EV or Hybrid for my needs?

Your use case is 100% suited to going full EV.

Will you have the ability to install a home charger?

That 5l/100km is costing you about €7.50 in diesel. the same 100km in an EV would cost you around €1.20.

Forget about bringing in a car from mainland U.K., that ship has sailed..

A 2nd hand Hyundai Ionic 28 is a family car, with exceptional efficiency, and could be got for around the €17k mark.

Some in here swear by them.

Servicing depends on the brand, Tesla for example don't have a regular service plan. In general though you won't have DPF filters, timing belt replacement, gear box replacement, regular oil changes and just far fewer parts that can go wrong

What’s your budget based on?

20k + running costs

the running costs are much less than an ICE do perhaps you could push out your budget.

Most EVs will have a 1 year service interval, but tbh it's total BS. There's nothing in it that requires annual servicing so the only thing they do is inspect it and change the pollen filter. VW ID cars have changed to a 2 year unlimited mileage service interval because there's so little to do with the cars

Tyres and brake pads are the main consumables, and if you're conservative with your driving then they'll last years

I'd recommend taking a look at EV database, that'll give a good idea of range and charging speeds (archive link is below for 2nd hand cars). Just watch out for the winter range estimate. It's based on -10C at European motorway speeds (130km/h). Our milder winters don't have as much impact and backing off the speed to 110km/h can help lower consumption a lot

I would highly recommend going for a test drive in any EV if you haven't already done so, just to get an idea of how they drive. Just give your local dealership a call and arrange a drive of whatever EV they have (make sure they'll have it charged before you go for a spin)

Fair warning, you might get hooked on how easy they are to drive around. I test drove a Leaf a few years back intending to not buy it. Instead I ended up putting the deposit down by the end of the day 🤣

Also, it might be worth looking into selling your car privately. The price of 2nd hand cars has shot up recently and you could get several thousand more than trading in for just a few hours of work

The air filters are generally located in an area that’s easily accessed, like the glove box . And hence you can replace them yourself for less than 20 euro.

Many EVs use drum brakes so don’t even needs pads or discs.

Fluids, are generally sealed. Brakes and power steering , and don’t need regular replacements.

if your AC needs a top up, get it topped up, no need for a service

A recent bbc radio programme pointed out that the UK intends to phase out hybrids 5 years after diesel and petrol, seems a lot of companies have bought fleet hybrids,but the staff can't be bothered switching over to electric,so drive a very heavy battery around,polluting more than ICE vehicles!

Wasn't there a tax brake in the UK for PHEVs a few years back? I think it got scrapped for exactly the reasons you said, the cars never got charged. There was a big flood of 2nd hand PHEVs on the market around that time (2018/19 I think???)

Think your right on that,some of us pure electric drivers are finding hybrids blocking the bays,not needing a charge and not bothering to plug in.One now famous hybrid gentleman in Downpatrick has been doing just that,going to work,bay blocked all day for the last 6 years . No-one can touch him as no legislation over those years,nor likely to be.

Obvious issue is EVs while great are still expensive. The 3 mentioned above are good but older and with the smaller batteries. Still suits your trips but nothing much longer. The current big family ev models like id4 and enyaq have 45k to 55k price tags. Big space and range but the cost isn't in the normal car spend bracket just yet for the average Joe.

As you have free motoring currently you should consider saving the cost of a new car loan every month for 2 or 3 years as a deposit. Car market is weird currently with prices and supply. EVs should be much cheaper than they are and the next 3 years should see a pivot towards that but no guarantee!

Solar pv installations are expensive and you will need a massive array with a battery to have any hope of charging your ev from it even partially. Have you researched this much yet?

Overall I would not really invest in hybrid as it's still a petrol engine with an expensive battery. Up coming regulations indicate that hybrids could be assessed very unfavourably as countries want to go to full electric. Only car manufacturers want hybrid as it's profitable. There will be a reckoning in 3 to 5 years and companies like skoda have already stopped any new phev car development. They know where the wind is blowing...

A spreadsheet is your friend so do lots of sums. Buts a balance of lifestyle and wants and costs.

Toyota are resisting the change world wide. The Japanese car industry employees huge numbers of people and they do not want that to change. Ev cars will require substantially less workers.

Toyota doesn't make mild hybrids. They are a different thing again. Toyota's hybrid's don't have a plug but they do let you drive for some of your journey purely on battery power which mild hybrids don't.

Toyota have made Prius phevs since 2010 around 20 km range, 4. something kWh battery, 2017 upgraded battery of 8 ish kWh with 40 km range and an option to fast charge on chademo in japan, rav4 is now a phev option.

Toyota have pole position in this country with little or no effort, when they start dropping to 2nd or 3rd place you can bet what ever you want that every single toyota will come with a plug much the same as when they dropped diesel and switched all their cars to hybrid without any great fuss.

I would think people are very happy with their Toyota hybrids probably suits a great majority better than a diesel.

Could have been an import? Or discontinued