Your questions answered: ICE or PHEV?

There seems to be no let-up in Australian interest in EVs, although this week’s carsales e-mailbox also suggests there’s still plenty of interest in hybrids as well.

In line with the EV theme, we’ve got another question from someone keen on powering their house using the excess electricity in their electric car’s battery.

And someone is wondering about the demise of cheap cars, while another wants to know whether to give up on a LandCruiser 70 Series and dive into an INEOS Grenadier.

Keep those questions coming!

Question: Many years ago we used to purchase a Tom Tom (or other brand) to navigate when we needed to find a destination then car manufacturers started making these as inclusions.

With police asking for dashcam footage and insurance companies looking to identify at-fault drivers, are there any manufacturers offering dash cams as factory fitted? – Michael A

Answer: The only brand we can think of that has a standard dashcam is Tesla. The Model 3 and Model Y each have eight exterior cameras, of which four can be used to record vision of what is happening around the car.

The cameras are constantly recording on a loop provided you have a USB plugged into the port in the glovebox (it deletes old data once the external drive is full). How and when it saves footage will depend on the settings you’ve chosen; you can choose to record anything prior to a collision, for example, or when you beep the horn. Or you can record something manually.

Once recorded, the clips – which contain footage from front, rear and each side – can be downloaded by removing the USB.

BMW also offers a dashcam that can record from four angles. It’s called Drive Recorder and works in a similar way to the Tesla system but is offered as part of a subscription on newer models.

And, of course, many brands offer either easy wiring for a dashcam (such as the mirror-mounted USB port on Ford Rangers) or an integrated dashcam accessory option.

Question: I’m just wondering if I should buy the PHEV version or straight ICE versions?

I live in city of Adelaide and more than likely to travel to Melbourne City at least three to four times a year. – Chris B

Answer: One downside of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) is that they’re usually not nearly as fuel-efficient as a regular hybrid once you’ve depleted the battery (usually between 40 and 60km).

That’s because at that point you’re carrying around a heavy battery pack that is doing almost nothing. So for long distance travel they don’t often make much sense, especially if you’re doing it relatively regularly, as you are.

That said, we’ve done many kilometres in the Escape PHEV and found that it’s pretty good once you’re running in hybrid mode.

The clincher will be how often you play to recharge it and run it purely in EV mode when you’re staying close to home. Because that’s obviously the big appeal with a PHEV.

Even then, though, you’ll get only modest performance from the electric motor, because it’s also having to lug around hundreds of kilograms of engine, gearbox and fuel tank that are effectively dead weight.

We also wouldn’t rule out an EV, especially one of the longer range ones, such as a Tesla Model 3 Long Range (with 602km of WLTP range) or Hyundai IONIQ 6 (614km). Sure, you’ll need to knock at least 20 per cent off those figures for a realistic freeway cruising range. But it’s 728km from Adelaide CBD to Melbourne CBD, so you’d only have to stop once to charge.

Horsham would be a good option when travelling to Melbourne. There’s a 350kW charger, so a 20-minute-odd stop should give you enough to complete the journey.

For the return journey you might just make it to Keith in South Australia (509km from Melbourne), although we reckon there could be some sweat building as range anxiety kicks in. Otherwise do a quick top-up in Horsham or Kaniva (the latter has a 50kW charger).

If you convinced you need some form of petrol propulsion, then don’t limit yourself to the Ford. The Nissan X-TRAIL e-Power is an interesting option. While you can’t recharge it externally, it gives a mostly EV driving experience with respectable fuel-efficiency (albeit not as good as a Toyota RAV4 Hybrid).

Question: I’ve had my heart set on a LandCruiser 70 Series but have been reading a bit about the Ineos Grenadier. It seems like a really interesting car – and at least you can actually buy one, unlike the LC70!

But I’m wondering if it will be as reliable as a Toyota LandCruiser? I’m planning on doing some pretty serious adventuring and really need something that will hang in there.
– Oscar D

Answer: Reliability is not something we can judge or test with any car that’s about to go on sale. That goes for absolutely any brand, even Toyota with its still-fresh LandCruiser 300 Series (although, obviously, the assumption is that the Toyota reputation for reliability and durability will turn into reality for such an important model).

Of course, the 70 Series is a different beast. It’s been around long enough for most Australians to realise it’s one of the most reliable and hardy cars on the road.

As for the Grenadier, INEOS has done 1.8 million kilometres of testing across the harshest roads and conditions in the world – all under the watchful eye of its boss Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who has spent plenty of time pounding over harsh terrain in Land Rovers and Toyotas. If anything, the company appears to have over-engineered the Grenadier.

But, again, no-one will really know whether it lives up to the promise until we’ve had lots of cars on the road for many years.

So if you’re after a guarantee, we can’t give you that, other than to say our experience in the car, our knowledge of the testing procedure and discussions with engineers suggests it should be a step above many other brands for toughness and reliability.

INEOS also looks like it’s doing a good job of preparing a local service network and parts supply that will cover many remote parts of the country that most brands don’t bother with.

And, as you’ve pointed out, you can at least place an order for a Grenadier now.

Question: I’ve long wanted to get an EV but want it to do more than drive me around. Instead of paying for an expensive battery system on my house I’d rather use the capacity in the EV’s battery to do the same thing.

