2021 Yaris EV mode.

[Hadrian1]

Whenever I've pressed the EV button it's come up as unavailable, even with the hybrid Battery well charged.

Has anyone else managed to select it. ?  I'm getting an "indicated" 65.5 mpg, which isn't far off the advertised economy.

It only seems to go into electric mode when manoeuvring slowly, which is what I expect.

[Hadrian1]

Title should of course been "2021 Yaris EV mode"  before anyone points it out.  😁

[trashman1965]

Partners Yaris definitely goes into EV Mode...moved it across the car park the other day like that. When are you trying? If when moving, speed is pretty low (20 mph?) Any higher it won't go into EV. From start, press EV before the engine starts...you get about 5 seconds after turning ignition on. Once engine started wont go into EV until warm up complete

[Catlover]

I managed to go 1.7 miles in EV mode, but circumstances were in my favour.  1) the engine was already up to temperature (it was the start of a return journey and I had stopped about 10 minutes). 2) number of bars was very high. 3) it was a warm day anyway 4) I was in a 30 area, light traffic, I didn’t exceed 27mph (as the indicator was at the point I knew it would drop out), and very light on throttle (I did say light traffic so annoying no one).

[Hadrian1]

Thanks for the advice chaps, I have probably been going too fast when pressing the button.

It does use electric only when slow manoeuvring, but that's without pressing the button

[Cyker]

Depends what you mean by EV mode - If you mean the EV button, yeah I've never gotten that to work ever; It always says unavailable for a variety of reasons (Insufficient Battery charge, going to fast, wrong phase of the moon etc.). Gave up with it TBH since I can't think of a good use for it anyway. Even if it worked, the Battery in the Mk4 Yaris is tiny and I doubt it would be able to do more than half a mile in EV mode so it wouldn't even be useful to drive in a future zero emission zone that I'm sure our idiot leaders will be introducing into cities in the future.

If you mean, the car switching to the electric motor only while driving, mine does it all the time - On the way home yesterday I was doing 70 on the motorway overtaking a truck, just holding it at 70, and after I finished accelerating it switched off the engine and carried on pushing the car at 70 on Battery power alone! Very cool, and something the hybrids couldn't do before, which is what put me off them originally.

It's more usual around town tho', often uses the engine when accelerating and falls back to the battery for steady cruising, but all depends on how much charge is in the battery - I find above 50% it tries to use the electric motor more and more, and below 50% it uses the engine more. It reaaalllly tries to keep the battery around 50%.

[RickyC]

Or it can be the same issue we detected in Italy.  Sometimes ICE remains always on even at slow speeds, SOC grows to 7 or also 8 points and EV Mode indicator remains off even at slow speeds. Pressing EV in this situation show the "EV mode unavailable" message.

It's probably a GPF cleaning issue.  Until GPF is not cleared ICE stays on t warm-up it. 

It usually happens to urban users, with short trips, slow speed and frequent start & stop. 

A trick is to execute 2 or 3 fast accelerations and relase ( obviously where road and condition allows it ) after temperature indicator has reached 3 or 4 steps.

[TonyHSD]

There are all good answers here. To summarise there are 3 most common reasons why and when a Toyota hybrid doesn’t want to go into EV mode via selected  ev mode button : 

1. Excessive speeds - the car will not go into ev mode while driving if the current speed is over 30mph, message on dash will explain it 

2. Battery too law - you will get this message on the dash 

3. Battery too high - you will get the following message : ev mode currently unavailable- your ice will be running also even though all other factors are ideal , all you need to do is to give a bit more time to the car and wait the ice to switch off itself and then you can select ev mode with full Battery and enjoy some pure electric driving. 
 

EV mode very useful when you have enough charge in the battery and you want just to move the car a bit , change parking lot or similar, just start the car select ev mode immediately and turn off heating/ac fan , the car will remain quiet and will not start ice. 👍

 

 

[flash22]

First hybrid ? Any more than 25% throttle will make the engine start  you have to be very light with the pedal, put the car in eco mode this makes the pedal less sensitive (throttle response)

[CPN]

A lot of information is available via the Android app Hybrid Assistant; which I use all the time and have been doing since buying my first Hybrid Yaris back in 2014.

One major difference I have noticed between the Mk3 (NiMH battery) to the Mk4 (LiON battery) is that in the Mk3 during fairly short low speed trips around town, as soon as the HV Battery dropped below 40% SoC, the ICE would cut back in to start lifting the charge back up. Also, on a longish run in the Mk3, the system would tend to keep the SoC at around the 60% most of the time.

In the Mk4 it is quite different. The system doesn't seem to care about keeping the HV Battery up at around 60% SoC anymore but aggressively uses the HV Battery much more in a variety of situations; particularly around town where it makes much more use of the battery than the Mk3 did. In the Mk4, I have seen the SoC drop as low as 25% before the ICE cut in and even then, it would be quite happy just to lift the SoC back to around 40-45% before shutting off the ICE again and going straight back to EV mode.

