Difference Between Hybrid and Electric Cars: Which Works for You in 2025?

More cars than ever are getting some form of electrical assistance to help improve efficiency and lower emissions. At Prestige Cars Kent, we’ve got a wide range of electric vehicles and hybrids, but which one could work best for you?

Well, the good news is that we’ve got all the right information to help you make the best choice, so let’s dive in and find out whether you should choose an electric vehicle or a hybrid. 

Electric Vehicles

There’s a lot of talk around electric vehicles - or EVs - at the moment, but what do these cars actually offer? Well, with a battery and electric motors at their heart, EVs offer a completely different way of getting about when compared with a conventional petrol or diesel car.

The benefit of electric vehicles becomes apparent when you’re able to utilise cheap home charging prices. For instance, you can charge a typical EV with a range of over 200 miles for under £10 when using clever off-peak charging schedules. 

However, the downsides to electric vehicle ownership mainly fall around charging. If you’ve not got off-street parking or a dedicated space, then you may struggle to install a charger at home. If this is the case, you’ll have to rely on public charging, which is far more expensive to use. 

The good news is that with fewer moving parts, a typical EV will cost less to maintain than a typical petrol or diesel car. You’ll still need to factor in consumables such as tyres and brakes, however. 

Popular Electric Vehicles Available via Prestige Cars Kent

There’s a great range of electric vehicles available at Prestige Cars Kent today. The Porsche Taycan, for instance, can deliver an impressive range of up to 422 miles on a single charge, making it an EV that isn’t afraid of long-distance trips. 

If you’re looking for an EV that doesn’t scream about its electric powertrain, then you might want to consider the BMW iX3 - it looks just like the standard combustion engine version, but should return up to 283 miles from a charge. 

Hybrid Vehicles

Hybrid vehicles are there to offer a blend between the electric car experience and a more traditional petrol or diesel feel. There are three different types of hybrid that you’re likely to encounter. 

Mild Hybrids 

Mild hybrids offer the smallest amount of electrification. They get a very small battery and a compact motor, which is sometimes integrated into the car’s starter motor. Essentially, mild hybrid cars work by lessening the strain on a combustion engine which, in turn, helps to improve efficiency. 

While mild-hybrids might slightly better the fuel consumption of a standard petrol or diesel car, they can’t usually match self-charging or plug-in hybrids in this area. You can expect an increase of between 5-10mpg on a traditional petrol or diesel car when switching to a mild-hybrid. 

Self-Charging Hybrids

It’s with regular or ‘self-charging’ hybrids where the electrification steps up. These cars get a far larger battery and motor than a mild-hybrid. This allows them to travel on electric-only power at very slow speeds and for short periods. It means if you’re often caught in traffic or you mainly drive around town, a self-charging hybrid can have an instant benefit as it’s able to drive on electric power for much of these periods. A self-charging will also emit less CO2 than a normal petrol or diesel car, which means lower rates of tax. 

Self-charging hybrids recoup energy when slowing down, and this is why they’re ideal for urban or town drivers, since you spend a lot of time stopping and starting in these conditions. How do MPG figures compare? Well, if you take the Kia Sportage, you’ll find that the standard mild-hybrid car can return up to 44.1mpg, while the self-charging version will increase this slightly to 49.6mpg.

Plug-in Hybrids

Plug-in hybrids are the closest you can get to a full electric vehicle without ditching the petrol or diesel engine entirely. Plug-in hybrids - or PHEVs, for short - use quite a large electric battery which works in collaboration with an electric motor and a petrol or diesel engine. As the name suggests, you charge them by plugging them in - like an EV - and this means that you can use a home charger or public infrastructure. 

The best part about plug-in hybrids is that they offer quite a lot of electric-only range that can be used at far higher speeds than with a regular hybrid car. For those able to home charge, that means you could do a lot of your driving without using the petrol engine at all. 

Plug-in hybrids are usually accompanied by some wildly low fuel consumption figures, but these need to be taken with a pinch of salt as they usually rely on most of your driving being done with a full battery and on electric power alone. The X5 plug-in hybrid, for instance, has a claimed fuel consumption of just over 200mpg, but you’d have to spend nearly all of your time driving on electric-only power in order to achieve this. 

Popular Hybrid Vehicles Available via Prestige Cars Kent

There’s a good variety of mild, self-charging, and plug-in hybrids available via Prestige Cars Kent. They’re easy to find, too, with our dedicated filtering tool, which allows you to select these powertrains alone. 

We have a good range of mild-hybrid Mercedes models, including the Mercedes GLC300h which uses a 2.0-litre turbocharged petrol engine and a compact electric battery and motor. For self-charging hybrids, you’ve got cars like the Toyota RAV4 and its efficient 2.4-litre petrol hybrid system. In terms of plug-in hybrids, there’s the Range Rover Sport P510e which can manage up to 69 miles on electric power alone. 

What Kind of Positives and Negatives Does Each Option Bring?

You may be wondering what the positives and negatives of hybrids and electric vehicles are. The good news is that we’ve brought them all together into an easy cheat sheet of findings. We’ve also compiled a separate list of the types of cars with each powertrain that you’ll find on Prestige Cars Kent today. 

Which One is Right for Me?

So we’ve been through all of the details surrounding hybrids and electric cars, but which one is the right fit for you? Here, we check out some of the typical driving scenarios that people encounter and which fuel type could be the best fit for them as a result.