@MarkH67 cheers. Good info!

huxtable:

 

Hope this is ok for this thread - we went electric for the first time earlier this year, purchased a 2014 Leaf and we LOVE it - perfect for our daily commute in Dunedin (between 5km - 10km most days, we just charge it once or twice a week in our garage). Seriously love this car and can't see myself ever buying a full-ICE vehicle again.

 

But we're needing to upgrade our other car, and needing something a bit larger and able to do longer distance trips (family of 4) more conveniently. Primarily though it will also be used for daily commuting around town. We're eyeing up getting a PHEV Outlander (2013-2015 models). Any Leaf/EV owners out there that also have one of these, that they can comment on in terms of comparing to a genuine EV for daily usage? My understanding is the PHEV can do 40km-60km on battery before the petrol engine kicks in - does this mean if I'm charging it a couple of times a week, that I'll be practically using no petrol, only when we go on longer distance journeys? Even on Dunedin's hills?

 

Or any other suggestions for EVs or PHEVs that are larger and can handle longer distance journeys more easily than the Leaf, without needing to spend more than $30k? Thanks!

 

My parents have a Outlander PHEV (2019 model) and they love it. I think in the first three months they owned it, they put about $100 gas in it. Their trip into town is only about 3kms, and it never fires up the engine for that. They regularly travel inter-town (Thames to Paeroa for example, and Hamilton and Auckland). The engine kicks in at about 40-50kms, and charges faster than they are using it (the engine is not connected to the drive train, so just charges the batteries). They do trips up the Coromandel peninsular a fair bit (up past Colville) and the engine kicks in just before Coromandel I think (Coro is about 55km from Thames).

At that price range and intended use the Outlander really has no competition. There aren't any other plug in hybrids of that type for that price.

For other options there is the holden volt if you can find it, but there were never many of those, or the prius which has no electric range to speak of and is really not much more than a very fuel efficient petrol car.

Otherwise there are a few straight up hybrids around but no plug in hybrids. I was a little tempted by the Camry hybrid myself which if you believe the numbers does similar fuel consumption to a standard corolla while being a much larger car.

I bought a leaf last year and I love it too, but at the time I was also considering the outlander and took one for a test drive. I think the leaf is much better around town but the outlander is better for everything else. If there was less difference in price I might have bought the outlander and there's still a chance I'll trade my leaf in for one. A better all around car I think if you only have one.

I too am debating about what our next second car (alongside our Leaf) will be; unless I win Lotto it's likely to be a Camry Hybrid or Outlander PHEV. (As a current station wagon owner, and with a wife who hates SUVs, I think I'm likely to end up with the Camry! The current model is a damn impressive car that handles well; I wasn't so impressed with the Outlander PHEV I took for a drive a couple of years back.) 

I recall being told on another thread here on GZ that apparently the range on the older PHEVs drops off fairly steeply, so I wouldn't assume you'll get 50km electric-only driving from a '13-'15 model. 

Here goes - found that post: https://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?forumid=162&topicid=260256&page_no=1#2358354

Here's another one specifically on the PHEV: https://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?forumid=162&topicid=249053

We bought our 24KWh LEAF in September 2017 and kept our Subaru wagon for the long trips.

We sold the Subaru after 6 months and 2 flat 12v battery issues.  No one wanted to drive it.  (yeah the battery probably needed replacing.  LOL)

We decided we'd hire a car if we went out of town any real distance.  We haven't felt the need to yet.

We live in Wellington and will be driving to Ohakune on Friday.  EV road trips are the new black.

Now that the kids are a little older we have 4 full-licence drivers in the household.

Not a lifestyle for everybody, but more than possible for us.  Wow... do we save money!

trig42:

 

My parents have a Outlander PHEV (2019 model) and they love it. I think in the first three months they owned it, they put about $100 gas in it. Their trip into town is only about 3kms, and it never fires up the engine for that. They regularly travel inter-town (Thames to Paeroa for example, and Hamilton and Auckland). The engine kicks in at about 40-50kms, and charges faster than they are using it (the engine is not connected to the drive train, so just charges the batteries). They do trips up the Coromandel peninsular a fair bit (up past Colville) and the engine kicks in just before Coromandel I think (Coro is about 55km from Thames).

 

As with most Plug in Hybrids, the bolded but above is not quite true. Under certain conditions (open road cruising speed, when the engine is running), the engine will directly couple with the drive-train. It only has one gear though, so for other duties (say acceleration from low speed), it will operate as a series hybrid with the engine mechanically disconnected from the engine.

Not that the above is a bad thing. More efficient to directly use the rotation rather than to electricity and back again.

Holden Volt did this as well (although general motors tried to conceal in its marketing).

Only obvious examples without mechanical likes are the BMW i3 REX, and the (non-plug in) Nissan e-note hybrid

lowlyworm:

We bought our 24KWh LEAF in September 2017 and kept our Subaru wagon for the long trips.

We sold the Subaru after 6 months and 2 flat 12v battery issues.  No one wanted to drive it.  (yeah the battery probably needed replacing.  LOL)

We decided we'd hire a car if we went out of town any real distance.  We haven't felt the need to yet.

We live in Wellington and will be driving to Ohakune on Friday.  EV road trips are the new black.

Now that the kids are a little older we have 4 full-licence drivers in the household.

Not a lifestyle for everybody, but more than possible for us.  Wow... do we save money!

Yeah, I forgot to check my ICE battery for 4 months and that was the end of it! I now have a solar panel on the garage roof & regulator that keeps it topped up. Occasionally I move it over & top up the Leaf battery as they're notorious for being hard on their 12v batteries. 

KrazyKid:

Ideally with a caravan plug on the end, but could make do with a type 2 plug.

If you could do with a type 2 plug, just get a type 1- type 2 cable instead.

OK, if you have a caravan outlet then a type 2 cable is no good. You will need an EVSE.

I know you're not looking to spend $600, but if you did change your mind - these switchable cables are great. We use ours with our Leaf and a caravan socket. We also have a separate adapter that allows us to trickle charge from a regular power supply at the slower rate:

https://www.evolutionaustralia.com.au/product-page/portable-evse-ev-charger-10a-15a-switchable

KrazyKid: I want to charge at 16A and have the caravan plug connected to a type b RCD.
I assume I need an EVSE and can't just plug the car directly into the caravan plug (assuming I have the correct connectors on each end)

Ideally someone might even have a spare 16A ESVE to sell me 😃

I have put a post on the Facebook he
Group, but geekzone is such a good general sight figured it was worth asking here as well!