Battery distance travelled?

[frazthewise]

I suppose this has been asked before, but how far has anyone managed to travel on Battery power alone?

[TonyHSD]

Hi, 

corolla it’s a self charging hybrid and has a small Battery that feed an electric motor who helps the (ice) internal combustion engine propel the car., pure ev mode it’s not what these cars are made for and trying to drive in ev only for longer actually has no benefit at all. In ideal condition you can do around a mile or so at low speeds but once you had drained the Battery the ice will kick in to recharge the hybrid Battery, something that can be eventually avoided if you drive as usual without trying to be in ev mode for longer . Sometimes when driving in traffic or in town empty streets you have no choice but to drain the battery and in this case just let the engine running to recharge the battery, turn off itself and then you switch off the car., this is best for your battery. Basically your car is full hybrid and always needs power from the battery even when only ice drives the car., the car can not be driven only on electric or only on petrol for long miles (time) but it’s a combination of both and switching in between. You can use ev mode though when manoeuvring and you don’t want to start the ice , you will need to press ev button immediately after start the car and turn off your heating and air conditioning fan. Sometimes the car may refuse to go into ev mode, if you forgot to turn off the fan or if there is no enough battery charge, or if it is full battery just after a long downhill run👍

[flash22]

It depends on the conditions and how you drive, I have done just over 2 miles mostly on downhill gradient in the Yaris

[Catlover]

Don’t worry how far it goes on hybrid Battery alone, I would worry though if I had a pure EV.  Just enjoy the relaxing drive you are getting and let the computer do it’s job, and it does an amazing job.  For sure, if you want to get “extra” mpg learn with the aid of YouTube videos, for example, what you, the driver, can do to get better mpg.

[frazthewise]

Thanks everyone interesting and helpful comments. My new car 2.0l excel sports tourer due December.  I always understood charging a Battery took bhp and petrol, so power taken by the engine to drive the wheels and also to charge the Battery, so not sure where the high mpg comes from, other whe coasting or braking? Not complaining though, it appears to work anyway,?

[Catlover]

Yep, coasting and LACK of braking helps (powers of observation). But there again, you mention braking. When you do touch the foot brake, initially it’s the hybrid system motors that do the braking AND they generate some power fed back into the hybrid Battery. So that is a plus. The negative of that is the front/rear brakes don’t do a lot of work, and as with all cars the back brakes do less then the front (due to weight transfer). So the rear brakes, disks can rust excessively, the pins (sliders) can seize, causing premature problems. TonyHSD has a way of preventing this to happen, I sure he will come back and explain it to you (not wanting to steal his work around).

[Cyker]

The newer ones are very clever - ICE engines have a range where they are most efficient, and the hybrid system just runs them in that range even if it's too fast for the speed you're going at. The 'wasted' RPM is used to charge the Battery. Mine tries to run the ICE at around 2000rpm literally all the time - whether I'm at 10mph or 70mph! - unless I push it to accelerate faster.

It's clever because the engine is always around that 40%-ish maximum efficiency, whereas most cars you're all over the place RPM-wise so your average efficiency is usually far less than the engine's maximum efficiency.

I think this trick is why the newer hybrids have finally broken into diesel-levels of efficiency.

[Gray86]

As others have said, you can get 2miles if conditions are right - but it’s a rare occursnce as the car likes to keep its batter level relatively low rather than save it all for a 2 mile stint. 
 

you will get roughly 30-50% of your journey on EV, just in small chunks. Few hundred yard here, half a mile there. Crazy how a 2.0 petrol car with near 200bhp can offer 60+mpg on a mild day on a decent country Lane drive. 

[Roy124]

Cyker, thank you for confirming the 40% figure.  My aircraft performance lectures were 60 years ago.  We had two cruise speeds - range and endurance.  For range I believe 60% rpm and endurance was 40%.

With the Corolla I get EV time over 50% of the time.  It's a bit spooky cruising on the flat at 70 with the EV powering the car. 

Cat makes a good point, keep the traction Battery charge up before you get into a town. 

  

[frazthewise]

How do keep the Battery charger up, can you select it somehow?

[trashman1965]

Driving style keeps the charge up...early, gentle braking, limiting throttle when on EV (pulse and glide) make use of hills. This is only needed if hyper miling...the car does a great job of managing the energy in the Battery.

[bewA]

I believe the manual says about a mile is possible but my journeys according to the MyT app are typically over 50% EV mode.

As others have said it's not about the max range totally on EV it's about how often it's able to kick in e.g. cruising, gentle acceleration, gradual stopping all help with getting the most out of hybrid.  It helps I think that Toyota have game-ified eco driving by giving you a score when you stop and switch off, doesn't appeal to all but it's clever psychology really 😉

[nielshm]

On my way to work and back home, I allways take the same route, drives with the same speed, uses cruise control as much as possible. 

The funny thing is, the Battery charges and drains in the same way every day. I have some reference points, traffic light, roundabout etc., and the charge is allways the same, when I come to these points. 

The charge can be 5 or 6 bars at a point, but it's never 3 bars one day or 8 bars another day. 

[Roy124]

Sounds perfectly normal with a variation if you get stuck in exceptional heavy traffic.  

 

[AndrueC]

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