10 Best Plug-in Hybrid Cars of 2026 – Carwow

High quality hybrid cars from rated and reviewed dealers
Electric cars may be the future of motoring – but they’re not for everyone. The best plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (or PHEVs) offer many of the advantages of a fully electric car, but also address some of the potential downsides.
Like all hybrids, PHEVs pair battery-powered electric motors with petrol or diesel power. However, where self-charging hybrids top the battery up using energy recovered through braking, plug-in hybrids can be topped up using external power.
One advantage is the fact that PHEVs tend to have bigger batteries than other hybrids, so you get a long range – over 70 miles in some cases. On top of this, if you charge using your electricity at home it’s much cheaper than relying on petrol alone.
Getting a hybrid system right is a complex process, so some are much better than others. To help you choose, Carwow’s expert reviews team has driven every model on sale and put together this comprehensive list of the best PHEVs on sale in the UK.
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The most important thing to consider when buying a plug-in hybrid is whether you have access to cheap charging. If you don’t, the battery will run itself flat and then the petrol engine has to work harder to carry the heavy batteries around, at which point you’d be better off getting a self-charging hybrid, or even a simpler petrol or diesel model. You should also consider if a hybrid is even right for you – hybrids tend to offer poor efficiency on longer drives, so if you do big miles every day then petrol and diesel can offer lower running costs.
Unlike a conventional hybrid, most PHEVs don’t have the option to charge the batteries directly off the engine. Some do, but it drastically reduces fuel economy in the process. While all PHEVs have a degree of regenerating braking to replenish your electricity reserves, you won’t see major cost savings compared to a petrol car if you run the battery flat – so make sure you can keep your car charged.
If you don’t do many miles behind the wheel and you’re buying a car privately then you’ll be better off with a highly economical petrol or self-charging hybrid car instead of shelling out thousands more for a plug-in hybrid. You need to do thousands of miles in electric mode to offset the additional purchase price.
Just because plug-in hybrid cars have gained popularity for their fuel efficiency, doesn’t mean that they’re all hypermiling heroes. Cars such as the BMW M5, Porsche Panamera e-Hybrid and Mercedes SL63 S E Performance use the extra power from their hybrid systems for enough shove to keep up with supercars – as well as to potter around town quietly. 

DS 7 E-Tense
The DS 7 E-Tense uses the same plug-in hybrid engine as you get on a lot of smaller Stellantis vehicles such as the Citroen C5 Aircross PHEV and Vauxhall Astra Sports Tourer GSe. But with prices starting from an astronomical £50,000 – and without the driving pleasure, interior quality or badge kudos to justify it – it’s impossible to see this car as anything but very overpriced indeed. If you like the way the DS 7 E-Tense drives, try a Citroen C5 Aircross instead – it’ll be much more affordable.
Mercedes-AMG C 63 S E Performance
Plug-in hybrids make up some of the highest-performance models on sale today, but it was still a big surprise when Mercedes announced it was going to ditch the 4.0-litre V8 engine from its AMG-badged C-Class in favour of a 2.0-litre four-cylinder plug-in hybrid. While the pace is right – with nearly 700hp and a 0-62mph time of just 3.4 seconds – sports saloons are about more than just speed. The extra weight, the disconnected feeling of the petrol and electric engines working in tandem and the loss of that fantastic V8 soundtrack just means this is one sporty saloon that isn’t worth the money.
As with a regular hybrid, a plug-in hybrid car gets an electric motor that works with the petrol engine to deliver more power for a smaller engine size. A plug-in, though, also gets a big battery that can be charged up from the mains to give you a useful electric-only range, meaning you can leave the petrol engine to do longer journeys.
The biggest pro is that you can have zero-emissions electric running for short journeys, but you can do longer runs without needing to stop and charge up. Most plug-in hybrids will give you a range on a full charge of around 35 miles — enough to do the regular commute, shopping, and school runs. The best latest versions will do better than that, offering up to 70 miles of electric range. Plug-in hybrids are often quite powerful and fast, too — the BMW 330e has 292hp, as much as the petrol-only 330i, while the Porsche Panamera Turbo S E-Hybrid has a whopping 680hp. 
The downside is weight — the bigger batteries of plug-in hybrids make them heavy, and that’s not good for fuel economy on longer runs. Added to that, their fuel tanks are often small, because they have to shrink to make room for the battery, and that packaging issue often means that they have smaller boots than their petrol or diesel sister models. Plug-in hybrids can also be quite expensive to buy, but a final upside is that they’re very tax-efficient for company car buyers.
Whether or not plug-in hybrid or a standard hybrid is best is subjective. A plug-in hybrid has the advantage of being able to be driven on electric-power alone for longer distances but does require regular access to a charger to get best out of them.
Regular hybrid cars are often known as ‘self-charging’, relying on the engine and energy recover to recharge. This does mean you don’t have to worry about charging it yourself but often doesn’t allow for as much electric-only driving.
If you cover a mix of longer journeys and around-town driving, you might find the ability to drive on electricity alone while also having the range reassurance a conventional engine brings to a plug-in hybrid.
If all you cover is short journeys around town, switching to an EV may suit more.
Almost every major brand now offers at least one plug-in hybrid model, and some — Toyota, Kia, Ford, and Hyundai among them — offer both hybrid and plug-in hybrid versions of some models.
The current cheapest plug-in hybrid model on sale is the MG HS PHEV — it’s a chunky, mid-size SUV with a 32-mile electric range, and a price tag of £31,095. For that money, you’ll need to put up with a cheap cabin, and a dreadful infotainment system, but hey — it’s cheap and it looks good.
Right now, the latest version of the Mercedes-Benz GLC SUV has the longest electric range of any PHEV, with a claimed 84 miles. It also claims to be able to recharge in just two-and-a-half hours, and can optionally rapid charge from public high-speed chargers, so you should be able to do lots and lots of your driving on just the battery power. The petrol plug-in hybrid does get a bit thirsty on long runs, though — down to around 35mpg. There is a diesel plug-in hybrid though, which should get closer to 50mpg on motorway runs. 
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