Expert answer

Hi Ben,

Ambition is the Skoda Fabia’s mid-level trim, one up from a basic Active. Prices for the cheapest Fabia Ambition start at €17,000 and standard equipment includes 15-inch alloy wheels, front fog lights, leather multi-function steering wheel, front and rear electric windows, a 6.5-inch touchscreen infotainment system with Bluetooth connection, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, front and rear reading lights and an umbrella stashed under the front passenger seat.

A €19,900 Style upgrades all that with extra toys such as 16-inch alloy wheels, manual air conditioning, rear parking sensors, keyless ignition and entry, automatic headlights, a front centre armrest and height adjustable seats. 

Expert answer

Hi Felicity,

Pretty much no. Technically any electric car being registered for the first time in Ireland gets a rebate on its VRT, up to a maximum of €5,000. That means effectively that you’ll pay no VRT unless the price of the car pushes the VRT rate above €5,000 of course. 

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Hi Tahir,

The first thing we'd check is the condition of the battery. It sounds like the system is turning off the engine as normal, but then sensing that it needs to go back on right away. That's unusual, to be honest, as most systems just won't turn the engine off if an issue is detected. I'd advise you bring the car to a good mechanic or auto-electrician to have it looked over.

Our feature, Why won't my car's stop-start system work?, is worth a read as well.

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Hi Anne,

Is that a 100km round trip every day? Or 100km each way? Either way, you could potentially get away with a fully-electric car, assuming that you can charge at home and charge again at work. Either way, though, you’ll have to spend big and go for one of the latest electric cars with a  50kWh or 62kWh  battery, such as the Hyundai Kona Electric or the new Renault Zoe. What could well be an easier (and much cheaper) option would be to go for a hybrid. There’s only one hybrid-engined car in the Polo-size class at the moment, and that’s the Toyota Yaris. The current version is pretty good, but there is an  all-new one coming next year, so you might be best off waiting for that to appear. By then, the new Honda Jazz, also a hybrid, should be available. Or, you could keep it a lot simpler and go for a new Polo with the excellent 1.0-litre turbo petrol engine. It'll be tough to beat your diesel Polo for outright economy, though.

Expert answer

Hi Sharon,

OK, let’s deal with these questions one-by-one. There are a number of apps available that can give you the locations, availability and in-or-out-of-service condition of charging points. The ESB provides that through its e-Cars app, and there’s a very good independent one called Zapp Map, which also covers the whole of the UK if you’re planning any longer journeys.

All current electric cars (pretty much all brands will have at least one on sale by the end of next year, but for the moment the big players are Audi, BMW, Hyundai, Jaguar, Kia, Mercedes, Nissan, Renault, Tesla and Volkswagen) can be charged at home overnight on cheap rate electricity. The crucial question there is not the car, but your electricity provider and the tariff plan that you’re on.

Finally, battery capacity has been hugely improved in the past few years and, although that does come with a cost penalty, the average useable range of an electric car has gone up dramatically. Generally speaking you should expect to get at least 250-300km from most mainstream models now, with as much as 450km available from some of the more expensive cars.

Expert answer

Hi David,

We don’t know yet as the car hasn’t been launched on the Irish market, but we can hazard a guess at around €32-33,000, net of VRT rebates and the SEAI grant.

Expert answer

Hi Philip,

Yes you’re right — the T8’s acceleration is a combination of the engine and the electric motor working in concert. When you run the battery down in electric-only mode, it will always keep a minimal charge on board, so that the car can then function in hybrid mode. If you use maximum acceleration repeatedly and in quick succession, you might well reach a point where the battery cries enough, but it will have charged up again — from both the engine and the regenerative braking system — to go again within a few minutes. 

Wall chargers generally cost around €900 to €1,000 fully installed, but there’s a grant from the Sustainable Energy Authority Ireland available that will cover up to €600 of that.

Finally, you’re absolutely right — a V60 only gives away a 31-litre advantage to the larger V90 when it comes to boot space.

Expert answer

Hi Andrew,

That’s a tricky one as you’ve not told us the precise cars in question. The thing is, an electric car with a price of €30,000 has probably already had the VRT rebated on it, so you won’t make as big a saving — you’ll only save the VAT, which will represent a discount of around €5,000, bringing the price down to around €25,000. 

With the hybrid, assuming it has CO₂ emissions of under 100g/km, and therefore is in the 15 per cent VRT band, you could make a huge saving. It’s a rough guess, but we reckon you’d save €4,000 worth of VAT and €3,000 worth of VRT, bringing the price down to €17,000. 

Now, these are just rough calculations, and the final, proper figures may differ, but on the face of it the hybrid model offers a better up-front saving, but then you have to work in the potential for much cheaper running costs with an electric car when it comes to fuel and servicing. 

Expert answer

Hi Robert,

The M50d has more peak power and torque and is quicker accelerating than the hybrid model, no question. However, the six-cylinder diesel engine is a lot louder and less smooth than the straight-six in the xDrive45e model and obviously, when the hybrid is running in electric mode it is far far quieter again. As you say, the PHEV comes with compromises, and may not be as economical over a long journey where the battery cannot be charged from an external source. 

Read our BMW X5 xDrive45e review

Read our BMW X5 M50d review

Expert answer

Hi Harry,

The most likely culprit is that there’s some electrical item draining the system as you’re driving. Or, possibly if you’re only driving for short hops, the engine is still in its warm-up phase and can’t be shut down by the stop/start. Or, and this is a wild guess, Land Rovers often have flakey electrics. 

Maybe read our Why won't my car's stop-start system work? feature for further understanding. We get a lot of questions like this.