Since the speed of charge replenishment in a LiON battery is much faster than a NiMH battery, I think that this is the key to the new behaviour of the Mk4 and is reflected in the new way that the Mk4 balances the system more toward battery use as opposed to the Mk3's more regular use of the ICE. The Mk4 also seems to use regen braking more aggressively than the Mk3 ever did also... I'll try and do some screen grabs at some point and post them in this thread.

(I should add that these SoC figures I am quoting are from the app via the vehicles OBDII port and not what you see on the display in "Energy" mode - the value of each "compartment" of the battery on the energy display by the car seems to have changed radically also)

[Mikelius]

Anyone else had problems with EV-Mode? My New Yaris started acting strange less than a month ago. 

Hybrid Battery charges full,seems to use ev, but fuel consuption seems to be about 1 litre per 100km and ev light wont light up. 

I contacted local dealership and they insist that this is normal behavior. Yet, I have driven 8 different Yarises 2016-2018 because of my work, and this is first time I encounter this. 

Forced ev still works but car wont switch to ev by itself. 

[Graham47]

1 litre per 100 km equates to 282 mpg (UK) !! So I would suggest you check your figures …..

[Mikelius]

9 minutes ago, Graham47 said:

1 litre per 100 km equates to 282 mpg (UK) !! So I would suggest you check your figures …..

No, you misunderstood me. The vehicle wont chance to ev, instead, It uses both petrol and electricity i.e uses about 1l according to computer. 

[TonyHSD]

40 minutes ago, Mikelius said:

No, you misunderstood me. The vehicle wont chance to ev, instead, It uses both petrol and electricity i.e uses about 1l according to computer. 

Hi, 

I think your explanation is somehow incorrect. 1l/100km fuel consumption its impossible in this car, do you mean 1ltr more or 1ltr less than usual? Normal fuel consumption for this vehicle is around 4ltr/100km, Or perhaps you were watching what shows on dashboard, which is again most likely understood incorrectly. When you said ev mode doesn’t work do you get messages on the display when you are pressing  ev button-  “EV mode currently unavailable “ ? When your battery is full and you press ev button the car may refuses to go into ev mode, all Toyota hybrids does that and it’s normal behaviour. Also after a long downhill drive and when your Battery is full if you are coming to a complete stop you may notice your engine is still running at high rpm and continue to run after you drive off again, if this is what happens again it’s normal , the car uses its electric motor to drive but the engine is running for another reason, this is when usually the car won’t go into ev mode via ev mode button. 👍

[RickyC]

If you do a downhill trip you can get a so fantastic result or something similar like 2 liter/100 km  but its's just a single trip result.  The average should be 3.5 / 4.5 l/100km.  

If you always get this result there's something strange in your trip computer. 

What do you read from the app ?

[Mikelius]

8 minutes ago, TonyHSD said:

Hi, 

I think your explanation is somehow incorrect. 1l/100km fuel consumption its impossible in this car, do you mean 1ltr more or 1ltr less than usual? Normal fuel consumption for this vehicle is around 4ltr/100km, Or perhaps you were watching what shows on dashboard, which is again most likely understood incorrectly. When you said ev mode doesn’t work do you get messages on the display when you are pressing  ev button-  “EV mode currently unavailable “ ? When your battery is full and you press ev button the car may refuses to go into ev mode, all Toyota hybrids does that and it’s normal behaviour. Also after a long downhill drive and when your battery is full if you are coming to a complete stop you may notice your engine is still running at high rpm and continue to run after you drive off again, if this is what happens again it’s normal , the car uses its electric motor to drive but the engine is running for another reason, this is when usually the car won’t go into ev mode via ev mode button. 👍

Hi. 

Nope, not that. 

If I press EV, vehicle will go into ev mode. Problem is, that vehicle wont switch to ev it self, even the motor is warm. Ev has to be forced during the drive. 

When I bought the car, on my way to work,approx 8km, the car switched to ev multible times. Now it just wont, unless I press the ev button. 

 

[TonyHSD]

52 minutes ago, Mikelius said:

Hi. 

Nope, not that. 

If I press EV, vehicle will go into ev mode. Problem is, that vehicle wont switch to ev it self, even the motor is warm. Ev has to be forced during the drive. 

When I bought the car, on my way to work,approx 8km, the car switched to ev multible times. Now it just wont, unless I press the ev button. 

 

Ok, in which country are you located and what is the air temperature when you are driving ?

In very hot or very cold weather the ice can be running more than in a moderate temperatures.

Have you got any warning lights on the dashboard? If you believe that there is a fault with the car and dealer says there isn’t, better to take it to another dealer without telling them that you have already been with other garage and see what they will tell you. Not sure about your Yaris but most of the Toyota hybrids has a high pressure oil pump connected directly to the engine crankshaft and since the oil not only lubricates but also is used as extra cooling in certain temperatures the engine may kicks in to rotate this pump to add extra cooling to the transmission, motors bearing etc. Perhaps you can try to drive the car as usual during the night when it’s not so hot and see if you have the same problem, if the car still drives with running ice than it’s not that and technicians should look into it. 
Good luck 

[CPN]

2 hours ago, Mikelius said:

Hi. 

