First Impressions Of My New Yaris Hybrid

[vanilla.coffee]

4000 miles in, thoughts so far -

This is a very special little car.

I'm up to 65mpg tank full to tank full.

And this is while we're still in single C degrees figures.

Love driving it, silky smooth and so very quiet.

Purrs along and a total stress free driving experience.

So far - 10/10

Can't wait for the warmer weather!

Here she is next to my little roller skate :-)

Sent from my iPhone using Toyota OC

[CPN]

1155 miles later and these are the stats thus far-

In the cold and dark I'm quite pleased with these figures.

Once it's all run in and the warmer weather returns these should improve a little further I'm guessing.

Sent from my iPhone using Toyota OC

Were those displays all produced by the Dash Command app or was that another?

[CPN]

(totally agree with all your comments about the wonderful Yaris by the way...)

[vanilla.coffee]

The fuel tracking app I'm using is called Road Trip.

Simply fill it with figures from my fuel receipts.

Sent from my iPhone using Toyota OC

[vanilla.coffee]

Approaching 70mpg now 5000+ miles in.

Regularly exceeding 400+ miles per tankful. Had 447 this time around with 27 miles range left according to the display.

447 miles from 29 litres of petrol - In the still cold single figure temperatures !!

Love this car, it's simply brilliant.

Sent from my iPhone using Toyota OC

[CPN]

Awesome! Wish I could get ours run in like that but I'm still languishing on 2,500 miles on the ODO and it's already 6 months into its life...

I'm starting to see mpgs of between 60-70 on longer journeys now and my average brim-to-brim seems to have settled in the early 50's now so it's starting to get there but it seems to be taking for ever to run this car in properly...

[Grumpy Cabbie]

I'd be curious about what runs you do Colin as your fuelly stats don't seem that great, unless you do 95% town traffic or lots of short runs. Have you checked your tyre pressures.

What is an average run? 5 miles in town? 15 miles on A roads? Even in winter you should be mid 50's. Do try to let the car work out when it should be on electric and try not to force or encourage it to stay in electric longer than it wants. Also, try to avoid deep discharging of the Battery by excessive use of EV mode. It's fun but it really kills your economy.

I'd not trying to preach, but your fuelly is 47 mpg and is lower than the heavy town taxi average I used to get. I have a lead foot too.

[CPN]

I hear you loud and clear :D

Unfortunately, due to domestic and health circumstances at the moment (swmbo), runs are mostly very short between 5-9 miles at the moment and mostly in 30 zones so the ICE is cutting out a lot of the time and EV mode too often. Have been to my sisters a couple of times (45 miles mainly A roads) and can easily get 56-57mpg on a run like that but some early tankfuls have killed my average at the moment but I'm slowly getting it up with each new fillup. I don't really want to cheat the figures by discounting those bad tankfuls (when I wasn't driving it as it should be driven - before I learnt) so I'll just have to live with those. Tyre pressures are spot on. I usually check them every couple or three days...

[Grumpy Cabbie]

What heat setting do you use? I've found 20c keeps the car comfortable yet keeps the engine off. Even switching to 20.5 kicks the engine on more frequently, and 22c really does.

I'm not familiar with the Yaris HSD, but is there an option for average speed along with average mpg? I used to post that on some of my fuelly reports and it could be as low as 12 mph. That helped answer the 44 mpg tank average that I'd sometimes get.

Or are you just lead footed? Saying that, you're still about 2,500 miles and the car will still be finding it's feet.

[johalareewi]

Just had a weekend out with my OH in her hybrid Yaris.

I got to have a go and it is very nice to drive but, it isn't a Prius.

The main diffence I found was the Yaris is an ordinary automatic Yaris with a hybrid engine.

There is like a veneer over the hybrid stuff so you don't notice it.

A lot of the stats and stuff you get to see and play with in a Prius are hidden away.

Even the Hybrid joystick has been replaced with an automatic shift stick.

And, the Yaris's ECO mode is more like the Prius's normal mode.

We found that driving it like a normal automatic Yaris, over the weekend the average mpg was around 50.

The old automatic Yaris would have been around 38.

So an improvement, but my Prius would have been around 58.

[vanilla.coffee]

Also, try to avoid deep discharging of the battery by excessive use of EV mode. It's fun but it really kills your economy.

Not strictly true. Not in my case.

There are large chunks of my morning commute in rural areas where I can use it in EV almost to the entrance to the M40 motorway.

