Hybrid battery charges a lot.

[nielshm]

I've done some nice long drives with my new Corolla. Motorway, country roads and city driving. 

Motorway is pretty impressive, since Battery and electric motor helps push the car almost all the time. 

Driving in the city and on country roads is a different matter. The petrol engine charges the HSD Battery allmost all the time, but the electric motor doesnt help very much. Electric power is often turned off, wich makes economy just average. If I 'lift', I can force the car into EV mode, but with speed pilot enabled, petrol engine alone often poweres the car. 

Does the HSD have a certain break in period or self test procedure, before working 100%??

Drive mode is ECO. 

[RabButler]

Try driving in 'normal'. I have just got my Corolla and got over 60mpg on a mixed motorway and main road trip of about 70miles.

 

[AndrueC]

That sounds fairly normal to me at least on the open road when using cruise control (what I assume you mean by 'speed pilot'). To get the very best economy you need to learn how to use the accelerator guidance and control the power yourself. That gauge is the one that doesn't show the mpg. That gauge is essential for maximising EV time. It's split into four areas. Once the electric motors are active you must keep the acceleration bar in the second area. It's quite tricky until you get used to it as it means being very gentle with the accelerator.

[nielshm]

I notice that the car is pretty economical when running on petrol without charging. But with charging enabled, consumption  goes up by 25% minimum. So if the electric motor is turned off, why waste fuel charging a Battery that's nearly fully charged? 

But I think I'll learn every trick in the book of eco-driving - as time goes by. 

[Catlover]

Ok, I drive a Gen4 Prius, and I realise the new Corolla may be tweaked differently by Toyota, but my observations are

1)  mpg is NOT the best at Mway speeds over say 65mph. At that speed it is mostly petrol engine. With favourable road conditions I can “force” the car to use EV even at 60mph, but favourable as in not uphill, a smooth surface (some surfaces are better then others) and no head winds.

2) cruise control is not a help for mpg even on a Mways. CControl holds the car back even on slight descents and uses the throttle even on slight accents, simply to keep the same speed, whereas my right foot can use advantage of going downhill to speed up slightly and use less foot pressure when going uphill, maybe loosing some speed.  I consider ccontrol as a driver aid and not a better mpg aid.

3) as soon as I am off the Mway the mpg gets better as the speed limits are likely more 40/50/60 mph. Get to villages, towns and cities and my mpg usually gets better.

4) I used to always drive in Eco mode, now always in Normal mode (only consider going for PWR mode when really need to move ie busy roundabouts). For sure the throttle is more responsive in Normal over ECO, but I have not detected any change in mpg due to using Normal over ECO.

5) whenever possible I use the “pulse and glide” technique, but not at the expense of holding up other motorists.

6) I try as much as possible to glide to a halt, reading the road ahead well, and accelerate fairly light whenever possible. Whenever possible I try to use vehicular chosen EV mode when moving away from stationary. Overcoming rolling resistance of a vehicle around 1.5 tonne, takes a lot of energy, if this can be done on EV instead of ICE I see that as a gain, even if it gets me to say 10mph before I need to use the ICE to keep up with traffic.

7) the better the mpg I can do means the less petrol I am using. Financial gain in my pocket, yes, but as important, if not more, is the fact it’s less air pollution. What does the TV advert say...... “every bit helps”. 

[bewA]

my average now is about 52mpg which equates to a 420mile range on average (in normal mode).  I have slashed my commute bill in half which still blows my mind.

Sometimes i'm suprised the points when EV kicks in and as mentioned by others you can persuade/force EV mode to kick in by lifting off.  I've probably mentioned in previous posts that if you are going down hill with cruise control on then engine breaking is used and for me it doesn't half drone, sometimes sitting at 4k rpm for an embarrassing amount of time! 😄

The car is awesome and my favourite bit of tech,  it would be great if they did updates to the driving side of things, similar to Tesla but we are a way off that imo 😄

[Chattacks]

Regarding ECO mode aside from setting the a/c to be less powerful and taking some of the response out of the accelerator does it do anything else? Its particularly interesting given Catlover your comments regarding your gen4 prius...

I've driven in ECO 95% of the time since I've had the car but may start driving in normal if there isnt a benefit to it.

[Catlover]

Schulth, if you change over from ECO mode to Normal, you do have to be aware the throttle is more sensitive and you will need to control the right foot more or the car will just respond to a heavy foot and take flight meaning potentially more fuel used.

[Chippy01]

Remember too, that the weather will also impact on your fuel usage.
A drop in temperature, head and cross winds, and the drag rainwater causes on the tyres all add up.

[Timmon]

4 hours ago, Chattacks said:

Regarding ECO mode aside from setting the a/c to be less powerful and taking some of the response out of the accelerator does it do anything else? Its particularly interesting given Catlover your comments regarding your gen4 prius...

I've driven in ECO 95% of the time since I've had the car but may start driving in normal if there isnt a benefit to it.

I tried using Eco mode for a week, and my MPG dropped from about 52 to 46.5! I think Eco mode is probably fine if you are in the city all the time, but on the open road, you have to push the car more to keep up with traffic, and the balance seems to be incorrect, and the car uses more ICE. This weekend I have travelled about 250 miles, mostly dual carriage way and motorway, and some rural slow traffic in the New Forest, and on arriving home, I am back to 52 mpg. The roads were very wet, wipers going most of the time, headlights on. And I didn't deliberately hang around. I'm not Lewis Hamilton, but i like to get a move on when it is clear and safe to do so. So I won't be using Eco myself, as my typical trips do not seem to be best for it, or maybe it is my driving style, I don't really know.  

[TonyHSD]

Couldn’t agreed more with the posts above, very well explained 👍
Yes eco mode is more like for town driving, I can’t believe that I was using it for years. Now in normal all the time, climate control in manual mode too but always on. 

[nielshm]

On 11/23/2019 at 10:10 PM, RabButler said:

Try driving in 'normal'. I have just got my Corolla and got over 60mpg on a mixed motorway and main road trip of about 70miles.

 

I've today completed a 200 mile trip, all motorway. Speed was around 75 mph. Average fuel consumption on board computer was 52 mpg. Drive mode was "normal". 

Fuel consumption seems to be better (lower) than the board computer claims. So thats positive. I do recall some users sharing different experienses. 

[flash22]

Do you drive a lot with the AC or heater on ? Especially around town this will make the engine start, coasting down hills does a lot for the regen, coasting up to junctions also helps

[Chattacks]

On 11/24/2019 at 5:39 PM, Timmon said:

I tried using Eco mode for a week, and my MPG dropped from about 52 to 46.5! I think Eco mode is probably fine if you are in the city all the time, but on the open road, you have to push the car more to keep up with traffic, and the balance seems to be incorrect, and the car uses more ICE. This weekend I have travelled about 250 miles, mostly dual carriage way and motorway, and some rural slow traffic in the New Forest, and on arriving home, I am back to 52 mpg. The roads were very wet, wipers going most of the time, headlights on. And I didn't deliberately hang around. I'm not Lewis Hamilton, but i like to get a move on when it is clear and safe to do so. So I won't be using Eco myself, as my typical trips do not seem to be best for it, or maybe it is my driving style, I don't really know.  

I will try switching to normal for a bit and seeing. The only thing is with the weather/temperatures up and down at the moment how accurate it will be... 

On my morning commute to work I get between 65 and 70mpg on my onboard computer these last few days. With the mild weather sticking around until Thursday I can try a back to back in consistent conditions and seeing. 

 

Thanks everyone for your thoughts on the matter! 🙂