Best PHEVs of 2025
Electric cars may be the future of motoring - but they’re not for everyone. A plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (or PHEV) offers many of the advantages of a fully electric car, but also addresses some of the potential downsides.
A PHEV, like all hybrid cars, pairs a petrol or (rarely) a diesel engine with an electric motor and battery, and drive to the wheels can come from either or both at the same time. Where PHEVs differ from the cheaper self-charging hybrid cars is in the size of that battery pack. Where a self-charging hybrid car will typically only be able to go a mile or two on electric power alone before the engine kicks in, a PHEV can usually go anywhere from around 20 to over 80 miles without bothering the engine at all.
To facilitate this, plug-in hybrid cars - as the name suggests - can be topped up externally, using either a home wallbox or in some cases a fast public charger. Regular use of a PHEV’s electric capabilities may allow you to complete many of your regular journeys without burning any petrol at all.
But unlike a fully-electric car, the petrol engine is there in the background, ready to be called on at a moment’s notice. If you put your foot down and ask for more performance than the electric motor alone can give, the petrol engine will kick in. If the hybrid battery goes flat, the petrol engine takes over the strain, either driving the wheels directly or charging the battery.
You can also choose to run on the petrol engine specifically, saving your electric power for later in a journey - for example, if you’re doing a long motorway trip but want to do your final schlep through a crowded city centre in electric mode. If you have a regular, repeatable commute during the week, access to charging at home but still want a car that can go longer distances at the weekend, a PHEV could be a fantastic option.
They also make very affordable company cars. Benefit-in-Kind tax rates are set by a car’s CO2 emissions, and in official testing PHEVs return incredibly low official CO2 figures. Even if you never use the battery - a PHEV will be hundreds or even thousands of pounds cheaper as a company car than an equivalent pure petrol or diesel.
They’re not perfect, however. The need to accommodate two fully capable yet separate power sources can have compromises - often in reduced boot space or rear passenger room. The additional weight of the heavy battery and motor mean that when a PHEV’s battery is discharged, it’s much less efficient than a self-charging hybrid or even a regular petrol car. They can also be quite expensive.
Within the world of PHEVs, there are some right rotters - but there are also many really excellent options. Our expert reviews team has tested them all, so we’re confident in recommending the ten models below. They cover a wide range of budgets and use cases, so you should be able to find something to suit you.
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There are so few Ronseal cars around these days - but the Skoda Superb is one that does precisely what it says on the tin. As a large family estate, as a plug-in hybrid, and just generally as a car - it’s truly Superb.
We gave the Superb the title ‘Comfortable Cruiser’ in the 2025 Carwow Car of the Year awards, but it could just as easily have walked away with a different title. Practicality is the main draw with the Superb. It has more legroom in the back than you’d find in most limousines - if you have a pair of rapidly growing teenagers who are 90% limb, they’ll be able to stretch out in comfort.
There’s also a massive 510-litre boot, reduced from the standard car’s load area but still very impressive and capable of taking an entire family’s kit and clobber. Fold the back seats down and you get something resembling a low, long, carpeted cargo van. Head to your favourite flat-pack furniture store and you won’t struggle to fit even the most lavish bedroom makeover.
The Superb iV has a large battery pack which, Skoda reckons, is good for 84 miles on a charge - there aren’t many PHEVs which can go anywhere near that far. In the real world, that figure is more like 70 miles - but that’s still enough to tackle a fairly gruelling commute and still leave plenty in reserve.
And even if you’re undertaking a long journey with a discharged battery, the Superb’s 1.5-litre petrol engine is more economical than most - around 45mpg should be easily achievable at a cruise.
Common to all Superbs is a fantastically straightforward dashboard and interior materials that feel much more upmarket than you’d expect from a so-called ‘budget’ brand. It’s packed with neat touches that make life just a little bit easier, too. As well as umbrellas in the front doors, you get an ice scraper in the filler flap, a clip on the windscreen to hold parking tickets, and even clever little nubs in the cupholders to grip bottles so you can open them one-handed.
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If you’re happy to spend a fair chunk on your daily driver, then it’s difficult to find anything better than the BMW X5. No matter what form it comes in, the X5 is an absolutely brilliant large SUV - but in plug-in hybrid form it’s particularly excellent. So excellent that it took the ‘Adventurer’s Choice’ gong in the 2025 Carwow Car of the Year awards.
It starts with the engine. Many PHEVs have a downsized, whiny little petrol engine under the bonnet - but BMW fits the X5 50e plug-in hybrid with a 3.0-litre six-cylinder instead. This sounds great, has tons of power in reserve and is creamy smooth when you rev it, making it a pleasure to drive.
Even when the engine’s lying dormant and you’re running on electric power, things only get better. A huge battery pack means that even though the X5 is about the size of Buckingham Palace, it gets up to 67 miles on a charge - enough for even the most strenuous commute.
Whether you’re driving through town on electric power, cruising down the motorway with the petrol engine or blending the both to get the maximum power output - the X5 is fantastic to drive. It’s equal parts comfortable at a cruise and sharp in the corners, capable of disguising its size and weight to an amazing degree.
