Thought I would share some useful info for fellow ozbargainers.
I have been doing research on PHEV's to see if I can make use of the ATO FBT exception on a novated lease before it gets removed in 2025 (just for PHEV's). I thought PHEV initially made sense as these cars give you a good compromise of electric around town and petrol for longer journeys reducing your fuel cost. They also have the added bonus of more torque at lower speeds.
Because you recharge overnight (assumption), you are essentially are using pure electric for at least 50km every day.
So if you drive 50km a day, that's 365 cycles of the battery a year. It would not be unreasonable to say that after 8 years you probably are getting close to 2000 cycles of the battery (with gaps in your daily drive).
And for the record, if you had a cheap source of electricity you would have saved loads of fuel without giving up range on those long trips.
But here is the catch, you will need to replace that battery. That is a fact.
So I phoned some service departments and found out pricing on replacement batteries. Of course in 8 years time (standard warranty on batteries), these could be a lot more or a lot less.
Mazda CX-60 PHEV p50e - 36k without labour.
Outlander PHEV - 12-15k without labour.
Xtrail e-power (not PHEV but like a PHEV) - 9.5k without labour.
kia sorento PHEV - 15-20k
sante fe HEV (1,6kwH) - $12k without labour
Now this has just cut a huge chunk into the value of your car, with Mazda basically being worth nothing.
Sure you say, you will sell it before the 8 year battery warranty will expire. Well hopefully other buyers will know this information and will price your 2nd hand vehicle accordingly.
BTW EV batteries would cycle a lot less as they obviously have much larger km's on each charge.
Would be interested in other's views!!
As a benchmark, the Toyota HEV (eg camry hybrid) has a 10 year warranty on the battery and costs 3k to replace. Obviously not a PHEV, but close.
Some notes:
* not talking about EV's
* assuming a cycle rate of 2000 - you would need to do your research on this
* I would think battery warranties on EV's like tesla are better (they have capacity monitoring and specify capacity levels as part of their warranty). Not sure with PHEV battery warranties.
12 Nov Edit:
* To be clear, the only facts I have are the cost of the replacement batteries which I researched by phoning the parts department of a few dealers. Only KIA didn't have a price on the battery (now that is convenient), but the guy who helped me said that he had heard that number being thrown around. My only purpose is to share this so that you can take this into account when purchasing a PHEV.
* Another thing I think is fairly clear, but is not a fact, is that a PHEV will cycle the battery more than an EV making the battery degrade quicker.
* My guess on the number of battery cycles and therefore the life of the battery is the weakest point in my post above. I don't know what the cycle count will be nor the variance of that number. Also some commentators question the exact meaning of a cycle which is valid.
* Also a couple of people noted that a battery degrades (reduces range) first failing completely.
* A couple of people assume that a PHEV will just degrade to an ICE if the battery dies. I am not sure this is true. It really depends if the PHEV battery is only used to drive the wheel motors or if it is used in the electronics of the car.
29 Nov Edit:
Some interesting observations:
* The sorento PHEV is priced just under the FBT threshold of ($89,332) for obvious reasons. Compared to Canadian prices Australians pay approximately 20k AUD more for the PHEV. Seems like the government incentive is being soaked up by the manufacturer.
* According to VFACTS, there has been an uptake on EV's (no surprise) but the uptake on PHEV's remains low.
*yawn*
You need to stop watching John Cadogan videos. It’s rotting your brain.