Hybrids -- pros and cons.

Hoof_Hearted

Current car is getting elderly and I am considering a hybrid. I have had great service from my current petrol Toyota and I am thinking of sticking with the same company, considering, for example, a Corolla. Anybody who runs a hybrid, I would love to hear your opinion. I understand that replacement batteries can be quite expensive but what are the main differences when driving?

daveyjp

Before lockdown I drove a Prius pool car regularly and once you get used to the CVT gearbox and adjust your driving its excellent.  Long term mpg about 50 and it only dies short trips.

Don't worry about battery issues, they have a fifteen year warranty.  The third most common UK vehicle with 200,000 miles is the Prius.  All those taxi drivers can't be wrong.

The only downside for me is no spare wheel.

MinuteNoodles

Full electric or nothing. Hybrids are literally the worst of both worlds. Very short range on electric only, partly due to battery size constraints because of fuel tanks and additional weight penalty from the ICE engine, running on fuel the economy worse than a conventional petrol/diesel engined vehicle due to the additional weight penalty of the battery, fuel economy is actually worse than an equivalent size ICE engined vehicle. For example the above Prius the long term MPG is 50MPG which even my 10 year old 155,000 mile 2 litre Mondeo diesel which is larger managed to beat, my current Ford Focus is doing 64/65MPG going up to over 70MPG on a run.

Personally I'd go full electric. Battery longevity on anything but earlier generation Nissan Leafs isn't a concern, it was only a concern on the Leafs because they didn't have any active temperature management so you'd need to replace a battery long before a vehicle which has it. There are many early Teslas for example several years on still with over 90% capacity at well over 100,000 miles because Tesla did a good job on managing the battery thermals.

Grumpy_chap

I had an Auris Hybrid 2014 and found it quite disappointing.  It was dull to drive (which I accepted in return of the anticipated fuel economy) but I also failed to achieve good fuel economy either - only about 45 mpg overall.  My replacement is a 2007 petrol focus (none of the clever fuel efficiency stuff) and achieve 42 mpg.  It may, in part, have been because I do a relatively high proportion of motorway mileage and a different user may find the battery is in use more of the time.  However, in my experience, even when in town, it was nigh on impossible to actually drive in electric mode.  I will seriously consider an all electric car when the Focus passes on.

daveyjp

As I state the Prius does short trips.  It is parked in a city centre car park, I doubt it ever gets on roads with more than a 40 limit and spends most of its days doing far less, maybe an average of 10-15mph over 4-5 mile trips at most.

A diesel Mondeo, Focus or any other make will not do 50+ mpg doing those sort of short hop city trips sat in heavy traffic and at some point the DPF,EGR will start complaining.

MinuteNoodles

daveyjp said:

A diesel Mondeo, Focus or any other make will not do 50+ mpg doing those sort of short hop city trips sat in heavy traffic and at some point the DPF,EGR will start complaining.

Actually they do and as long as they get a run out once every few weeks the DPF will be fine.

gzoom

MinuteNoodles said:

Full electric or nothing. Hybrids are literally the worst of both worlds.  

That's not correct at all, we have both a full electric Tesla and hybrid Lexus, both owned from new.

Toyota/Lexus are the very definition of reliability and efficiency. The electric motor in them aren't designed to be EVs but allows the cars to run the Atkinson cycle, which means you get diesel economy without having to run diesel or having to worry about DPF/turbos.

The battery in Toyota/Lexus hybrids shouldn't need replacing for 200k+ miles, far beyond the life time millage of most cars.

Whilst full battery EVs are great, you can pickup a used Lexus IS300H for £15k which would be loaded with toys and give you 10 years+ trouble free motoring. £15k will just about pay for some software upgrades on an equivalent full electric EV like a Tesla.

We were all ready to replace our Lexus hybrid with a Tesla Model 3, but when I did the maths on cost of purchase/total ownership costs keeping our Lexus hybrid actually came out on top by a massive margin!

nick74

Having owned various diesels for 25+ years and recently switching to a Toyota hybrid I have no desire to ever own a diesel car again. I've not yet encountered any situation where the fuel consumption of the hybrid is worse than a diesel, and in many it is way better. Personally I think they are the best of both worlds, but each to their own. 

Hoof_Hearted

From what you say, the fuel consumption of hybrids isn't that stunning. I already get 48 mpg from my 1.4 petrol, so 50 mpg isn't worth the extra purchase cost. The wife gets over 50 mpg from her auto Jazz. I am not sure about a fully electric vehicle as they still have a limited range and I am not sure how easy it is to find a charging point. Electricity is not a cheap fuel (14-15p a kWh domestically), so I wonder what the true cost of running a full EV really is. 

Scrapit

MinuteNoodles said:

daveyjp said:

A diesel Mondeo, Focus or any other make will not do 50+ mpg doing those sort of short hop city trips sat in heavy traffic and at some point the DPF,EGR will start complaining.

Actually they do and as long as they get a run out once every few weeks the DPF will be fine.

Absolutely not.

The_Fat_Controller

You'll never have "range anxiety" with a hybrid !
Driving style needs adjustment for best economy.
The new Yaris has the latest battery technology and improved CVT system.