New Toyota Corolla Hybrid - any thoughts?
Discussion
PSRG said:
gangzoom said:
People keep on forgetting the 'eletric' bit of the Toyota hybrid drivetrain is to enable the combustion engine to run the Atkinson cycle.
150 mile road trip up the M1, near 60mpg, that's probably better efficiency than an electric Porsche Taycan!!
[Img]https://live.staticflickr.com/8626/16623601088_f80b3bde7e_c_d.jpg[/thumb]
Latest Prius drivetrain are even better, am sure I've seen people report over 70mpg, thats 8p per mile in fuel costs, cheaper than most public EV chargers!!
As a contrast, I picked up a brand new one from Hertz at Geneva airport and drove it to a ski resort in France and back. That was only a round trip of 400kms, but by the time I got back to Geneva the fuel warning light was on. That’s 250 miles on a tank. No idea how big the tank is (I returned it empty) but that doesn’t seem good to me... Nice to drive though, well equipped but a bit gutless. It had adaptive cruise and lane assist (which would drive and steer the car autopilot style for about 30 seconds with no driver input before chiming), heated seats and steering wheel and a nice part alcantara interior. Sat Nav was difficult to use, and Apple CarPlay was either not fitted or didn’t work. Not sure which. So I used my phone and google maps. Was able to control Spotify on my phone (connected by Bluetooth) though, so not all bad!!150 mile road trip up the M1, near 60mpg, that's probably better efficiency than an electric Porsche Taycan!!
[Img]https://live.staticflickr.com/8626/16623601088_f80b3bde7e_c_d.jpg[/thumb]
Latest Prius drivetrain are even better, am sure I've seen people report over 70mpg, thats 8p per mile in fuel costs, cheaper than most public EV chargers!!
PSRG said:
As a contrast, I picked up a brand new one from Hertz at Geneva airport and drove it to a ski resort in France and back. That was only a round trip of 400kms, but by the time I got back to Geneva the fuel warning light was on.
I am not surprise at all: highway going uphill are definitely not were you get the best of an hybrid, especially not in term of consumption.I went to ski with mine too (CT200h 2011): not the most enjoyable drive, but wasn't so bad too. Maybe because I am used to go with "student cars" with four people + luggages in
I also found out that when you go down from the resort, the battery get fully charged fast, so you are not on the regenerative brake all the way down as I thought: instead, the car kept the engine on for engine braking, and was trying to decrease the charge of the battery by "pushing" the car downhill! I ended up spending a lot of time on the mechanical brake, and got a bad MPG... Not what I thought i would get going downhill with an hybrid
Motorway - at cruise control - is definitely not the favorite playground of the 1.8
KTF said:
Is this not what the 'B' mode is for on the gear selector? Spins the engine up so you are not on the pedal all the way down?
Yes, it is. But going down the Alps, the "engine brake" of a 1.8 was not enough, especially before the sharp turns. So I still had to use "a lot" the mechanical brakes...What I was more surprised of was that as soon as I was on flat again, the ICE stayed on and the electric motor was pushing/accelerating the car. I guess the battery was at the max, and the car wanted to get rid of some electricity in order to allow you to do regenerative braking again when necessary. Make sense on the paper, but didn't work at all: i had to mechanically brake while the electric engine was pushing the car... Weird feeling.
It is a rare thing. I would just not recommend an hyrbid for someone living in the mountains. You get so much use to regenerative braking that using the mechanical ones feel like a lack of anticipation/fail in your driving/waste of energy
Otispunkmeyer said:
There is a certain amount of recalibration needed if you’re used to conventional power trains. Also the fuel tank is smaller because the hybrid gubbins. I typically get 450 miles.
Oh I get that; we had an A3 e-tron for about 3 years / 40k miles and the economy was very journey type specific. It also only had a small tank, but because of the plug-in functionality it was often possible to get more than 1,000 miles from its very small tank. Though even it would have struggled driving up the alps I reckon 
cedrichn said:
Yes, it is. But going down the Alps, the "engine brake" of a 1.8 was not enough, especially before the sharp turns. So I still had to use "a lot" the mechanical brakes...
What I was more surprised of was that as soon as I was on flat again, the ICE stayed on and the electric motor was pushing/accelerating the car. I guess the battery was at the max, and the car wanted to get rid of some electricity in order to allow you to do regenerative braking again when necessary. Make sense on the paper, but didn't work at all: i had to mechanically brake while the electric engine was pushing the car... Weird feeling.
It is a rare thing. I would just not recommend an hyrbid for someone living in the mountains. You get so much use to regenerative braking that using the mechanical ones feel like a lack of anticipation/fail in your driving/waste of energy
I agree that it was very unsuited to mountain use. More weight to lug up the hill, and nowhere to store the power coming back down, The plug in hybrid power train of our old A3 e-tron would have worked much better on the down hill bits. For a start, assuming you hadn’t charged it at the top, I reckon you’d have gained a good 20 miles of range, and at its most aggressive regenerative braking would have significantly reduced brake usage! But, you would have had to lug even more weight up there in the first place...What I was more surprised of was that as soon as I was on flat again, the ICE stayed on and the electric motor was pushing/accelerating the car. I guess the battery was at the max, and the car wanted to get rid of some electricity in order to allow you to do regenerative braking again when necessary. Make sense on the paper, but didn't work at all: i had to mechanically brake while the electric engine was pushing the car... Weird feeling.
