Hybrid tow car

Being petrol hybrids the batteries are sized for solo cars so only give the fuel consumption quoted when driven solo. Towing depletes the batteries quickly and then you are reliant on petrol power hence mpg drops. 14-20 mpg is not unheard of. Ok if you are an occasional tower but disappointing if you tow many thousands of miles a year.

I agree with Viatorem. I had a hybrid Lexus for 7 years and towed an 1800kg caravan with it. Solo it returned fabulous fuel economy, especially in heavy stop/start driving, but when towing, the hybrid layout made no difference to consumption because the petrol engine was called upon to supply most of the power. I was a lovely car, but the benefits were only apparent in the solo condition.

I doubt any real benefit to me for a towcar. Our X-Trail is used principally when away with the caravan 4 months of the year. Actual touring part is about 120 nights and around 70 of those on a CMC site charging £2 a night to recharge the car. We also have a 2 week Christmas break on a CMC site with little car usage.

When not on holiday the car is probably used once a fortnight for a few miles to keep moving. 

We placed our order for a Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV this morning, there is a new model coming out in September this year, Mitsubishi are heavily discounting the outgoing models.

Have you had the opportunity to test drive yet, forget what you read in the press, they are very nice to drive. But you have to accept the new Outlander PHEV and Toyota RAV4 hybrid are no match for a 150 bhp diesel towcar, expect around 24 mpg towing.

I have seen on sites and spoken to the owners of a Volvo and Mitsubishi hybrids ,and both have said solo they were great mpg, was not so good at towing ,they were both petrol ICEs no guts compaired to previos diesels ,and on battery about 20mile max, before ICE took over and also charged battery ,until charged and powered the outfit again for about 20mile ,the Volvo driver was not sure if he was going to keep it , as he did a lot of touring with C/van

Practical Caravan did not give the Mitubishi a very good write up as a tow car recently.

Hubby here 

Since Ann's original post we went to test drive an outlander and as soon as we mentioned towing a van he said don't go there because the way it works it will be thrashing the ICE once the battery is flat.

According to him (15 years selling Mits's) the car is not designed to be a tow car but as an excellent town car.

For a car salesman to tell us not buy one of his cars was a first for us so we took him at his word.

From what I have read/heard about Hybrid cars I shall stick to my diesel

a lot of improvement is needed before hybrids or electric cars will be good tow cars 

@OscarMax

We would be very interested in your opinion of the car once you have towed with it. 

When do you expect to do that?

 We can live with 24 MPG since that is not much less than we currently get from our Mazda CX5 diesel when towing (about 27mpg).  Once pitched then the hybrid will come into it's own anyway.

Also been trying to get some info about anyone who bought a Rav 4 hybrid for towing from our local dealer, still waiting for that.

Hi, we've had our Outlander for 3 years now. I wouldn't buy one for the sole purpose of towing. It's big and and stable towing our 1500kg Pursuit. Lots of boot space, 4wd when needed. A few negatives, it is noisy when towing, as the battery runs out in about 20 miles and you're then left with petrol engine. It is powerful enough, but noisy, as it has to charge the battery as well as drive the wheels. The petrol tank is small too. 

We like ours and will probably go for another one as it suits us for our work, leisure and towing. In the summer months, if we're not going away, we put very little petrol in it as the battery lasts for our short commute etc.

Cheers, Alex