Once on the motorway- the engine has to run anyway and the Battery gets topped back up.

[MEP's Yaris GS]

Not strictly true. Not in my case.

There are large chunks of my morning commute in rural areas where I can use it in EV almost to the entrance to the M40 motorway.

Once on the motorway- the engine has to run anyway and the battery gets topped back up.

Actually it is true, the engine is having to work harder to needlessly charge the HV Battery (thus using more fuel), something it wouldn't have needed to do if you'd just let the car run normally in the first place as it'd potentially have recharged the Battery through regen breaking etc.

[vanilla.coffee]

Not strictly true. Not in my case.

There are large chunks of my morning commute in rural areas where I can use it in EV almost to the entrance to the M40 motorway.

Once on the motorway- the engine has to run anyway and the battery gets topped back up.

Actually it is true, the engine is having to work harder to needlessly charge the HV Battery (thus using more fuel), something it wouldn't have needed to do if you'd just let the car run normally in the first place as it'd potentially have recharged the Battery through regen breaking etc.

My fuel economy figures suggest otherwise.

I've experimented driving as you guys have suggested and returned less favourable figures as a result.

I then re adopted my style and thus far my economy has improved.

I'm close to 70mpg now and Spring/Summer has yet to arrive.

Sent from my iPhone using Toyota OC

[Grumpy Cabbie]

And physics disagrees.

You would probably get more if you left the car to itself. Every time the HV Battery is discharged it has to be topped up again - usually by the engine and the engine burns fuel. I'm not an engineer but there are Prius engineers who helped design the car on the US Priuschat forum who have shown graphs and stats and figures showing what you said is not entirely correct. Every change from engine to Battery to engine and back suffers a loss, this loss eventually equates to a loss of economy. I originally thought like you and was convinced my economy was good enough. But when I let the car up to itself (all the time) the average went up.

But it's your car and if you're happy then cool.

[Grumpy Cabbie]

Not strictly true. Not in my case.

There are large chunks of my morning commute in rural areas where I can use it in EV almost to the entrance to the M40 motorway.

Once on the motorway- the engine has to run anyway and the battery gets topped back up.

Actually it is true, the engine is having to work harder to needlessly charge the HV Battery (thus using more fuel), something it wouldn't have needed to do if you'd just let the car run normally in the first place as it'd potentially have recharged the Battery through regen breaking etc.

Due to the losses incurred switching from engine to electric to engine. Someone in the US showed a graph with the actual losses and they were only about 5% here and there but they added up to about 15%. 15% on 60mpg is significant.

[vanilla.coffee]

I did state in my opening sentence "In my case"

I am leaving the car to itself.

I have a very light foot, if the car is as clever as everyone states and who am I to disagree? Then it would not let me drive in the style I drive it.

Yet it does. It's very clever and it and my driving style achieve excellent mpg.

Sent from my iPhone using Toyota OC

[MEP's Yaris GS]

if the car is as clever as everyone states and who am I to disagree? Then it would not let me drive in the style I drive it.

Well it doesn't let you drive it in the style you drive, you're overriding it and forcing it to sit in EV mode and not HV.

If it thought that EV was the best then it wouldn't start the ICE......

But each to their own.

[vanilla.coffee]

Not forcing it at all.

I don't press the EV button or the ECO button.

I let the car decide.

Sorry if this irks some of you guys.

I'm merely reporting my results so far in this thread.

Interesting reactions from some of you :-)

Sent from my iPhone using Toyota OC

[DarrenM]

Yeah there's a difference between forcing it into EV mode (which is almost impossible anyway as it'll just disable it once you try to accelerate or go over 30mph), and driving in a way which allows the car to go into EV mode itself more.

I've just got 80mpg from the car putting itself into EV mode quite a lot but with the Battery still at almost full. If it can do it, then it's fine.

I don't think anyone actually forces it into EV mode really. I've tried and it's always just said it's unavailable due to excessive speed or something.

[CPN]

What heat setting do you use? I've found 20c keeps the car comfortable yet keeps the engine off. Even switching to 20.5 kicks the engine on more frequently, and 22c really does.

I'm not familiar with the Yaris HSD, but is there an option for average speed along with average mpg? I used to post that on some of my fuelly reports and it could be as low as 12 mph. That helped answer the 44 mpg tank average that I'd sometimes get.

