Want to get the very best out of your ground-breaking Toyota hybrid? We’ve gathered a number of hybrid driving hints and tips that will help you to get the best from the system, improving fuel consumption and getting you further for less.
Whichever Toyota hybrid you’ve set your heart on, the following tips and pointers should maximise the range and fuel economy of your Toyota.
The basics
It’s not just hybrids that benefit from the first seven tips – these will help to improve any car’s fuel efficiency:
- Clear out the boot! Keeping the boot free of unnecessary weight will give your car and immediate boost in performance and economy.
- Check your tyre pressures – dig out your owner’s manual, and do a weekly check to ensure that your tyres are correctly inflated in line with Toyota’s recommendation. Or read our handy tyre pressures article here.
- Think ahead – by planning your journeys, you can avoid traffic jams and minimise the likelihood of getting lost.
- Shut up! Closing the windows and sun roof at speeds above 45mph will reduce drag, reducing fuel consumption.
- Remove unused roof racks, boxes and bike racks – they’re a real drag too!
- Steady as she goes – maintain a steady speed and don’t go over the speed limit.
- Smoothly does it! Try to avoid sudden braking or acceleration.
Hybrid driving: hybrid-specific tips
Sorry everyone else, but these tips are for hybrids only:
- Become familiar with the hybrid information display so you can know how much energy is being used.
- EV does it! Keep the car in EV mode as much as possible by using the accelerator gently, pressing it lightly but consistently.
- Improve efficiency with ECO mode, which reduces aggressive throttle response.
- Harvest time – braking gently and early helps the regenerative braking harvest more energy, which means EV mode can operate for longer periods.
- Keep an eye on the dials and gauges to fully understand the hybrid system and manage the charge levels in the hybrid’s high-voltage battery.
- If you’re in stop-start traffic, don’t put the car in neutral (‘N’) when stationary, as electricity will not be generated and the hybrid battery will discharge.
- Consider using cruise control (where fitted) to maintain steady speeds.
- When using climate control, Re-circulate mode reduces energy usage.
- Think about the environment! Constant or heavy use of systems like air-con, lights and wipers will increase energy consumption.
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Hybrid driving: drive modes
Toyota hybrids have four drive modes: Normal, EV, Eco and Power. When you first start your hybrid, the car defaults to the ‘Normal’ drive mode, which automatically manages the most efficient use of both the engine and the battery.
Drivers can also select one of the car’s on-demand drive modes to achieve better fuel consumption in certain settings.
These drive modes are: EV Mode where the car is powered by the battery only during city driving, running near-silent and with no tailpipe emissions; Eco Mode that reduces A/C output and lessens throttle response to limit harsh acceleration; and Power Mode which boosts acceleration by using the hybrid battery to assist the petrol engine.
The shift lever offers four positions: R (Reverse), N (neutral), B (engine braking) and D (drive). For normal driving, D (drive) is absolutely fine, but should you need it, position B has the effect of engine-braking handy when descending a steep hill, for example. It’s not recommended to leave the car in position B for normal driving, mainly because you’d end up using more fuel than necessary!
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Hybrid driving: read the road ahead
Another great hybrid driving tip is to use the car’s battery whenever possible.
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.
Try to maintain a constant speed and, as always, it’s important to read the road ahead. By doing this, you can reduce the amount of unnecessary braking and accelerating, using less fuel. Braking slowly and gently also maximises the amount of energy recovered by the regenerative braking system on the car.
Other factors to consider
Bear in mind that there are many factors that can affect a car’s performance, hybrid included. On cold days, your car will use more fuel as it warms up, but once it’s reached its optimum temperature, the MPG figures will increase.
Also, during the winter, you’re more likely to be using the air-conditioning, lights and wipers, all of which will use some electrical power from the battery. If you regularly travel the same route, don’t be surprised if you get better MPG figures during the summer than in the winter!
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If you’d like more hybrid driving tips or want to discuss your driving technique with other hybrid owners, it’s worth visiting the Hypermiler website.
As a final note, please remember that these hybrid driving tips are published as general guidance on how to get the best fuel economy from your Toyota hybrid. Toyota encourages and supports safe driving at all times – please adhere to the rules of the road.
Read more: Toyota hybrid – how does it work?
My Yaris hybrid was only doing 43 mpg initially but it has gone up to 61-62mpg and I have now done 987 miles on the clock. I think 62 is very good considering it is not a manual car. Besides both Toyota customer service and the dealers Steven Eagell in Luton have been splendid in answering any queries. Highly recommended
13. When stationary, do not select ‘N’ neutral, as electricity will not be generated and the hybrid battery will discharge?
Why! If neutral is NOT selected the car creeps forward so you have to keep your foot on the brake (brake lights on and car trying to move).
The drive modes on a Toyota Auris Hybrid are:
EV Mode (encourages the car to be powered solely by the battery when city driving)
ECO Mode (the car reduces A/C output and dampens harsh acceleration)
Power Mode (which uses the battery to help boost acceleration along with the use of the engine).
EV Mode can only be used at under 20 MPH and it usually displays “EV not currently available”. If it is available, the car will travel for about 300 yards.
Using position B has the effect of engine braking and can be used when descending a hill, for example. We don’t recommend you leave the car in B for normal driving as this can use more fuel over time.
