were until recently essentially unrestricted giving a high degree of personal mobility.

Now they aren't, so they don't.

Since just about everyone has one, that's a big negative lifestyle change.

The Toyota hybrid drivetrain is remarkable.

A lot of Prius do service as taxis or ubers in places like California and rack up hundreds of thousands of miles then get exported out to South East Asia where they charge around the rutted roads of places such as Cambodia with basically zero servicing apart from a hammer and still keep going strong.

It's been around for ages now and whilst others may not been proven in the case of Toyota it has really shown its strength in real world use.