It is a rare thing. I would just not recommend an hyrbid for someone living in the mountains. You get so much use to regenerative braking that using the mechanical ones feel like a lack of anticipation/fail in your driving/waste of energy
Petrol Only said:
You could take your Toyota to Lexus to get it serviced I presume. I took my Lexus RX to Toyota before I started using a specialist in Sheffield.
Sorry for the thread detour; is this specialist Lex-Tek? I've just bought an RX400h and wondering if I should go there for servicing etc. I assume you recommend?I looked closely at the new Corolla hybrid last year. At the time, discounts made the CT200h with the same 1.8 drivetrain and higher spec a fair bit cheaper (I bought a lightly used CT in the end). I'd really like to see the new 2.0 in a CT200h replacement, but for now mine's been just fine.
As someone else mentioned, these cars are ideal around town and benefit from a "cool" driving style. It's also worth mentioning that you can get very high mpg while driving long distances. Here's mine, after 250+ miles of 65mph motorway cruising in warm weather:
As someone else mentioned, these cars are ideal around town and benefit from a "cool" driving style. It's also worth mentioning that you can get very high mpg while driving long distances. Here's mine, after 250+ miles of 65mph motorway cruising in warm weather:
The Cardinal said:
I looked closely at the new Corolla hybrid last year. At the time, discounts made the CT200h with the same 1.8 drivetrain and higher spec a fair bit cheaper (I bought a lightly used CT in the end). I'd really like to see the new 2.0 in a CT200h replacement, but for now mine's been just fine.
As someone else mentioned, these cars are ideal around town and benefit from a "cool" driving style. It's also worth mentioning that you can get very high mpg while driving long distances. Here's mine, after 250+ miles of 65mph motorway cruising in warm weather:
That is goodAs someone else mentioned, these cars are ideal around town and benefit from a "cool" driving style. It's also worth mentioning that you can get very high mpg while driving long distances. Here's mine, after 250+ miles of 65mph motorway cruising in warm weather:
The thing with the CT is, its basically looked the same as it did when it was released.... but have they changed it? I thought the CH-R/UX250H might have been the replacement? Do new CTs have the newer 1.8 system from the Prius 4? Was it moved to the newer TNG platform?
No, the base car and running gear haven't changed since the CT's launch in 2010/11 (so, it's the same as a Prius 3 - slightly more powerful than the equivalent Auris or Corolla). It's quite an old design now, but also an interesting one with some features that other Toyota hybrids don't have: the CT has quite sophisticated details like vertical *and* horizontal suspension, for example.
There are reports that a smaller-than-UX model to replace the CT is in the works, based on the Corolla 2.0 hybrid. Whether it's an SUV, hatch, BEV or hybrid remains to be seen.
There are reports that a smaller-than-UX model to replace the CT is in the works, based on the Corolla 2.0 hybrid. Whether it's an SUV, hatch, BEV or hybrid remains to be seen.
littleredrooster said:
gangzoom said:
Latest Prius drivetrain are even better, am sure I've seen people report over 70mpg, thats 8p per mile in fuel costs, cheaper than most public EV chargers!!
Yup - keep it away from motorways and it's not difficult to get 80mpg+ on briskly-driven A-roads. Best I've had was 94mpg over about 20 miles, my overall average(18,000 miles) is a whisker under 70mpg.Plus if you know how to drive them you can do some quite silly things with it. On my way home the A42 kinda goes up and down a few times, then there is a longer, slightly down hill feeling, stretch as you approach the M1. It is possible to gather speed on the downs, scrub it off on the hills and then on that last bit you can gradually punt it up to 80-85 all with the MPG reader showing 75+
Granted, it does take a bit of concentration...and a steady foot!
But I got 55 mpg average out of mine whilst I had it and I didn't often play games like that, just drove it normally. Though I do have a fairly "pre-emptive" and coasty style. Even in normal cars I get 5-10 more MPG out of them than my wife and I don't drive any slower. Its just about maintaining speed once you have it.
Anyway, OP, I'd say go for it if it fits the bill. Good, well made cars and the Toyota HSD system is mega reliable. Its been around since the 90s! and although it sounds complex, mechanically its very simple; no clutches, not even really a gearbox in the traditional sense. And if you just want something that is nice to punt about in, smooth, relaxing; They suit really well.
I mean I bought mine as a kind of experiment. I was curious to try one and I was sure I wasn't going to like it. But I did, great daily driver and meant I didn't have to get a diesel. Now got a Rav4 Hybrid and that is great also!
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