The urban small business owner
Adam Smith identified Britain as a nation of shopkeepers, but these days it might be more accurate to say we’re a nation of small businesses. There are almost 6m in the country, of which 3.5m operate as sole traders.
Many of those people, whether they work at home or from a small office, need transportation that is reliable, spacious, cheap to run and that can double as a family car. Whether you’re a caterer transporting cakes, a fitness trainer carrying weights or a maker selling craftwares at small markets, you need a vehicle that can adapt effortlessly to your needs and budget.
A hybrid’s combination of petrol and electric power means those short delivery runs are more cost-effective and you never have to wait on a recharge. Emissions are reduced, meaning a small reduction in car tax but also reductions when certain types of low-emission vehicles are registered as a company car for tax purposes – useful when you’re watching every penny.
There are plenty of other reasons to buy a large hybrid if you run a small business, of course, not least a huge amount of storage to stow goods away in. The latest Honda CR-V hybrid, for example, features a wider, deeper boot than in previous models, and can be opened by waggling your foot underneath, ideal if you’re loaded down with goods. A smart, flexible “company” car that’s tax deductible and cheaper to run? Sounds like good business.
The busy parent
Face it, when you become a parent, you sign up to run a taxi service for the best part of 20 years. Factor in a twice-daily school run, regular shopping trips, weekend jaunts and holidays with two or three kids, perhaps a dog, too, and the attraction of a big car such as an SUV is undeniable. But there’s a major downside: emissions.
Many schools in urban areas suffer from high pollution, exacerbated by parents depositing their kids at the school gates and waiting around when they pick them up later with engines needlessly idling. Fearing the effects, headteachers are calling for car bans and schools are leafleting parents to stop parking nearby. The city of Bristol is even discussing a potential diesel car-free zone, because of the dangerous particulates they emit. The UK Energy Research Centre recently revealed the surge in SUV sales was jeopardising the UK transport sector’s ability to meet EU emissions targets. That’s not a good look for a parent, even if an SUV is.
The ideal solution is a more efficient, cleaner version that can still meet the needs of a busy parent – a hybrid that can run on pure electric around sensitive zones such as schools and in town.
When you combine the other benefits a modern, large hybrid car brings to the party – such as high safety ratings, masses of room, plenty of storage and parking assist features – they begin to make a compelling case again.
The suburban commuter
Much as many of us wish it wasn’t so, the daily commute is a hard fact of life. And the even harder truth is that most commutes are done by car, not public transport. In 2017, 68% of working people in the UK commuted to work by car as a driver or passenger. That’s approximately 17 million people, a figure that rises to nearly three-quarters for people who live in rural areas. Average commute time was about 30 minutes one-way, but for many living beyond the suburbs the time stuck behind a wheel is far longer.
There are many downsides to a long commute, not least the grinding tedium of heavy traffic, the slow crawl and tailbacks with repeated stop-starts. Add to that stress and musculoskeletal disorders from sitting in an uncomfortable position, and public transport starts to seem a whole lot more appealing. However, if commute time, connectivity or the price tag make public transport difficult to justify, a low-emission vehicle might just be the next best thing, especially with today’s petrol and diesel prices.
A hybrid with a stop-start system automatically shuts down and restarts the engine to reduce the amount of time it spends idling, reducing both fuel consumption and emissions. And you may just end up spending less on maintenance as well. Because of the regenerative braking system, you won’t use your standard brakes as much, resulting in less wear and tear. The batteries in hybrids are also designed to last the lifetime of the car, and have solid warranties to reflect this. The Honda i-MMD battery, which is used to power its new CR-V hybrid, is covered for five years or to a distance of 100,000km, whichever comes first.
We all have many factors to consider when choosing which transport option best suits our lifestyle, but for some of us, a hybrid could tick quite a few boxes.
