Re: Power required
I'll completely accept that ICE engines are terribly inefficient at stop-start town driving, but even accounting for the fact that your Corolla is somewhat bigger than my Modus and uses petrol rather than Diesel, I'd say those figures are slightly disappointing and one of the reasons I've never totally understood the benefits of hybrid driving.
Agreed..sorta. I was hoping for better. However the truth is that my typical journey is not what the hybrid system is best suited for. Hybrids are best around town where figures of 70 even 80 mpg are possible. But even so I am getting better figures than my previous car (a Honda Jazz 1.3 CVT). It's looking like the hybrid system has reduced my fuel consumption by around 10%.
Would an equivalent diesel be better? I don't know. But I do think that a diesel would be noisier, smellier and possibly nowhere near as clean as the manufacturer claimed. Hybrids are not intended to be the next best thing. They are sold as more efficient than their petrol engine equivalents and especially so in an urban environment.
Something else to consider is that I was already an efficient driver. It might be that a more typical driver would have seen a bigger improvement. I've long wondered about that since a lot of what a hybrid is about is reclaiming lost energy and I try not to lose it in the first place (eg; I try to avoid ever using my brakes).
And one last thing - although I have the smaller 1.8 litre engine I do have the top spec which means bigger tyres. These have been found to be responsible for another 5 to 10% of fuel consumption with the previous Auris model. So like for like it's possible my fuel consumption has been reduced by 15% compared to my previous car with no loss of performance.
Before the Modus, in the last summer before I handed my Kangoo (very similar engine but very different gearing) over to my wife, that car did three tanks which each averaged something like 72mpg. Once it was relegated to the school run it still managed 55mpg+, and for that use a plug-in hybrid (with a battery capable of 20 - 30 miles) would probably be much more efficient.
And my Corolla would likely be 70 mpg or higher on a school run. This is why taxi drivers love the Prius. On the open-road it's above average for a petrol engine. Around town it's extremely good.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
