Urban/Rural Journeys Best Practice.

[Broadway One]

Hi all......Sure this has been covered in a variety of ways, but here goes.

80% of my urban/suburban trips are 5/10 mls. totally EV mode, a pleasure to drive. 

Occasionally we visit family 100/150 mls. EV defaulting to Hy mode at some point.

These longer journeys are a mixture of easy motorway miles plus town/village miles.

Shame to use EV capacity on the above which is at the start of our journey 30 mls.

Is it possible to bank EV mode & activate as required, for the town/traffic bits ?

I find urban driving very seductive using EV mode particularly in traffic.

I'm aware the change to Hy is seamless, maybe just ignore things & let the engineering do its stuff.

So much in the Toyota PHEV, a joy to explore, other marques don't come close IMO.

Barry Wright, Lancashire.    

[Strangely Brown]

Unless you have a specific reason to select EV mode then probably best to just let the car do its stuff. You may find that it does what you would choose anyway.

[Roy124]

Mark, wrong way round, Barry said deselect EV mode.  Anyway, I agree with you.  The Regen should give useful terminal EV.

[Strangely Brown]

2 hours ago, Roy124 said:

Mark, wrong way round, Barry said deselect EV mode.  Anyway, I agree with you.  The Regen should give useful terminal EV.

<reads post again>
Indeed he did. Apologies.

While I do not have a "charge hold" facility on the HEV I cannot say that I have ever been hankering to have it. 

According to the App, over the last year (almost) of ownership, I have 62% EV time and 48% EV distance. That reflects the fact the car spends most of its time in EV mode when in town and more on ICE when on trunk roads.

IMO, Toyota have the tuning of the hybrid system pretty damned good. But you would hope so by the 4th gen (mine).

[philip42h]

3 hours ago, Broadway One said:

Sure this has been covered in a variety of ways ...

It has! 😄

For us HEVies it is delightfully academic - we have zero EV range, an EV button that is largely just for show, and a car that works perfectly well in normal hybrid mode.

The PHEV has far more possibilities and these have been discussed before. In the PHEV OM is suggests:

Quote

Primarily using EV mode and AUTO EV/HV mode when driving in cities and using HV mode when driving on highways (or freeways) can help conserve fuel and electricity.

Which suggest that switching to HV mode on the motorway and switching to EV mode and AUTO EV/HV mode when not may be a good way to go.

When it was discussed previously I had hoped that AUTO EV/HV mode might let the car make sensible decisions and do all that for you (based on speed etc.) but owners experiences suggested that wasn't quite the case. From the OM:

• In EV mode the car will run as an EV for as long as there is sufficient charge in the Battery (and then switch to HV)
• In AUTO EV/HV mode it behaves just as in EV mode but more readily fires up the ICE when more power is requested. Sadly, it focuses on power rather than more 'sensible' use of the Battery.
• In HV mode the car will use both Battery and ICE power. The OM states: "Switching to HV
  mode when driving on a highway or when driving uphill is recommended in order to conserve battery power." ... and I suspect that is part of the answer to Barry's question, but you can go one step further and ...
• In CHG mode the ICE will recharge the traction battery up to a maximum of 80% full charge. So, you can use a motorway section of a journey where the hybrid system is efficient anyway to harvest and store energy for the next (long) section that is better suited to EV driving.

So PHEVies have mode choices that require a reasonable understanding and appreciation of the journey profile in order to make best use of the available modes ... 😉

[Roy124]

5 minutes ago, philip42h said:

it is delightfully academic - we have zero EV range, an EV button that is largely just for show

True as far as travelling goes but the EV mode (with conditioning off) is perfect for moving the car out of the garage or on the drive. 

[Cyker]

Are you able to do that? I have literally never been able to power the car on and immediately try to use EV mode to move the car a short distance - It'll either just say "EV mode unavailable", or go into EV mode, I'll move maybe a metre, and it'll cut out again saying there isn't enough charge!

 

[Derek.w]

7 minutes ago, Cyker said:

Are you able to do that? I have literally never been able to power the car on and immediately try to use EV mode to move the car a short distance - It'll either just say "EV mode unavailable", or go into EV mode, I'll move maybe a metre, and it'll cut out again saying there isn't enough charge!

 

You can move the Yaris in ev mode only but a/c needs to be off and select EV mode quickly  just moved mine yesterday as a strange car was in my parking slot so only moved it the just over the length of the car plus 3 or 4 extra feet just before my neighbour came home.

[Cyker]

I usually shut the HVAC off before I shut the car down, as if it's on the engine will almost always come on when I start the car unless it's a very hot morning, but still never gotten the EV mode to come on from a first start!

I think my use case is just unfavourable for it - I'm usually driving engine-off the last couple of roads to get to my house, which is enough to use any excess power in the the traction Battery, so it's rarely higher than 4 bars when I shut the car down.

I find by morning the lower temps overnight tend to sag the Battery a bit so it'll usually be barely at 4 bars, or at 3; EV mode requires 50%+ charge for it to even work, and will turn off as soon as the Battery drops below 50%.

