EV mode

[Yugguy1970]

I don't use manual EV mode on the move.  I don't beleive the HEV is set up to really do this effectively. 

I do find EV mode useful and use it every so often when I'm just moving the car a few feet to make it easier to wash, or I'm sitting in it for say a minute or two on Ready, programming the satnav for a later journey and I don't want the engine to run.  I think this is what it's really for.

[Stopeter44]

1 hour ago, Roy124 said:

OTOH Peter that differing fuel consumption and fuel saving would probly not fill a tea cup 😉

It would be more relevant just getting it in and out of the garage and manoeuvring on the drive. 

My point was more along the lines of, all those very short journeys added together make for a thirsty ride (to complete the tea cup analogy). True for the very short distance, taking for example the first 200 metres of the run to the market, that would make for thimble full, maybe ? The 16l/100 works out at about 25p +/- for 200 metres!

[TonyHSD]

1 hour ago, Yugguy1970 said:

I don't use manual EV mode on the move.  I don't beleive the HEV is set up to really do this effectively. 

I do find EV mode useful and use it every so often when I'm just moving the car a few feet to make it easier to wash, or I'm sitting in it for say a minute or two on Ready, programming the satnav for a later journey and I don't want the engine to run.  I think this is what it's really for.

Same here, I use ev mode for my last few hundred yards before arriving home as I live at bottom of a long downhill and my hv Battery is always topped up full, another time when I use it is to do tyre pressure check and top up using a 12v compressor, takes me 10min to do all 4 corners and no engine is running at all. 👌

[Yugguy1970]

Actually yes I do the same, so I back onto my drive about 20 yards after the turning round bit, so I make it EV then so the engine isnt running when I stop.

[Gerfex]

In my experience my corolla the EV button gives me till 60 km/h after 60 engine starts, it lasts4 max 5km and sometimes less, it depends traffic and stuff. What I really do to go over 60/km/h on Battery is first I select the option of the dash (red box) and I speed up gently till 80 km/h then release the pedal and press it gently till not pass the eco mode (yellow box) otherwise the engine starts, just leave the green bar in the first box (yellow box) and you can go over 80km/h and lasts much longer

 

[Spo2]

Sorry guys, a bit newbie question. Is there an e-CVT or standard CVT in current generation of Corolla?

[Stopeter44]

Just now, Spo2 said:

Sorry guys, a bit newbie question. Is there an e-CVT or standard CVT in current generation of Corolla?

e-cvt. There's many posts on the forum with links to the Car Care Nut, or Weber university explaining how it works. 

[Roy124]

I admit to not knowing the difference and found this:

"When driving a CVT-equipped vehicle the driver pushes on the gas pedal and the CVT adjusts to keep the engine at its most efficient rpm through the entire acceleration process. ... Instead, an eCVT uses electric motor/ generators to control the speeds of planetary geubikt components.22 Apr 2021"

Now this I understand and know what my Corolla has. 

[Spo2]

Thanks everyone! I am going to test drive a corolla 1.8 hybrid and have never driven a hybrid car. Anyone who started like me, can please provide me some pointers.

[Roy124]

Spo, driving is easy.  Operating is something else. I suggest you do it in two parts. 

Just sit in the car and ask them to go through all the controls S L O W L Y.  Don't be surprised if the salesman doesn't know everything. 

Don't worry about audio, sat Nav etc they are easy enough to learn later. Make sure the map display is set to the energy display.  This has dynamic graphics that show the power play between engine, Battery and motors.  The engine does not power the car, the motors do that. The engine charges the Battery and the motors. The Battery powers the motor.  The motor charges the battery.  The graphics show the seamless way the whole interreacts.  Then just put it in drive and go. 

It has lots more tricks after that but for a test drive let it do its thing. Do take it up to 60 or 70 to appreciate the noise levels. 

[Catlover]

Sp02, just relax and enjoy the drive, that’s all you have to do, the car works out what it wants to do. Amazing system. Enjoy.

