Diesel or PHEV

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J

Jayo70

New Member
Posts
4
I’m thinking of dipping my toe into LR ownership for the first time.

We only have one car in the household (as I drive a van), a BMW 5 series, but regular flooding in the lanes in our area is making saloon cars almost unusable. We need wading depth.

Would like a new (but used) Defender, but RR Sport seems more in our budget.

We do roughly 10k a year, and many days my wife does only 20 to 30 miles, so the plug in is very appealing, but I’d be interested to know if there are any pitfalls with these that I’m missing? I know about the reduced towing capacity, and this doesn’t really matter.

The BMW is very good on fuel (almost 50 mpg), which has been a dream after owning a much-loved but very thirsty old Shogun previously, so fuel costs do come into the equation for us.
 
Firstly Welcome :).

But I would say if you are dealing with lots of water I would personally be very cautious about anything with lots of batteries, its a bit scary to me.

So choose carefully. Do you need the luxury? With that mileage?

J
 
Jayo70 said:
I’m thinking of dipping my toe into LR ownership for the first time.

We only have one car in the household (as I drive a van), a BMW 5 series, but regular flooding in the lanes in our area is making saloon cars almost unusable. We need wading depth.

Would like a new (but used) Defender, but RR Sport seems more in our budget.

We do roughly 10k a year, and many days my wife does only 20 to 30 miles, so the plug in is very appealing, but I’d be interested to know if there are any pitfalls with these that I’m missing? I know about the reduced towing capacity, and this doesn’t really matter.

The BMW is very good on fuel (almost 50 mpg), which has been a dream after owning a much-loved but very thirsty old Shogun previously, so fuel costs do come into the equation for us.
Click to expand...
Personally I wouldn't touch a second hand PHEV, nor would I want to wade in one. Short trips and low mileage don't work well with modern diesels, DPF problems spring to mind. I would go for petrol.
PHEV or BEV OK if you can lease for 3 years from new and replace every 3 years and don't need to wade..
 
backinblack said:
I wouldn't even consider an older PHEV that is likely to need a new battery soon due to the cost of a replacement.
Mind you I wouldn't condsider electric at all unless it was free for the same reason :)
Click to expand...
backinblack said:
I wouldn't even consider an older PHEV that is likely to need a new battery soon due to the cost of a replacement.
Mind you I wouldn't condsider electric at all unless it was free for the same reason :)
Click to expand...
Thanks for the reply. Just a couple of points/questions.

1). How short a lifespan do you think the battery may have, because I’m only looking at vehicles with mileage up to 25k.

2). How much might a new battery cost?

3). What is it that puts you off electric? I wouldn’t want a full EV, but I thought a few local miles in electric might be ok.

4). I’ve heard some bad reviews of the petrol driving (when the charge runs out), but not sure why this would be. Surely RR have always sold plenty of petrol cars?
 
Datatek said:
Personally I wouldn't touch a second hand PHEV, nor would I want to wade in one. Short trips and low mileage don't work well with modern diesels, DPF problems spring to mind. I would go for petrol.
PHEV or BEV OK if you can lease for 3 years from new and replace every 3 years and don't need to wade..
Click to expand...
Thanks for the reply, but I think I muddied the waters (no pun intended) when I talked about wading depth.

The flooding we get wouldn’t trouble any RR, and in fact an F-Pace would be fine, but it is deep enough (18 inches or so, sometimes) to mean my wife has to turn around in the BMW. It’s unmaintained drainage in general, but it is more and more frequent.
 
Jayo70 said:
Thanks for the reply, but I think I muddied the waters (no pun intended) when I talked about wading depth.

The flooding we get wouldn’t trouble any RR, and in fact an F-Pace would be fine, but it is deep enough (18 inches or so, sometimes) to mean my wife has to turn around in the BMW. It’s unmaintained drainage in general, but it is more and more frequent.
Click to expand...
I still would not want to dangle a huge 400 volt battery & electric motor in it.
 
Jayo70 said:
Thanks for the reply. Just a couple of points/questions.

1). How short a lifespan do you think the battery may have, because I’m only looking at vehicles with mileage up to 25k.

2). How much might a new battery cost?

3). What is it that puts you off electric? I wouldn’t want a full EV, but I thought a few local miles in electric might be ok.

4). I’ve heard some bad reviews of the petrol driving (when the charge runs out), but not sure why this would be. Surely RR have always sold plenty of petrol cars?
Click to expand...
There are already posts on LZ about battery failure on PHEV. No replacements available as they come from China and the cost is horrendous. To me a plug in hybrid is pretty pointless, no means of recharging except by plugging in which may not be convenient. A self charging hybrid is another matter. IMO all hybrids should self charge as well as plug in, only marketing policies prevent this.
 
Datatek said:
I still would not want to dangle a huge 400 volt battery & electric motor in it.
Click to expand...

That makes total sense to me. Electricity and water don’t mix.

I don’t know if you’ve seen the ‘Rufford Ford’ videos on YouTube though, where people plough through deep water, often unsuccessfully, up North somewhere, but the only vehicles that seem to give LR a run for their money in getting through there are Tesla, weirdly 🤷🏻‍♂️
 
Jayo70 said:
I’m thinking of dipping my toe into LR ownership for the first time.

We only have one car in the household (as I drive a van), a BMW 5 series, but regular flooding in the lanes in our area is making saloon cars almost unusable. We need wading depth.

Would like a new (but used) Defender, but RR Sport seems more in our budget.

We do roughly 10k a year, and many days my wife does only 20 to 30 miles, so the plug in is very appealing, but I’d be interested to know if there are any pitfalls with these that I’m missing? I know about the reduced towing capacity, and this doesn’t really matter.

The BMW is very good on fuel (almost 50 mpg), which has been a dream after owning a much-loved but very thirsty old Shogun previously, so fuel costs do come into the equation for us.
Click to expand...
There are two pitfalls. One is that it's a Land Rover and two is that is EV ****e.
 
EV's are more watertight than their ICE equivalents and in a safety class known as 'intrinsically safe' - they have to be to pass certification, they're also less prone to water related failures (unless it's coolant leaking internally), until it starts to get into the 12V control modules or breaches the air intakes for the cabin ventilation.
Personally, I would be cautious of 'old' batteries, unless you can get a good warranty on the battery and associated control components. The mileage is a bit low to make a diesel engined vehicle 'headache free' in terms of DPF or SCR additional maintenance issues - have you considered a petrol? with that mileage, the extra fuel will cost a lot less than the three-monthly oil changes due to regen dilution.
 
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