Hybrid - is ev mode useless?

[Elmahdi]

Hi all, my experience so far driving Corolla TS 2.0 2019 until today. Coasting is the best way to leave the engine in EV mode for longer.

Another great hybrid driving tip is to use the car’s Battery whenever possible. You can do this in town and urban driving by accelerating to your required speed, easing off the accelerator and then gently easing the accelerator on again. By doing this, you can activate EV mode – indicated by the dashboard light – which means that the engine has switched off and you are using the electric Battery.

During warmer weather my MPG is higher and around 60 to 65 mpg and lower during a cold weather and around 48 to 52 mpg. Unfortunately hybrid batteries don’t like cold weather unless the car have a separate heat pump like the RAV4 hybrid and plug-in hybrid or the Prius hybrid and plugs in hybrid.

Heat pump is so important to the hybrid system 

[FPSUsername]

On 1/4/2024 at 12:55 PM, AndrueC said:

Why do I have to have the front fog lights on in order to have the rear's on? Rear fog lights are more useful and more important than front fog lights.

By law (in the Netherlands), you're allowed to turn on the fronts when visibility drops below 200m. The rears below 50m. It's only logical that you can do it in that order, older VAG vehicles had it that way as well, where you need to turn on the headlights first (completely, not in auto mode), then pull the knob towards you. First click is the front, second click the rear.

[AndrueC]

Interesting. On Honda vehicles (at least the ones I owned) the fog lights were operated from the left stalk and gave both options:

• Rotate back and release to activate/deactivate rear fogs.
• Rotate forward and lock for front fogs. Rotate further forward and release to activate/deactivate rear fogs while leaving front fogs on.

I've rarely found front fogs to be of much use. We don't get much really thick fog around here so having the sides of the road illuminated is rarely useful. Even on occasions when it was really bad I still don't remember gaining much benefit from them.

However having the rear of my car better lit up for anyone approaching behind is a definite safety benefit in my mind.

The only thing UK law says about fog lights is:

* You have to have at least one rear fog light unless you're driving an import with an exemption. Front fog lights are not a requirement.

* You can use them if visibility is reduced but you must switch them off if visibility improves.

 

[Cyker]

The Honda setup sounds a lot more intuitive to me, esp. as you can switch on just the rears!

The kind of fog that warrants using front fogs is very rare down here and the only time I've encountered a situation where they would have been super helpful was when I had my Fiesta which, as sod's law dictates, didn't have them  

I sometimes use them to thank another driver instead of using the main beam, as I think they are less eye-destroying, but it's a bit tricky to do the double-blink quickly without over-shooting and turning on the rears too.

[FPSUsername]

12 hours ago, Cyker said:

The Honda setup sounds a lot more intuitive to me, esp. as you can switch on just the rears!

Or just have two buttons, one for the front, one for the rear as on my Audi A3 🙂

[Cyker]

That works too, although personally I prefer the stalk controls - The light controls in my dad's Fords were like the above, with a dial and buttons, but I really didn't like them as they were down by the knees and you had to take your hand off the wheel and reach down and fumble about to find it, then guess what setting it was on or try and look at it; I find the controls on the stalk much easier to use without looking and with minimal hands-off time.

It's probably down to personal preference and what you're used to tho' - I'm sure there are people that dislike the stalk controls; I know having the inner twist ring confused my brother the first time he drove my Mk1 Yaris as he'd never driven a car with one before  

[JohnnyB68]

Reading this thread helps me understand the EV. Not the best but understandable. What annoys me is when it idles and the Battery is low it decides to idle at a high rev. Which is a waste and not cost effective 

[Roy124]

On 1/10/2024 at 2:19 PM, AndrueC said:

I've rarely found front fogs to be of much use. We don't get much really thick fog around here so having the sides of the road illuminated is rarely useful. Even on occasions when it was really bad I still don't remember gaining much benefit from them.

We used to live in an isolated farmhouse on the Hatfield marshes. Driving in to work at 0'dark hundred there would be a bank of fog about 3 feet thick from headlights up.  My low mounted fogs gave a clear view of the road.   I had the headlights off (I had installed the fogs myself)

[TonyHSD]

5 hours ago, JohnnyB68 said:

Reading this thread helps me understand the EV. Not the best but understandable. What annoys me is when it idles and the battery is low it decides to idle at a high rev. Which is a waste and not cost effective 

These cars are smart and they know best how to work efficiently every time. 
The car never idle and it’s never inefficient, it might look like, it may sounds like but in fact it is always more efficient than standard petrol cars.
The high revs engine runs are purposely happening to warm up the engine fast or to recharge the Battery or a combination of both.
There are times when  the engine may rise to very high rpm for no apparent reason, don’t worry, it’s all controlled by the car ecu and has its own purpose, to reduce Battery charge level and in this case no petrol is used. This is rare and usually happens after long downhill descends. 
The only time when hybrids aren’t efficient is when you push them to the floor. , but all types of cars will be the same. 
 

[miks]

The issue is not Battery capacity. the issue is charging it. if you deplete Battery by driving it in constant EV mode, car will have to run gasoline engine hard to charge it back up resulting in worse average mileage. plugin hybrid has solved this issue with the added charging port.

forced EV mode, as stated earlier here, is for driving in/out garage without fumes