But from what I can tell not many of them can do that yet. Why not? When is it going to happen? – Dorothy L

Answer: You can almost do it now, although there are lots of caveats. There are currently only three cars on the market with vehicle-to-grid (V2G) capability. They are the Nissan LEAF electric car and the Mitsubishi Outlander and Mitsubishi Eclipse Cross plug-in hybrids.

The LEAF is arguably the best of that trio because it has by far the largest battery, so would be able to feed more electricity back to your house.

You also need grid approval to hook up, something that is currently only available in tiny pockets of the country (a winery in South Australia was the first private operator to set such a system up with a Nissan LEAF).

But – and this is a biggie – you need additional hardware on your house to enable the V2G capability. The main one available now is the Wallbox Quasar and it costs upwards of $10,000. The expectation is that hardware will get more affordable once alternatives hit the market and the tech matures.

We’ll also start to see more cars with V2G capability over the next few years. That’s in part due to the connectors; the LEAF, Outlander and Eclipse Cross all use the less common CHAdeMO charging port, which has had V2G capability for years.

The more common CCS Combo charging port used on most EVs only achieved the international standard for V2G in 2022 and it hasn’t yet been implemented on any production cars. But it is coming.

Keep in mind, too, there are lots of EVs with vehicle-to-load (V2L) functionality, which allows you to plug regular 230V appliances into an onboard powerpoint (some of them plug into the charging port).

Cars with V2L functionality available in Australia include the Hyundai IONIQ 5, Kia EV6, BYD Atto 3 and Genesis GV60. It’s handy tech for powering camping gear or keeping a fridge and other household items powered in the event of a blackout.

Question: Every time I go on another car shopping spree I find that the cars are getting more expensive. I thought competition was supposed to make new vehicles cheaper but even the Chinese brands seem to be getting more expensive. – Ryan E

Answer: It’s been a frantic few years of price rises in the new-vehicle market, led by brands such as Mercedes-Benz, which has also taken the opportunity to reposition a lot of its models.

But even mainstream brands such as Toyota, Mazda, Kia, Hyundai and Ford have been making their vehicles more expensive.

Much of the blame can be laid on inflation. It’s more expensive to hire people, buy energy, ship vehicles and buy raw materials, all of which adds up to more expensive vehicles.

But the COVID craziness – which saw a boom in new-vehicle demand and a shortage of supply – also appears to have emboldened some brands to take advantage of the shift in prices and effectively see if they can push it a little further.

Unfortunately, by those bigger brands shifting further upmarket it also allows the ones playing in the entry-level section of the market – brands such as MG, LDV and GWM – to also move up in price, in turn improving their profitability.

After all, the price relativity remains, so there’s still an incentive for buyers to consider them. All of which means buyers of pretty much every brand end up paying more.

The only light at the end of the (very long) tunnel we think we can see flickering away is one that ushers discounting back into the market. Auto brands typically offer deals and discounts when they’ve got too much stock – and it’s almost certain we’ll start to see that again from at least some brands over the next couple of years.

Question: I’ve been keeping a keen eye on your reviews for new utes and it’s clear you’re a big fan of the new Ford Ranger.

Having taken one for a test drive recently I agree, so decided to buy one. I really want the V6 Wildtrak but the dealer is telling me I’ll have to wait a bit over a year. What’s going on? Don’t they want to sell cars? – Baz G

Answer: Ford dealers would certainly love to sell you cars – that’s what their business model revolves around. But unfortunately Ford seems to have underestimated the interest in V6 versions of the Ranger.

There are some ludicrous wait lists for them, something that is frustrating dealers, who know they are losing some people that simply don’t want to wait (or can’t wait).

There is another option – the new Volkswagen Amarok. It shares much of its underbody mechanicals – including the V6 engine – with the Ranger. Given Volkswagen’s experience with V6 diesel sales, the company went big on orders of the V6 when planning for the new model, which hits dealerships in late April.

While you’re unlikely to get into one that soon if you order today, you should have nothing like the wait that you’ve got for the Ranger. You’ll pay a bit more for the Amarok, but you’ll also get a ute that looks different and has different driving characteristics (engine performance is identical).

There are pros and cons between Ranger and Amarok, but if your goal is to get Ford V6 power in a ute then the Volkswagen should be a quicker way to get it.

Question: In the next year we’ll need a new car (our old Hyundai hatchback is finally giving up!) and we’re probably going to buy an SUV. I’d love to get an EV but for now we just don’t have the finances to make it happen. So we’ll probably get a plain old petrol model.

My question is: Am I potentially risking it by buying old tech if we buy a regular petrol car today? Will I be able to get it serviced and have it worth something when we go to sell it later this decade? – Elanor W

Answer: The headlines continue to scream EV but petrol isn’t disappearing any time soon. The raw numbers will tell you that. There are about 20 million vehicles on Australian roads and only about 100,000 of them are EVs.

Even if EV sales hit 10 per cent of the market this year – which would mean a tripling of demand from 2022 – then we’ll only have about 200,000 EVs on the road by the end of this year. And we will have added another 900,000-plus petrol and diesel vehicles to the country’s fleet.

So even if there’s a sales surge towards EV for the rest of this decade – which is a fair chance – most cars on our roads will still need petrol or diesel.

So there’s absolutely no question that you’ll still be able to buy petrol and get your car serviced in a decade – even two, three, four decades. So don’t worry about that.

Of course, if you can stretch your budget to an EV – there are some decent options for around $50K these days – then you will have a car that costs you a lot less to run, so it should pay off some of that initial purchase price over the course of ownership.
Good luck!

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