[AndrueC]

3 hours ago, Roy124 said:

I admit to not knowing the difference and found this:

"When driving a CVT-equipped vehicle the driver pushes on the gas pedal and the CVT adjusts to keep the engine at its most efficient rpm through the entire acceleration process. ... Instead, an eCVT uses electric motor/ generators to control the speeds of planetary geubikt components.22 Apr 2021"

Now this I understand and know what my Corolla has. 

Aside from the difference in how it's accomplished the result is the same though. It's a gearing system with an almost infinite range of ratios between maximum and minimum.

A lot of people think a CVT means a belt. It doesn't. That's just one way of accomplishing it. There are many different types of CVT.

Speaking from the experience of having owned three other CVT equipped vehicles (Honda Jazz, Mk1, Mk2 and Mk3) they all felt and drove the same as my Corolla. The Mk3 was a little different because its engine switched between Atkinson and Otto cycle modes and the pre- facelift Jazz didn't handle that particularly well. But the later models solved that problem and it was back to seamless gear changes and an engine that ran at whatever RPM the ECU felt was appropriate.

Toyota's eCVT is - as far as I'm concerned - just another form of CVT. Slightly different because it uses two power sources but still providing basically the same functionality.

[RabButler]

1 hour ago, Roy124 said:

Spo, driving is easy.  (Cut)  This has dynamic graphics that show the power play between engine, battery and motors.  The engine does not power the car, the motors do that. The engine charges the battery and the motors. The battery powers the motor.  The motor charges the battery.  The graphics show the seamless way the whole interreacts.  Then just put it in drive and go. 

It has lots more tricks after that but for a test drive let it do its thing. Do take it up to 60 or 70 to appreciate the noise levels. 

If the engine did not drive the car and simply charged the Battery, it would not be a hybrid, it would be an EV with auxiliary generator like the BMW I3. The ICE powers the car when speed/load exceeds the capability of the battery/electric motor.

In use, it is seamless and is the easiest car to drive that I have ever driven. Enjoy!

[Cyker]

Yeah, it is, to my knowledge, the only transmission that doesn't rely on friction to work! This makes it incredibly reliable - I don't think I've ever heard of one fail as a result of normal use (As opposed to say abuse or a manufacturing fault).

The only other automatic transmission that comes even close is old-style torque converters, but hardly anybody uses those any more due to the high efficiency losses.

 

[Yugguy1970]

Yes, there's lots of tips of how to get the best out of the hybrid system and the e-cvt box, but like Joe says you can also just get in it and drive it like any other auto car.

I love the power info display, watching the flow of power change seamlessly.

[Stopeter44]

16 hours ago, Spo2 said:

Sorry guys, a bit newbie question. Is there an e-CVT or standard CVT in current generation of Corolla?

Just treat it as an automatic transmission, which it is. After that, if you wish you can dig into the technicalities. I like to know how things work, and made the effort to understand the basics, it's a combination of ICE and two electric motor generators (MG1 & MG2) and an onboard computer that decides how to combine the outputs the the ICE and the two MG's. You do not have to know all that to drive the car. I think it is one of the best automatic transmission available.

[Red_Corolla]

2 hours ago, Stopeter44 said:

I think it is one of the best automatic transmission available.

It's lovely and smooth and certainly one of the most mechanically simple. No belts, chains, clutches or valves, just constant mesh gears. Should be extremely durable, provided the electrical components hold their own.

[Cyker]

Hey hey exciting news: I got my Mk4 to go into EV mode today!!!  

I was stationary in traffic and the ICE was running to top up the Battery, and because I was bored I started poking the EV mode button, and to my surprise it did it!!

I actually got to drive in EV mode! ... for about 50 very slow metres on a slight incline in traffic, before it shut it off saying the Battery had gotten too low for EV mode  

The Mk4 was definitely not designed to run in EV mode  

[TonyHSD]

5 minutes ago, Cyker said:

Hey hey exciting news: I got my Mk4 to go into EV mode today!!!  

