EV indicator

[Guest]

Hi. Just a question about the EV indicator. For the first 1000 or so miles, this indicator used to come on practically every time I took my foot off the accelerator pedal. I could basically control when the Battery kicks in by lifting off the gas. It doesn't do that now. The only times it comes on now is when the car comes to a stop or when the Battery indicator is showing completely full and I'm going slow enough for it to switch. I don't use the heater or blowers much (usally off). Sometimes I can see the on the console that the hybrid Battery is providing power to the wheels (green), engine off (no red), and still the EV indicator doesn't come on.

I guess I just need reassurance this is normal or should I take it in? (2000 miles now).

Thanks in advance ☺️

[Graham47]

I see this from time to time on mine(Excel).

What I can also see (but I’m guessing you can’t) via the HUD is that the engine is actually running at about 1000 revs.

The green energy flow is there from the HV Battery, no red flow from the engine but I’m guessing because the ICE is running that EV isn’t displayed.  It threw me at first but, since EV is displayed normally when ICE isn’t running and my journey consumption figures are healthy (very in some cases), I sort of accept it.

However, I’m not 100% convinced that EV data is accurately captured by MyT app.

Edited August 1, 2023 by Graham47
Apologies….@PB194….just spotted this post in CHR thread not Yaris…but I suspect my experience is still relevant.

[Cyker]

A few people have had this, and my non-Cross Yaris also started doing it when I was driving purely slow urban crawls.

When I switched back to a mix of slow urban and fast A-road/Motorway it went away and has been fine since.

One member, who had gotten annoyed with the behaviour, found that driving the car in B-mode for a bit and letting the engine-braking spin the engine seemed to fix it for them - The theory was maybe the particulate filter wants to regenerate, but isn't getting enough oxygen, and running it in B-mode just pumps atmospheric air through the filter, giving it the oxygen it needed.

I've wanted to test this, but mine hasn't done it since I went back to using longer and faster roads.

[Graham47]

@Cyker, you also use tachometer via your HUD, have you also experienced the engine running @ low revs but not apparently supplying any energy as shown on the energy flow meter ?

[Guest]

Hiya, wow thanks for the quick replies. Just to tie you down... the EV indicator should come on then when taking the foot off the gas? I take it that should be the case.

I'll give you a scenario. I can drive for 5 or 10 minutes, have 3/4 or full Battery, get to the top of hill and coast down it, <40mph. It is supposed to come on then? As I say, it used to. It used to stay on until my revs went over the eco half way line and then the engine came on, release the gas again and EV was back on.

@Graham47 Thanks mine is just a Design. Yeah, I can tell when the engine is on because of the red flow animation so I don't expect the EV indicator to come on then. Sometimes it's just a green flow animation from the Battery with no EV indicator but if I press the accelerator, even at low revs and sufficient Battery, the red comes back. 

@Cyker Thanks, I tried some long motorway stints but that hasn't changed anything. I'm a bit hesitant to drive in B mode. I've only used that on rare occassions going down very steep hills, no gas.

I'll be driving past my dealer this coming week so I'll pop in. I just need reassurance I'm not being silly. I'll let you know what they say.

 

Thanks!

 

[Graham47]

10 minutes ago, PB194 said:

Yeah, I can tell when the engine is on because of the red flow animation

@PB194 in the example I’ve encountered, there is no “red flow animation “ just 100% green from the HV Battery but I know from my tachometer that the engine is running but not generating a ‘flow animation’.  Honestly can’t recall if I’ve lost the EV indicator when regenerating mode.

[TonyHSD]

That’s normal behaviour. If outside air temperature is 18C° and more it is a good idea to use AC preferably in auto mode and set your preferred temperature like 22C° for example and let the hvac system condition the cabin and maintain room temperature. If the temperature in the cabin rises 30+ and the hybrid Battery gets hot it may behave exactly as per your posts. When ev indicator disappear means that your engine running, and it does to protect the Battery from overheating. 