Sure, you’ll want a Range Rover (below) for the ultimate in luxury, but the BMW X5 isn’t far behind in the comfort stakes, and has a far wider breadth of ability everywhere else.
The whole time you’ll be ensconced in a really excellent interior, too. BMW’s huge twin-screen infotainment setup is one of the best around, and material quality is sumptuous. It’s a shame that the plug-in hybrid X5 is only a five-seater, though - the diesel gets the option of a third row for small occupants, increasing flexibility. On the other hand, without those seats there, you do get a much larger boot. Swings and roundabouts.
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The Hyundai Santa Fe is such a good car overall that we gave it our Car of the Year award for 2025. The reason it’s not top of this list is because the Santa Fe is slightly better in its self-charging hybrid form - but this plug-in is still a very sound choice, and certainly the pick of the two if you want it as a company car.
With an official range of 34 miles on a charge, the Santa Fe PHEV isn’t up there with the best for all-electric range, but it’s still a useful addition that should be able to cope with school runs, most commutes and the majority of your local driving provided you’re fastidious about charging it up every day.
And the rest of the car is just so good that a slightly lacklustre battery capacity is a small thing to forgive. The Santa Fe stands out from the crowd with its retro-futuristic styling, which manages to make an incredibly blocky silhouette seem cool and appealing rather than strictly utilitarian.
Being a big box means fantastic practicality, too. The Hyundai Santa Fe PHEV seats seven - most plug-in SUVs lose the extra row in the rear, like the BMW X5 (above) and Skoda Kodiaq (below). The boot is modest with all three rows up, but has plenty of room in five-seat mode, and storage for smaller items is fantastic - find us another car that offers 17 cupholders!
One of the best things about the Santa Fe is that it feels like a Land Rover Defender - it has the same air of premium, rugged quality about it. Yet it’s much cheaper - hardly Dacia-level pricing, but much more affordable than something with a posh badge.
Being comfortable to drive and having a high-quality dashboard that’s easy to use are just extra factors that make the Hyundai Santa Fe not just a great PHEV, but one of the best cars you can buy no matter what.
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The MG HS SUV, when fitted with its plug-in hybrid engine, is just about the most cost-effective company car you can buy short of a full EV. It’s so exceptionally affordable because it hits the three factors that affect benefit-in-kind tax rates.
Firstly, it has a low purchase price - even the range-topping Trophy model is less than £34,000, while the SE is cheaper still. Secondly, it emits - officially - less than 50g/km of CO2. And it’s capable of 75 miles on a charge, tipping it just over the threshold to pay the 5% rate of company car tax, as opposed to most alternatives that fall into the 8% or 12% bands.
Even as a private buyer, that exceptional battery capacity and low purchase price mean that you can drive the HS PHEV more like an electric car most of the time, until you’re on a particularly long journey where the 1.5-litre petrol engine will kick in.
You can’t expect such an affordable car to feel like a Range Rover inside, but the HS doesn’t embarrass itself on this front either. The dashboard looks smart and apart from a few fiddly onscreen controls is largely easy to use.
And while the MG HS isn’t going to feel like a sports car in the corners, it’s really quite comfortable on a long drive.
Posh, smallish saloon cars have been incredibly popular company cars for decades, and so offering them with plug-in hybrid engines seems like a no-brainer. The BMW 3 Series is one of the best saloon cars out there (it’s also available as a good-looking Touring estate) and the good news is that it also has an excellent PHEV powertrain option, called the 330e.
Updated in 2024 to achieve an official range of 63 miles on a charge, the 330e isn’t just economical and useful - it’s also fantastic to drive. BMW prides itself on building ‘the ultimate driving machine’ and it’s evident here, with the 330e feeling poised and stable in the corners while also being really quite enjoyable if you feel like being a bit more of a hooligan.
It’s also very comfortable and quiet on a long motorway trip, music to the ears of any weary sales rep.
The 330e saloon does have a rather limited boot space to act as a full family car thanks to its battery pack, but if you opt for the Touring estate this is fixed. It’s still not going to be the ideal car for those with lots of kids or bulky hobbies, but as a relatively compact vehicle capable of seating a four-person family, it’s a great option.
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Mercedes is the only company out there at the moment building a diesel-powered plug-in hybrid, and we can’t quite figure out why as it really does seem like the best of both worlds. An all-electric range of up to 68 miles covers you for shorter trips, weekly commutes and the school run, but once you get out on the motorway you have a relaxed and hyper-efficient diesel engine - capable of a genuine 60mpg if you’re careful.
When many alternative PHEVs have fuel economy that drops like a stone with a discharged battery, the Mercedes approach is a fantastic one that doesn’t penalise you for taking long journeys in your PHEV.
Of course you get all the other benefits of choosing an E-Class, too - a spacious interior absolutely stacked with technology being the main one. You can even spec Mercedes’ ‘Superscreen’ infotainment, which covers the dashboard with what seems like an entire Currys worth of LCD display.