I was stationary in traffic and the ICE was running to top up the battery, and because I was bored I started poking the EV mode button, and to my surprise it did it!!

I actually got to drive in EV mode! ... for about 50 very slow metres on a slight incline in traffic, before it shut it off saying the battery had gotten too low for EV mode  

The Mk4 was definitely not designed to run in EV mode  

If you have enough charge in the Battery but not fully charged and no heat is required fan off, then there is no reason why the car will refuse to go into EV, I do that every day successfully. 👌🔋

[AndrueC]

1 hour ago, Cyker said:

Hey hey exciting news: I got my Mk4 to go into EV mode today!!!  

...

The Mk4 was definitely not designed to run in EV mode  

Strange. My 1.8 will go into EV mode at almost any opportunity if I just lift off the accelerator pedal and will drive for over a mile without restarting the ICE if I'm gentle with the accelerator(*). I've never needed to press the EV button nor turn any accessories off.

(*)The trick is to keep the ECO gauge in the EV section.

[Cyker]

Ahaha, you misunderstand, I mean the forced EV mode you can put the car into - There's a button for it near your drive mode shifter.

In the previous-gen EVs like the Auris, the car tended to run the Battery at a higher SoC so you could e.g. put it into EV mode with the button to force it to drive on the electric motor only for a mile or so.

The Mk4 has stubbornly refused to let me put it in that EV mode since I've had it, which is why this is exciting news!  

[trashman1965]

Same, newer cars behave differently. I cannot use EV Mode with or without fan/heater. Regardless of charge in HV Battery. It is possible occasionally when warm.

With fan OFF car chooses EV even when cold and message "EV Mode unavailable". Note this is not "EV Mode unavailable, HV Batterylow".

This is different to both Auris I had both of which would happily goto EV Mode via the switch when cold and with fan on.

[trashman1965]

2 minutes ago, trashman1965 said:

Same, newer cars behave differently. I cannot use EV Mode with or without fan/heater. Regardless of charge in HV Battery. It is possible occasionally when warm.

With fan OFF car chooses EV even when cold and message "EV Mode unavailable". Note this is not "EV Mode unavailable, HV Batterylow".

This is different to both Auris I had both of which would happily goto EV Mode via the switch when cold and with fan on.

To clarify if I have already driven I can force EV mode when warmed. Above is from cold/start.

[TonyHSD]

25 minutes ago, trashman1965 said:

To clarify if I have already driven I can force EV mode when warmed. Above is from cold/start.

In auris/Prius 2010-2019 gen 3 hybrids if you don’t switch off fan immediately after you turn ev mode via the button the car will fire up the engine for sure.  

[trashman1965]

1 minute ago, TonyHSD said:

In auris/Prius 2010-2019 gen 3 hybrids if you don’t switch off fan immediately after you turn ev mode via the button the car will fire up the engine for sure.  

32 minutes ago, trashman1965 said:

Same, newer cars behave differently. I cannot use EV Mode with or without fan/heater. Regardless of charge in HV Battery. It is possible occasionally when warm.

With fan OFF car chooses EV even when cold and message "EV Mode unavailable". Note this is not "EV Mode unavailable, HV Batterylow".

This is different to both Auris I had both of which would happily goto EV Mode via the switch when cold and with fan on.

To clarify if I have already driven I can force EV mode when warmed. Above is from cold/start.

 

On my 2015 pre face-lift auris and 2018 auris they would happily go into EV Mode, even with fan on. Right through winter except on the absolute coldest days (literally one or two days of the year). 2015 car was left parked outside for its first year or so then garaged. 2018 auris was always garaged. I could pull it out of the garage and drive to the same point every day on EV, never touched the HVAC. Maybe prius behaved differently. 

On corolla fan OFF achieves the "same" as what I could do with EV Mode on the auris. Partners mk3 yaris was exactly the same, Mk4 is now same as Corolla.