[Guest]

4 minutes ago, TonyHSD said:

That’s normal behaviour.

Thanks Tony. This makes sense. I got my car in the winter and this behaviour started in the spring when outside temps started increasing. I'll go for a spin tomorrow down the motorway tomorrow with the AC on Auto and see how it behaves when I get into town. Although, I'm certain the cabin temps haven't gotten above 22°C when I've used it. Scotland isn't that warm! 🤣

[Graham47]

I got mine at the start of March, not exactly winter but still cold and the car behaved exactly as I expected following on from a Mk3.  The start of the ‘strange ‘ behaviour coincided with the start of the VERY hot weather Mayish when I has the hvac going flat out.  I prefer a cooler cabin so have the temp set quite low.

[flash22]

If it's your first hybrid, learn to be light on the throttle anything over 1/4 throttle will kick the ICE on, other factors like the A/C and electrical load also play a part - get up to speed and back off the throttle and let the car coast

[Guest]

thanks flash22, Yeah, I had Lightfoot installed in a company car (diesel) and was always in the top 5 in a fleet of over 500, quite often top. While I resented it, it did coach me how to max out mpg. For me, I drive in eco mode usually and I always keep the needle in the green. The engine usually kicks in when the needle goes above 50%. My score on MyT Hybrid Coaching is currently 94/100 for the year so there's still room to improve! 😃

[Cyker]

2 hours ago, PB194 said:

Hiya, wow thanks for the quick replies. Just to tie you down... the EV indicator should come on then when taking the foot off the gas? I take it that should be the case.

I'll give you a scenario. I can drive for 5 or 10 minutes, have 3/4 or full battery, get to the top of hill and coast down it, <40mph. It is supposed to come on then? As I say, it used to. It used to stay on until my revs went over the eco half way line and then the engine came on, release the gas again and EV was back on.

@Graham47 Thanks mine is just a Design. Yeah, I can tell when the engine is on because of the red flow animation so I don't expect the EV indicator to come on then. Sometimes it's just a green flow animation from the battery with no EV indicator but if I press the accelerator, even at low revs and sufficient battery, the red comes back. 

@Cyker Thanks, I tried some long motorway stints but that hasn't changed anything. I'm a bit hesitant to drive in B mode. I've only used that on rare occassions going down very steep hills, no gas.

I'll be driving past my dealer this coming week so I'll pop in. I just need reassurance I'm not being silly. I'll let you know what they say.

 

Thanks!

 

The EV indicator comes on when the ICE is off, so not necessarily when you lift off the accelerator pedal.

Don't be afraid to try B-mode, although I'd try it on a quiet road and not when someone is tailgating you as the engine braking is quite strong!

You shouldn't have to drive in B-mode for long, usually a few stops from it are allegedly enough for it to fix whatever's up and return the car to normal behaviour.

 

3 hours ago, Graham47 said:

@Cyker, you also use tachometer via your HUD, have you also experienced the engine running @ low revs but not apparently supplying any energy as shown on the energy flow meter ?

Yes I have! That exact thing! I had it occasionally in the aforementioned scenario, but also and more commonly in winter when I had the heater on. It seems there are some situations where this is just a thing it does!

In winter it's likely it just generating heat for the cabin (Although that's still weird because usually when it does that it is charging the Battery too!), but I do wonder if it's also a symptom of when it's trying to regen the filter, as it seems to be around 1000-1100rpm, and there are very few situations where the engine runs at such low RPM (Usually the lowest it'll go is 1500rpm, and 90% of the time it'll be around 2000rpm!)

