Volvo has extended its reimbursed electricity offer for plug-in hybrid customers as take-up of its PHEV vehicles soars in the UK.

The Take Charge offer is available to both retail and business/company car customers

Announced last November, the ‘Take Charge’ offer allows customers buying a new plug-in hybrid Volvo to benefit from a year’s reimbursed electricity to charge their car. It was originally available across the full range of seven Volvo plug-in hybrid cars purchased by 30 June 2020 – but the campaign has now been extended to 30 September this year.

As well as benefiting customers, the offer could help counter some of the controversy over drivers misusing by PHEVs by never plugging their vehicles in and just relying on the internal combustion engine, as with a conventionally powered car.

The Volvo scheme is intended to combat this by encouraging drivers to make full use of their car’s electric power, reducing petrol consumption and tailpipe emissions on every journey, bringing wider eco benefits as well as customer cost savings.

The carmaker said its research has shown that plug-in hybrid customers are already adopting an eco-conscious approach to driving, with owners in Europe using their car in Pure mode – which priorities electric-only operation to maximise driving on battery power – for 40% of the time.

Volvo also said sales of its plug-in hybrids are increasing rapidly in the UK. From January to May 2020, sales nearly trebled compared with the same period in 2019, accounting for 12.4% of UK Volvo sales (2019: 4.7%).

The Take Charge offer sees the electricity costs for charging the car calculated from June 2020 via the Volvo On Call app and repaid to customers at the end of the 12-month period based on the average price of electricity in the UK. It’s open to both private and business customers, with the refunds going direct to company car drivers to encourage them to adopt proactive charging habits.