"The allowable limit is quoted as 115 grams."

Many pure ICE cars have been hitting that target for years without the hybrid complexity. What's the point?

Some people might want a boring to own reliable Toyota / Lexus hybrid instead of something with a thirsty 3 pot turbo charged wet belt engine.

I suspect any relaxation of rules for hybrids will be limited to plug in with a minimum electric range of ??? (30+ miles).

Current mild hybrids and self charging are little more efficient than conventional ICE and I expect they will be banned from 2030 - unless the rules change again.

Current mild hybrids and self charging are little more efficient than conventional ICE and I expect they will be banned from 2030 - unless the rules change again.

Based on my experience of a 2014 Auris Hybrid I would have agreed with that but not with more modern examples.

The Hybrid Auris Estate we had as a pool car at work was not a great car and compared to the Golf TDi DSG it replaced was in truth r******. It was lethargic and noisy for starters. At the time I had a 2013 Seat Leon 1.4 TSi 140 PS which was far quicker, more refined and would average 50 mpg without trying on longer trips. The Auris on the same type of trips would do pretty much the same mpg in the same use and considering that HJ Real MPG says 54 mpg for the Auris I don't think I am being unfair on it.

But move on a few years and things have certainly moved on. Our 2018 Skoda Fabia 1.0 TSi 110 PS averaged 48 mpg over the 6 years we owned it, the only car we have owned that has been better was a Kia Ceed 1.6 CRDi 115 SW which averaged 51 mpg over 5 years. We have owned the Fabia replacement now for 9 months, its a 2024 Toyota Yaris Hybris 116 PS and in the exact same use as the Fabia its averaged about 72 mpg. These figures are calculated and not from the dash display. Have to say that the Yaris is as lively as the Fabia (better in town, as good on the open road) and we have no issues with its refinement.

The Superb PHEV we own is also better on petrol than any ICE car we have previously owned. On our twice a year trip to Scotland we are unable to charge the battery thus we are essentially driving a self charging hybrid but one that weighs a lot more. The mpg for the week (over about 1000 miles on average) has always been in the regions of 60 mpg and that is without trying. Our previous car, the Superb 1.4 TSi 150 manual would do about 51 mpg over the week driving the same roads at the same speeds.

Mild Hybrids are really a waste of time as far as mpg goes but the one I test drove (a Golf eTSi 150 PS) pulled away better than any other DSG I have driven and had no hesitation when you wanted to overtake, the battery was clearly assisting a bit. No idea what the mpg was like, we only had it for a morning.

Our next car will without doubt be a hybrid, probably not another PHEV since the extra £410 a year VED (they big ones are all over £40,000) and extra purchase cost would wipe out any fuel savings. The Superb PHEV we have was a pre-reg (3 weeks old - 7 miles) and had £6000 off list.

Agree. Watch used petrol/diesel car prices go sky high after 2030 or whenever. Another side effect will be that people will be prepared to spend more money having older cars repaired and will keep them for longer. The opposite of what the Government wants.