Or are you just lead footed? Saying that, you're still about 2,500 miles and the car will still be finding it's feet.

I use 21° (same as indoors) so I'll give 20° a try and see how it goes...

Yes, there is an average speed and unlike the average mpg reading, I don't think I've ever zero'd that! It is currently showing 14 mph and the current tankful is down to just above half full and showing 51.6 mpg average so far. I zero that one at every refill but Fuelly is based on a neck to neck fill-up anyway.

I wouldn't say I was lead footed at all these days... Too long in the tooth and lay back to be rushing around all over the place! ;) Think I need to pay more attention to that average speed reading in future. Not even sure if it can be zero'd! Got to pop to the shops shortly so I'll see then...

[CPN]

Re: previous comments about the EV and ECO buttons on the Yaris

Even based on my own short life so far with our Yaris Hybrid, I have quickly found that both of these buttons are pretty much redundant additions to the car that don't add any useful functionality for normal driving at all...

[MEP's Yaris GS]

Also, try to avoid deep discharging of the battery by excessive use of EV mode. It's fun but it really kills your economy.

Not strictly true. Not in my case.

There are large chunks of my morning commute in rural areas where I can use it in EV almost to the entrance to the M40 motorway.

Once on the motorway- the engine has to run anyway and the Battery gets topped back up.

Not forcing it at all.

I don't press the EV button or the ECO button.

I let the car decide.

One says you are and one says you're not, if you're pressing the EV button to hold it in EV then you're going to be affecting your economy - if you're not and simply letting it run on the motors while in auto / HV mode then you're okay and doing what you're supposed to (which you've confirmed in the latter of your quotes).

[CPN]

I was right. It would seem that the average mph reading on the dash is a "per journey" type of thing and automatically zeroes every time you start the car. I've also found out that it's a but pessimistic because on the way home, I took another route whereby I only have to negotiate 2 junctions instead of 4, which also means that I can keep a steadier speed even though it is still in a 30 zone and I actually had a clear run home keeping at round about 28-29 all the time (apart from the 2 junctions of course). When I pulled into my drive, the average mph reported 19 mph! Go figure...

[johalareewi]

the engine is having to work harder to needlessly charge the HV battery (thus using more fuel), something it wouldn't have needed to do if you'd just let the car run normally in the first place as it'd potentially have recharged the battery through regen breaking etc.

Every time the HV battery is discharged it has to be topped up again

The only time the hybrid system HAS to run the ICE to charge the HV Battery is when the state of charge (SOC) gets too low (2 bars).

Once the SOC has reached 3 bars, the hybrid system no longer HAS to run the ICE to charge the Battery.

During normal use, the HV Battery is topped up by regenerative braking, and SURPLUS electricity.

The hybrid system needs the HV battery as a sink to dump surplus electricity, and a source for extra electricity if required.

If the HV battery SOC is above 3 bars, the hybrid system does not needlessly charge the HV battery.

Also, if the HV battery gets 'full', the hybrid system has to dump electricity.

So using up the HV battery yourself is OK as long as you don't use too much (like go down to 2 bars).

[vanilla.coffee]

the engine is having to work harder to needlessly charge the HV battery (thus using more fuel), something it wouldn't have needed to do if you'd just let the car run normally in the first place as it'd potentially have recharged the battery through regen breaking etc.

Every time the HV battery is discharged it has to be topped up again

The only time the hybrid system HAS to run the ICE to charge the HV Battery is when the state of charge (SOC) gets too low (2 bars).Once the SOC has reached 3 bars, the hybrid system no longer HAS to run the ICE to charge the Battery.During normal use, the HV Battery is topped up by regenerative braking, and SURPLUS electricity.The hybrid system needs the HV battery as a sink to dump surplus electricity, and a source for extra electricity if required.If the HV battery SOC is above 3 bars, the hybrid system does not needlessly charge the HV battery.Also, if the HV battery gets 'full', the hybrid system has to dump electricity.So using up the HV battery yourself is OK as long as you don't use too much (like go down to 2 bars).

This was exactly my understanding of it. Hence why the car is as effective and efficient as it is.

Thank you for posting this, it confirms my exact research into how it operates and utilises it's motors. It is also confirmed by my dash command app as I monitor MG1 and MG2 current flows which backs up the above.

The car decides when to switch off the ICE and in my case and my light right foot, more often than not. Not seen my battery drop to two bars yet.