It bugged me but I've chalked it up as yet another item in my list of Weird Things The Car Does For No Apparent Reason But Is Apparently Normal Behaviour  

[TonyHSD]

It’s all done because of the traction Battery temperature and charge management.
You can notice strange behaviour after long motorway journeys at higher speeds , going long downhills, slow down quickly when going off motorway or A roads. When is very hot outside and you use AC and the compressor is working hard to cool down the cabin,  all of these scenarios are common for Toyota hybrids and this is when they will run the engine, disable ev mode either chosen via the ev button or as in hybrid mode.
AC compressor is very powerful  and uses a lot of juice from the Battery.
The car will run the engine to propel itself and keep the ev power for the ac compressor.
I have seen examples when I have almost full Battery, throttle very lightly pressed and the engine kicked in quickly just became the ac is running at higher rpm. Once the cabin is conditioned to more ambient temperatures the ac compressor slows down and comes ON and OFF frequently to maintain cold air. Engines then will behave as usual. 
Next time when you see no ev light on dash try to select it via the button and watch for the message on dashboard, why ev mode is not available, if it it’s unknown reason it’s exactly that temperature management. If the battery is low or speed too high it will say so on the screen. 👌

[Dala]

I remember that in "PWR" mode, the EV indicator was less displayed
don't you have the drive mode on PWR turned on?

[Guest]

2 hours ago, Dala said:

I remember that in "PWR" mode, the EV indicator was less displayed
don't you have the drive mode on PWR turned on?

Hi Dala, thanks

I rarely have cause to use "pwr" mode. I'm 99% of the time in Eco.

Tell you what though, I followed the advice of @Cyker and others in this thread regarding driving in B-Mode for a bit, say about 5 or 6 minutes on some town roads and i'm now getting EV Time stats of over 50% again and the EV indicator is illuminating more than it was. I'll keep an eye on it.

Thanks all! 👍

 

 

[Cyker]

Thanks for letting us know that you found it worked too!

I still really want to know why that works, and if the theory about the O2 thing is true!

 

 

[YarisHybrid2016]

My gen.3 has an interesting behavior if you floor it, slow/stop, floor it, slow/stop in traffic up to 30 MPH, it won't immediately shutdown the ICE.

Instead, it slowly ramps down the RPM to idle over maybe 30 seconds, then shutdown.

This is with plenty of charge in the Battery.

[Cyker]

My Mk4 also sometimes does that if I've done an extended length of hard acceleration and then lift off - It doesn't just shut off the engine but continues to favour it for a bit. I wondered if it's cooling the engine down or regenning the GPF or something!

[HughA]

Could it be charging the Battery to replace the charge used during your extended length of hard acceleration?

[Cyker]

Sometimes it is, but the situation me and YarisHybrid2016 are talking about is specifically when the car has 4+ bars (50%+) of charge, and the Mk4 especially doesn't normally run the engine just to charge the car when it's at 4 bars or more.

 

[TonyHSD]

I believe that there is no regeneration on any gpf filter at all.
It’s all about hybrid system ( electric motor + hybrid battery)  temperature management and voltage regulation.  
Always happens after long motorway journeys, after long downhill descending, after quick stopping, after fast acceleration and following quick release of the accelerator, this one is to settle the engine rpm before the the engine shuts off itself to prevent excess torque and even so sometimes the engine shuts off with a bang ( damper springs fully loaded).
1: The transmission on these cars has a small oil pump drive shaft connected to the planet carrier shaft of the power split device which is connected to the engine crankshaft via damper clutch and when engine is running this small shaft is rotating an oil pump in the transmission which is cooling the electric motor that’s why your engine is running. 

2: After long motorway drive and especially when at higher speeds your Battery fun very likely is spinning at stage 3 or 4, and when you turn off the car you can hear a turbine like sound coming from behind, that’s your fast spinning hybrid Battery cooling fan. 

My old Auris does it exactly the same.
Switching to B mode does affect the behaviour of my car the same way as in your new Yaris and I still believe there is no GPF regeneration.
This is exactly what happens on brand new cars too where we can’t talk about regeneration of any filter because the car is so new there is no dirt or soot anywhere., but heat yes, it’s unavoidable and heat has to be managed. 
The filter regeneration it’s a diesel thing from the past. 👌

Here at 05:20 on this video, but highly recommended to watch the full length if you haven’t already. 👌👍

And some pictures of your transmission too.