Diesel & petrol alternatives? Your thoughts please

I'm in a quandary! I currently have a 3 year old Ford Kuga ST Line X diesel 2.0 190 bhp auto. Before I had the Kuga I always had petrol cars the last one being a Subaru Forester 2.5 turbo petrol with terrible mpg when towing and £500 road tax  so reluctantly went over to the darkside and bought my first diesel and it's been great for towing plus everyday use.

But now I'm looking to replace the Kuga and considering another Kuga or a Volvo XC40. The XC40 with the D4 (2.0 Diesel) was 2020 towcar of year but Volvo have discontinued the diesel engines and you cannot order one now (unless already built and in stock and they are like hens teeth).

My van is 1482kg. I only do about 6000 miles p.a. in total. So I'm wondering if I should go back to a petrol engine or stick with diesel for the next 3/4 years. Welcome any thoughts on this.

Anyone towing with a Mercedes C300DE diesel hybrid?

Is a diesel hybrid a good option for a company car driver doing c25K miles a year

As a long time diesel car owner and caravanner I will not be forced to change any time soon. The  climate change lobby fail to reveal the damage to the environment in production and disposal of the batteries for the new generation of vehicles. As for Hybrid, unless you drive mainly low speeds, fuel consumption is abysmal. Also due to battery degradation, resale values don’t promise to be good. My diesel exceeds 60+ mpg on a run and never fails to provide 48+ around local area. As I require my car to travel quite a lot, the high mpg would be crazy to give up. Also as an up to date engine it runs as clean as it can. To maintain that, it gets proper servicing each year. I expect a drop in mpg whilst towing but can absorb that, for the few times it’s hooked up. I was very nearly persuaded to change to a Hybrid but when pressed both dealerships of the two I chose, admitted that the real life fuel consumption for my driving needs, could not compete with my diesel. So all you fossil fuel decriers, get honest about the negative side to EV and Hybrid. Work out the extra time added to the journey whilst wait to recharge, that’s saying you can get a free charging point. Let’s hope you don’t run out of charge in the middle of nowhere. One final note, try and get an extended warranty on one of those.

Totally agree and the news last week that energy companies are applying for permission to cut supplies to EV chargers when demand is high is not good news for the roll out of mass EV ownership although it was obvious to many people that this would happen.

"Electricity companies could be allowed to use smart meters to cut off power to electric vehicle charging points during periods of high demand.
Proposals made to energy watchdog Ofgem would see suppliers given access to disable high-consumption devices such as EV home chargers and electric central heating to help manage demand".

My thoughts now are the same as they were when the thread was 1st started 3 years ago by a staff member -  they are impractical for my personal usage so I will not be changing to a Hybrid or Electric vehicle any time in the foreseeable future.

And then some of our friends cannot understand why we refuse to have a smart meter installed Ev chargers is just one of many other things that energy companies may "need"to reduce power to via "smart meters"

I’ve been on a smart meter for around 5yrs JV in that time my monthly electric costs have gone down from around £40 p/mth to £35 p/mth currently. 

PS-apologies my PA informs me we’ve had a smart meter for 7yrs not 5yrs.

That will be the case until smart meters are mandatory then prices will rise especially if and when the majority of vehicles are electric, they will have recoup all the lost fuel revenue somewhere.

We've had our EV for nearly four years now, we both like it, we don't have a smart meter but we do have the occasional power cut. 

Since the thread was started we've noticed a lot more hybrid cars in use, their running capacity on electric for local use is very good, it's how you decide to use them which gives you the benefit.

Our car isn't a hybrid and we have the use of a small petrol motor to top up the battery, useful on long journeys. various designs have come on to the market since our initial purchase. At a local level, there are four cars like ours and several hybrids, originally it was just us. I'll be interested to see how things develop. I think I've heard every excuse now from non users about why they think these cars are a bad idea.

For towing, only hybrids and expensive Teslas have been successful so not much movement on that front.

But it looks like many more hybrids are now being used for towing and more rapd chargers are needed everywhere.

Ther are two misubishi hybrids in our area one is a 2015 reg the other not sure as it has private plates,the owner of the 2015 reg would says it would not be any good as a tow car ,now as the engine (petrol) has not got the power needed(he had hopes they may make a diesel but not now)and the battery is not now lasting as in the past , he has to charge evey couple of days,  where it could last a week,

And has had letters from the council (after complaints ?) because to charge from his house he needs to park on a green as he lives in a terraced house ,and cannot get near enough