No manufacturer is now going to develop new ICE vehicles for the UK market.

The period over which development and investment costs can be recovered become increasingly limited, and ICE will anyway be a rapidly shrinking market well before 2030.

Current offerings and those well advanced in the development pipeline will continue to be available - but any model refresh or in-life upgrades are likely to be limited.

Agree totally, which is why I'm very attracted to the Evoque PHEV with its 3 cylinder 1.5 engine. The electric motor works on the rear axle which gives the 4x4 traction but it will do about 30 miles just on electric. Perfect for my needs locally or when I visit family in London, I can use petrol to where the M4 ends then electric from there to Hammersmith, I just wish I had more confidence in Land Rover reliability. The last Land Rover I had was perfect, never gave any problems but it was a 1968 Series 2 so about as complicated as a knife and fork.

Petrol+electric is a clever idea as far as it goes. The electric motor can remove the need for emissions in congested areas and if so designed provide extra power when needed, so the ICE doesn't need to be high-powered and inefficient.

One problem can be that hybrids, especially plug in hybrids can be so heavy with having both ICE and electric motors/batteries that in real life use they are less efficient. I think Which produced a report about this recently.

Possibly less of an issue with milder hybrids. I know a lot of people who have various Toyota hybrids and they all love them. The Toyota oily bits are well designed - effectively an electric transaxle with an engine on the side. They all seem to get good real life economy and I've not known any of them have reliability issues.

Ultimately it'll be electric only soon though unless hydrogen car technology takes off in a big way.

Petrol+electric is a clever idea as far as it goes. The electric motor can remove the need for emissions in congested areas and if so designed provide extra power when needed, so the ICE doesn't need to be high-powered and inefficient.

I remember Toyota and Honda saying that the tech allows for an engine in a hybrid to be of lower emissions than a standard engine, and as Battery tech gets better the need to have the engine running will be less with regenerative braking, which they all use, will mean the engine wont be used as often...all clever stuff

As readers will realise having owned a Skoda Superb PHEV for just over 4 months I am now happy to say that the PHEV concept is perfect for most owners providing they realise that by not plugging one in they will not get better mpg than a cheaper non PHEV version. I took some convincing and it was the offer of a great deal on a 3 week old pre-reg that persuaded me to buy but the car itself just convinces me it is the right one for us, much better than the 1.4 TSi we had previously.

I drove a Toyota RAV4 2 days before I drove the Superb and it was a close run decision. The RAV4 drove very well, much better than previous Toyota Hybrids I had experience of but the mpg on the dash after a 30 minute drive was a bit disappointing at 38 mpg (strait after the test I took the old Superb on the exact same route and it showed about 45 mpg). The RAV4 was very well equipped even in base Icon spec and at under £28K at a broker was well priced. Would have been happy with one but for the mirrors (so large that the car would not go in either garage with them folded out - not an issue with the Superb) and no height adjustable passenger seat (even the Fabia has one which was standard) not even on the top spec model. This one fact made it useless for the wife.

As for mild hybrids, why bother. The manufacturers admit they are simply a way of getting stop/start to work more reliably in the real world. They cannot run a single foot on electric only but they can shut the engine down at very low speeds approaching junctions (the stop/start bit). Extra complexity for no gain whatsoever. Take the Golf as an example. The mild hybrid versions actually only have a 2g CO2 emission figure lower than the ICE versions, WOW. In the Passat 1.5 TSi its £1600 extra for the DSG but in the Golf its only a £1300 difference for the mild hybrid and you get a DSG as standard, how does that work? Just shows there is actually very little (or no) technology involved.

(I think the only exceptions are the GT86

GT86 discontinued.

The manufacturers aren't "jumping the gun" - since 2020, they get fined by the EU if the corporate mix of their models exceeds target CO2 emissions - by withdrawing pure petrol models they can reduce/eliminate these fines.

Exactly!. And to be perfectly honest, I think by far the majority of buyers couldn't give two hoots how complex the car is. Just a very small minority who want the manufacturers to accept said fines in order to get what they want.

As for mild hybrids, why bother. The manufacturers admit they are simply a way of getting stop/start to work more reliably in the real world. They cannot run a single foot on electric only but they can shut the engine down at very low speeds approaching junctions (the stop/start bit). Extra complexity for no gain whatsoever. Take the Golf as an example. The mild hybrid versions actually only have a 2g CO2 emission figure lower than the ICE versions, WOW.

What matters is avoiding these huge fines. If that 2g difference the mild hybrid makes means the difference between paying huge fines (for missing the emissions targets), or not paying huge fines, what would you do?.

Edited by badbusdriver on 07/03/2021 at 13:07

"Series" hybrid.The ICE does not drive the wheels- it only charges the battery which powers an electric motor that drives the wheels.IE.There is no direct connection between the IC engine and the wheels unlike a "parallel" where the wheels can be driven by either motor or both. Incorrect - the Toyota system will drive from ICE, petrol or by blending the two together - mag.toyota.co.uk/how-does-toyota-hybrid-work/

Should have read to the bottom before posting. You got there first.

I'm sure there are others, but I can think of two hybrids where the ICE only charges the battery, the Vauxhall Ampera, and the range extender version of the BMW i3.