Nope, not that. 

If I press EV, vehicle will go into ev mode. Problem is, that vehicle wont switch to ev it self, even the motor is warm. Ev has to be forced during the drive. 

When I bought the car, on my way to work,approx 8km, the car switched to ev multible times. Now it just wont, unless I press the ev button. 

This may seem a silly question but just to confirm, you do have the selector in "D" yes? (and not in "B")

[trashman1965]

46 minutes ago, CPN said:

This may seem a silly question but just to confirm, you do have the selector in "D" yes? (and not in "B")

Good call - but will it go into EV using the button if in "B" though? Never tried (I rarely use "B" in my Auris Hybrid or other half's Yaris)....

[CPN]

As promised, here are some screen grabs...

This was how the system was before setting out (short journey to the local shops and back)

(as you can see, it was pretty hot here yesterday!)

During the journey. The figures top right are in kW and are positive meaning the ICE was supplying 4.7 and the Battery 5.5. A total of 10.2 kW at that point. The piston in green shows RPM (ICE running) and the Battery to its right shows SoC. Notice how low it has gone to... but also notice how the system will try and use the Battery as much as it can while the ICE is warming up...

Ok now MG2 has kicked in and started to recharge the battery. I was starting to slow down at this point. Notice that the top right battery figure is now negative; meaning that 8.1 kW is now going back into the battery. The ICE is producing 8.6 meaning that 0.5 kW of motive power is coming from the ICE and the rest is charging the battery. Notice the drop in instantaneous mpg...

At this point, I had got to the shops and stopped. So, the last 0.29 of a mile chucking in 8.1 kW until I stopped (plus regen braking - mix of red and green pad icons in the brake disk section at the top left of centre - red=manual brakes, green=regen) was enough to raise the SoC back up to 41% and EV mode had come back on.

Ok, been in the shops and started back home again. Notice how much got sucked from the battery by just pulling away normally and at this point, the ICE had kicked in and was starting to move the car and recharge the battery...

Finally, got home and come to rest in my driveway. Notice two things: 1) the A/C is still going flat out trying to cool the car! (using 1.4 kW from the battery!) 2) 5 green pad icons under the large brake disk; meaning that for the last few yards into my close and up my drive, it was all regen braking... 40% SoC when finally stopped. Notice how low that is and when I checked the car's energy display, it showed 4 compartments full...

Also notice that the system had only got to "S3" (in the piston icon - Stage 3 running) by the time I had got back home and never reached "S4" which is the fully warmed up and "running normally" stage...

If anyone is interested further about this great little app, you can read all about it here.

Hope this helps...

[Yugguy1970]

Hi Colin that looks really interesting.  What ODB adapter do you use?  I guess you just leave it plugged in all the time?

[CPN]

I tried a few cheap ones off of eBay at first but most of them are rubbish - slow and innacurate. I have a Carista also and that seems to work ok with HA but I eventually "bit the bullet" and went for the most expensive (£77 currently on Amazon) as recommended by the author of the app and didn't regret it either...

... and it works 100% really well. Yes, I just leave it plugged in because it auto sleeps after the car is turned off. You get excellent support from the makers of it also including regular firmware updates to keep it current and fix any bugs that pop up.

I notice that you have a Rav 4 and in which case, don't cut corners and go for the OBDLink LX if you are thinking of getting one because the lesser ones don't work so well...

[FROSTYBALLS]

Topics merged

[CPN]

1 hour ago, trashman1965 said:

Good call - but will it go into EV using the button if in "B" though? Never tried (I rarely use "B" in my Auris Hybrid or other half's Yaris)....

No, it won't. Going into EV mode is actively prevented when in "B" mode (which gives a measure of engine braking when the Battery has reached Max SoC - it also has the effect of "dumping" the excess juice when the Battery can't usefully use it anymore for charging) and is why I asked the question...

[TonyHSD]

34 minutes ago, CPN said:

I tried a few cheap ones off of ebay at first but most of them are rubbish - slow and innacurate. I have a Carista also and that seems to work ok with HA but I eventually "bit the bullet" and went for the most expensive as recommended by the author of the app and didn't regret it either...

... and it works 100% really well. Yes, I just leave it plugged in because it auto sleeps after the car is turned off. You get excellent support from the makers of it also including regular firmware updates to keep it current and fix any bugs that pop up.

I notice that you have a Rav 4 and in which case, don't cut corners and go for the OBDLink LX if you are thinking of getting one because the lesser ones don't work so well...

Thank you so much for that app👍 I just downloaded and used with Carista obd adapter and works great. Will play more later when I go out with the car. 👌🚘