 

[Phil E]

Barry the simple answer to your question is yes.

if you select HEV mode the car will run as a hybrid retaining most of the Battery range and then you just switch to EV mode when you want to just run on pure electric mode. You can do this as often as you like. I tend to find my car will use about 5 miles of EV range when running in HEV mode on the motorway 

i have a similar usage profile to you. I do a 130 mile round trip every week, 90 miles on motorway in HEV mode and the rest in EV mode for urban/ town driving. I don’t know if it’s the most efficient way to use the Battery but it does make for very relaxed and civilised driving in slower traffic

[ernieb]

PHEV. I regularly do a 115 miles trip with around 100 miles of the motorway indicated 65mph (actual around 62mph) .  I have tried it all ways around to get the best overall economy.  So for me and my driving style I just leave the car in EV (default) mode and when this is consumed the car automatically switches to HEV mode.  I'm always amazed at how much the car runs in EV mode even when in HEV mode. Just look at the MyT app for long trip and you can see the EV sections displayed on the map.

[Cyker]

I think what's given the newer hybrids such a jump in real-world MPG is the reduction gear, allowing them to run the MG2 at higher speeds, and having an MG2 strong enough to provide useful motive force at those speeds.

Keeping a car moving requires surprisingly little energy - The biggest energy use is by far acceleration. My Mk4 will almost always use the engine to get up to speed, but once I settle down to cruise the electric motors tend to kick in unless I'm at motorway speeds.

With the even beefier electric motors in the RAV4 I imagine it's much easier to maintain that cruise at higher speed, even with the RAV4's bigger frontal area!

[Oscarmax]

I am still trying to get my head around all this, we picked the the Suzuki Across PHEV last week, our previous vehicle 2020 Mitsubishi Outlander 2.4 PHEV it had a dedicated EV mode which I never really used, the default mode run in EV till the Battery run out, then it switched to hybrid. 

However, it also had a Save mode which basically saved your 80% charger and run as a hybrid, plus a charge mode self explanatory. When towing it is recommended to use the charge mode, towing our 1500kg caravan we would achieve approximately 30mpg.

Last week had to travel 100 miles to have the towbar fitted, managed 55 miles on EV, the return journey consisted of 40 miles motorway, dual carriage way, speed 55mph achieved 65.9mpg. Overall we are very impressed far better than the Outlander PHEV 28miles EV and 36mpg ICE.

In September we are towing our 1500kg caravan down to the New Forest 178 miles, which modes do I use, I am assuming EV until the Battery is down to 50% then HV mode ?, or would I be better off using the charge mode ?

 

[Flatcoat]

Use charge mode otherwise The Battery will deplete in no time. I preserve my Battery for site manoeuvring and local use. I never charge away from home, too costly and not worth it for the relative few miles you get from a charge. I also run mine on E5 fuel - gives better mpg than E10. 

[TonyHSD]

For hev ev mode as Roy said works great as long as you have half or more Battery and switch off hvac immediately after selecting ev button. 
For phev when going on a long trip with full tank and full traction Battery best way imo is as already said start from beginning in hv mode and drive as usual, motorways mostly on petrol and as soon as you enter towns or villages switch to pure ev and you will achieve best fuel consumption and lowest emissions overall for the journey. 

[Oscarmax]

39 minutes ago, Flatcoat said:

Use charge mode otherwise The battery will deplete in no time. I preserve my battery for site manoeuvring and local use. I never charge away from home, too costly and not worth it for the relative few miles you get from a charge. I also run mine on E5 fuel - gives better mpg than E10. 

Charge mode it is then😀

[Strangely Brown]

5 minutes ago, Oscarmax said:

Charge mode it is then😀

What does the handbook suggest? Just a thought that the manufacturer might also have an idea or two?

[Oscarmax]

2 minutes ago, Strangely Brown said:

What does the handbook suggest? Just a thought that the manufacturer might also have an idea or two?

It doesn't

[Yugguy1970]

21 hours ago, Cyker said:

Are you able to do that? I have literally never been able to power the car on and immediately try to use EV mode to move the car a short distance - It'll either just say "EV mode unavailable", or go into EV mode, I'll move maybe a metre, and it'll cut out again saying there isn't enough charge!

 

In our 71 Yaris I could never stop the engine starting even when using ev switch and there being loads of charge.

The 23 plate will let me ev it without starting the engine unless hvac is on and cabin heat is required.

[Broadway One]

Thanks guys......for contributing to this lively topic re RAV ICE/EV options.
Similar to my Apple desktop which I use for word processing & Googling which it does very well.
However it's capable of so much more, alas unused in my case.
Barry Wright, Lancashire.        

[Yugguy1970]

Tbh if I had the 300bhp phev I wouldn't be able to resist tlgps with the scrotes in base spec Audis and BMWs. 🤣

[NASY]

Interestingly I use HEV mode on long journeys and switch into Auto in towns and urban areas, especially the likes of Edinburgh which is mostly 20mph a speed which particularly suits EV travel. I can't definitively say how economical this process is but I do reset my mpg read out every time I switch to HEV mode and know my EV range is around 50 miles, petrol around 57 mpg - summer weather so 17C plus. My major driver for this behaviour is firstly to not pollute urban areas any more than I need to and the added joy of the urban ride in EV, oh and because I can.