Obviously, the software programmer forgot to disable the accelerator whilst B is selected.
It is very useful when approaching a roundabout or traffic lights to decelerate instead of driving like you can only drive automatics.
Hi Mike,
Thank you for taking the time to contact us.
You’re quite right to point out that drivers can select N when stationary, but we recommend that when in traffic, D is used as other road users may find it useful to see your brake lights. The ‘creep’ function can be handy too in stop-start conditions.
We have updated the wording of the article to reflect this.
We wouldn’t chose to totally disengage the accelerator when B is in use as some power may be needed for safety reasons.
Thanks for your comment.
I agree with many of the previous posters re low mpg in spite of following all the tips mentioned in this article. I have struggled to get over 45-48 mpg in winter months and @ 53-55 mpg in summer with the most careful driving of my Auris Hybrid 2013 Excel. I have also had my local dealer investigate it several times and even their ‘expert hybrid driver’ struggled to do any better. They said they were sending the data to Toyota Technical to assess but never got a response back from them. The main reason I bought a hybrid car was for its fuel efficiency. But it now looks like much cheaper conventional cars actually give better mileage than this one. I’m regretting my purchase now but will probably stick with it until end of my lease contract and then perhaps look at a Honda as not only does my husband get better than advertised mileage on his, but their technical support actually responds to queries too.
My suggestion to Toyota would be to advertise more realistic mpg so that customers aren’t so frustrated by the difference in advertised and real-world numbers.
Hi,
Thank you for taking the time to contact us.
First of all, we’re sorry if your dealer never heard back from our technical team. If you or your dealer can provide us with some details about your car and when they got in contact we’ll see if we can get that reply to you ASAP.
Please complete the customer relations form here: http://po.st/O3vN72.
We do appreciate that MPG is a topical subject and causes some frustration among customers.
As mentioned in the comments below, mpg doesn’t just reflect driving style; it’s a mixture of the driving conditions and several other factors. Hybrids are at their best in stop-start traffic like conditions, where long, heavy acceleration is limited but where you do get use the regenerative braking to recharge the battery. Increasing your MPG can be a gradual process and you may find it improves over over time.
Hope that helps for now but please do let us know about your previous query so we can fix that too.
Many thanks.
i have toyota aqua hybrid car. but i has 17 size low profile tyres alloywheel. my best fuel consumption is 19km/l. but i was in the car at that time. it does only 15km/l in country side with 5 passengers.explain me about the tyre and fuel consumption. if i change the tyres can i improve the fuel economy. i always use eco mode. sometimes power mode for over taking.
Hi Janarrthanan
Thanks for your post.
The tyres that Toyota fit to their hybrid vehicles are designed to provide optimum efficiency. However we do not sell the Toyota Aqua here in the UK market and in these circumstances we would recommend that you contact the distributor for your country who will be able to help advise on the question you have raised.
Thanks for visiting the Toyota UK Blog.
I have a new yaris hybrid and am very disappointed with my mpg. At the moment I’m getting about 51 on average which is less than I get with my partner’s prius. I have read your tips and am already doing most of them but haven’t checked the tyres recently. I sort of assumed in a new car they would be right. I didn’t expect it to get anything like the 80 advertised but was hoping for nearer 60. Should I be right to expect this, at east in the summer?
Hello Diana
Thanks for your post.
Fuel consumption does of course vary across drivers and we hope that the post provided some useful guidance for you. Tyre pressures will have some influence and it will be working checking them very soon just to be on the safe side. Fuel consumption does differ slightly in the seasons and generally improves in the summer months. You do not mention have many miles you have covered but consumption does also improve with mileage. Finally the fuel consumption figures we have to publish are from a standardised European test. It is accepted that this test does not mirror real world driving conditions (it is undertaken indoors on a rolling road for example) but they are there to provide the consumer a level playing field when looking at consumption across all vehicle brands. We would be happy to send more information about this test if you need any more details.
Hope this helps clarify and do let us know how you get on.
My T/Aqua is giving a noise like a horn is blown from far when pressing the brake paddle when on EV.
This orrs me much.
If someone can throw an idea as to hat this could be, I ‘d b t gratfl.
Hi Thian,
Thanks for your post. We’re really sorry to hear that you are having a problem with your vehicle. We suggest taking the vehicle to your local dealer so that they can look at the problem. If you need any further assistance please do not hesitate to contact us. Thanks
I just bought a used 2010 Auris HSD, with only 26k km on it. On my recent 74 km highway trip to the beach I decided to fill it with gas, reset the average consumption indicator, and set cruise control to 80 km/h. A/C set at 1 C lower than ambient. I’d slow down to 70 km/h before climbing major hills. Just doing that I got an incredible average 2.8 L / 100 km, or 101 mpg! If I didn’t see it with my own eyes I wouldn’t believe it.
Since I got to the beach I’ve taken many short (< 6km) trips and my average consumption has climbed to 3.8 L / 100 km, or 74 mpg. I have put at least 120-130 km since I filled it up, and the fuel indicator has barely moved, I feel all warm and fuzzy 🙂
I'm in Greece, and the 74 km trip was done in 30 C ambient. I really hope it was not some sort of fluke because of the road terrain.