It’s sumptuously comfortable on a long journey and incredibly refined too - you almost can’t tell when the diesel engine’s on, testament to the luxury approach this car takes. It’s not cheap, but it is worth it.
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The Volkswagen Tayron is related to a lot of rather good SUVs on the market currently, namely the smaller Volkswagen Tiguan and the equally large and practical Skoda Kodiaq.
However, the Tayron has a few touches which make it look and feel a good chunk more premium than either of the aforementioned SUVs. You get wide-set headlights at the top of the bluff front end, while a full-width rear lightbar and bulky wheel arches make the big SUV look even more expensive than it is. Volkswagen has created a rather posh cabin for the Tayron too, with some swish new trims across the dashboard and funky ambient lighting on the dash and door cards.
The plug-in hybrid model ditches the petrol and diesel versions’ third row of seats to make space for the batteries, but it still has an enormous 750-litre boot to make up for it. The battery packs mean the plug-in Tayron can go up to 76 miles on a charge, which is particularly handy if you’ve got a commute with a charger at either end.
It’s comfortable to drive in town, especially with the smaller wheel options fitted, soaking up lumps and bumps with ease. Motorways are just as relaxing, and country lanes are surprisingly easy to navigate for such a large car, with little in the way of body lean.
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The Skoda Kodiaq is one of the best family SUVs you can buy, and as a plug-in hybrid it’s even better - albeit without the very useful seven-seater option you get on petrol and diesel variants. The Kodiaq shares its hybrid engine with the Skoda Superb (above) though being a bigger and bulkier car means you get a 75-mile electric range rather than 84 miles. Still not too shabby…
The Kodiaq’s interior is pretty similar to the Superb’s, too. Rear passenger space isn’t quite as palatial as in that car, but the 745-litre boot is one of the biggest of any car on sale and should accommodate the whole family’s kit and clobber no matter how much you overpack.
It’s very comfortable on a long drive yet despite its size isn’t too intimidating to drive in town either. If you like the Superb but want an SUV, then the Skoda Kodiaq is an absolutely fantastic choice, but the Volkswagen Tayron offers all of the same practicality in a posher, more stylish package - and for not much more money.
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Though the VW’s Multivan’s name and boxy shape may fool you into thinking it’s a commercial vehicle in disguise, under the skin it’s actually closer in spirit to the Volkswagen Golf. That means a few things - that it’s much more quiet, comfortable and agile to drive than any van, and that it has access to smooth, car-quality engines rather than commercial-grade diesels.
One of those engines is the eHybrid plug-in hybrid variant, which in the Multivan gives you an all-electric range of up to 30 miles and a 1.4-litre petrol engine to fall back on when you need to.
More usefully, you get the flexible interior you’d expect from the best people-carriers. Seven seats come as standard and they can all slide, fold and recline individually. The middle ones are even capable of swivelling. There’s a long-wheelbase model which boosts luggage space, but storage for smaller items is great thanks to a myriad of cubbyholes dotted about the interior as well as a flexible sliding armrest/table/storage unit.
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The Range Rover has always been a byword for the ultimate in SUV supremacy, and that’s still the case here - arguably even moreso as a hybrid. Available in either P460e or more powerful P510e form, both can not only waft you over the worst bumps in the road without feeling them, but can now do it in electric-powered silence for up to 75 miles on a charge.
If you feel like heading off the beaten track then don’t let the Range Rover PHEV’s eco-credentials fool you - the plug-in hybrid model is just as capable on the rough stuff as any Range Rover, which is to say that it’ll traverse terrain that would make your average mountain goat sweat.
All the while you’ll be comfortable and cosy in one of the most luxurious car interiors around - build quality is top-notch and the materials are all superb quality. There’s loads of room too, as you might have expected given the Range Rover’s size, though this plug-in hybrid model can’t be had with seven seats like the diesel can.
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How to choose the best PHEV for you
Plug-in hybrids come in all shapes and sizes and it can be difficult to separate the wheat from the chaff - or even figure out what kind of wheat you’re after in the first place.
Body style
Generally speaking you won’t find too many small hatchbacks or large vans that are available as PHEVs, but in between that it’s fair game. You can find PHEV SUVs, saloons, estate cars and family hatchbacks, and even some sportier models are adopting this type of powertrain. Think carefully about your needs and decide what kind of PHEV you’re after.
Electric range
Some of the most impressive PHEVs on sale have enough range on a full charge that during the week you can treat them almost like a full EV. But electric range isn’t the be-all and end-all, and it usually comes from manufacturers fitting larger battery packs which results in compromise elsewhere. Think about the sort of regular journeys you’re likely to do on electricity and buy a car that covers those.
Have you considered something else?
PHEVs are great options - and if you’re a company car buyer, they’re usually a no-brainer. But if you’re a private buyer you should examine your driving carefully. If you don’t often get the chance to charge up at home, or if you do a lot of long motorway journeys, you might find that a diesel car or a cheaper self-charging hybrid are better options. Or you could go the whole hog and opt for a full EV instead.
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