Hybrid vehicles?

trigger7mm · #1 10-28-2022, 07:25 AM

Hybrid vehicles, love ‘em or hate ‘em? My wife is thinking of getting a Toyota Rave 4 hybrid. I know they might be good in warmer climate like say, L.A. or Houston, but what about up here in the frozen north? What’s it going to be like when it’s -35C? Anybody have one, a d what do you think? Thanks.

JB_AOL · #2 10-28-2022, 07:37 AM

Hope your planning for next fall!!. Lol.

Toyota hybrid's are not easy to come by (there's a reason for it).

The only "disadvantage" of these hybrids is your fuel usage will go up in the winter as it will be charging the battery more and using more of the gas side during cold days.

They are a great option for local trips (around town/city), as you will use electric most of the time, but higher speeds use gas.

Scott h · #3 10-28-2022, 08:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by trigger7mm

Hybrid vehicles, love ‘em or hate ‘em? My wife is thinking of getting a Toyota Rave 4 hybrid. I know they might be good in warmer climate like say, L.A. or Houston, but what about up here in the frozen north? What’s it going to be like when it’s -35C? Anybody have one, a d what do you think? Thanks.

The RAV Prime would be the model to pick up if you're going that way. They have 70 kms of electric only range and then they default back to 300 HP. hybrid system. Brother in law has a Toyota hybrid and has had zero issues with it outside of amazing mileage, summer and winter.

KGB · #4 10-28-2022, 09:12 AM

Stop this nonsense, this is Alberta, this is an oil country- burn carbon!
That’s how it starts- and in no time you will be eating granola for breakfast with soy milk non fat latte…slippery slope buddy, slippery slope…

Dolly’s Mom · #5 10-28-2022, 09:27 AM

We bought a Toyota Camry hybrid new in 2010 and we still have it. It’s got 210,000 km and hasn’t given us any trouble with batteries. Summer we get 6.7L/100km. Winter we get 6.9L/100km. Difference between summer and winter is we let it warm up in winter. No difference between town and highway.
If you were to drive the car and didn’t know it was a hybrid, you wouldn’t notice a difference.

Our next vehicle will be another hybrid.

trigger7mm · #6 10-28-2022, 11:19 AM

Thanks for the input. There’s one in Kelowna with her name on it. She just has to make the final decision.

Remco · #7 10-28-2022, 12:01 PM

I've got a 2021 Rav4 hybrid and I love it. Never had any issues starting in the winter even without a block heater. It uses the electric motor to kickstart the engine. Basically a giant oversized starter motor.
5.3 L/100km in the summer, 6.5 L/100km in the dead of winter. 75% highway.
I waited 3 months last year and got a little bit off MSRP but the wait time right now appears to be closer to a year if not more.
Happy to answer any questions you have.

Spidey · #8 10-28-2022, 03:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Scott h

The RAV Prime would be the model to pick up if you're going that way. They have 70 kms of electric only range and then they default back to 300 HP. hybrid system. Brother in law has a Toyota hybrid and has had zero issues with it outside of amazing mileage, summer and winter.

Agreed, but the Primes are super hard to find on car lots and over a year on order. We have a 2018 Prius Prime. It's just about to roll over 100,000km and gas use is showing at 2.6l/100km. Electric range is advertised at between 45 and 50km. We find we can get a few more km than that travelling under 90km/hr and probably 10km less than advertised going highway speeds. The nice thing about the Primes over the previous generation Prius Plug-In model is the bigger battery and you can go up to 130 km/hr on electric before the gas engine kicks in if you need to go faster (previous model could only go up to 70km/hr)

My wife uses it to commute to work and back on electric only (36km). Primes only operate on electric up to -14C. Any colder than that and the gas engine overrides. With current electricity rates, it costs about $1 to charge from empty at home (used to be half that!)

I calculated the difference in cost from the regular Prius to Prius Prime (in terms of extra fuel cost at $1.30/litre) and the break even point came at around 100,000km, so now we're in bonus mode! If current fuel costs hold, the break even point will be lower.

No issues whatsoever starting in winter, and no repair costs to date. It's a great car. There's actually a small lift package you can get for them now

75ft Arborist · #9 10-28-2022, 05:43 PM

IMO Hybrids are a waste of money. The distance you get with the electric motor is enough to get you to the gas station if you run out of gas. Do some research first, and all vehicles are hard to get right now electric and hybrid has a long wait list. So if you do decide check on the wait times some are up to a year.

lakerman · #10 10-28-2022, 06:32 PM

https://ca.topclassactions.com/lawsu...;s%20operation.

Class action lawsuit with that cable,

Trochu · #11 10-29-2022, 07:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Spidey

Agreed, but the Primes are super hard to find on car lots and over a year on order.

I don't know about you, but I'd have a hard time paying $70K for a Rav4 too....

Smokinyotes · #12 10-29-2022, 07:46 PM

My nephew bought a Jeep Rubicon 4xE. It would only go 21km on a charge. What good is something like that.

Trochu · #13 10-29-2022, 07:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Smokinyotes

My nephew bought a Jeep Rubicon 4xE. It would only go 21km on a charge. What good is something like that.

It's good for people with a 20 km commute and boulder crawling.

EZM · #14 10-29-2022, 08:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Smokinyotes

My nephew bought a Jeep Rubicon 4xE. It would only go 21km on a charge. What good is something like that.

That's ridiculous. What's the point?

urban rednek · #15 10-30-2022, 11:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Smokinyotes

My nephew bought a Jeep Rubicon 4xE. It would only go 21km on a charge. What good is something like that.

The real question is: is he happy with it?

Not bad, that's 60% of the 35km electric only range claimed by the manufacturer. The issue is its lack of electrical range efficiency when compared to other hybrid or fully electrical vehicles. The Jeep Rubicon 4xe has a 17.3kWh lithium-ion battery that is only rated for 35km, while a 75kWh Tesla AWD is rated at 614km from an 82kWh battery.
Besides the approximately 1,128 lb. weight difference (4xe is 5,200 vs. Tesla 4,087), the reduced range per kWh of battery capacity is due to the inefficiency of powering an ICE drivetrain rather than using an electric drive motor in each wheel. The parasitic friction of the ICE transmission, transfer case, driveshafts, and solid axles negates the supposed economic advantages of the Hybrid system.
If they truly wanted to build a fuel efficient hybrid, it would be similar to a locomotive powertrain; a smaller ICE to run a generator that charges the battery to power a fully electric drive system.

Motrotrend review of the 4xe: https://www.motortrend.com/reviews/2...the-year-2022/

Driving.ca video explaining the drivetrain operation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3vTPnXXOKg

Spidey · #16 10-30-2022, 09:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Trochu

I don't know about you, but I'd have a hard time paying $70K for a Rav4 too....

Ouch! Is that what the Rav4 Primes are going for? That's a big jump from regular and hybrid. We paid $2800 more for our Prius Prime over regular Prius.

tirebob · #17 10-30-2022, 10:43 AM

Okay... Just to examine one metric being discussed, comparing fuel economy versus savings...

A 2022 Rav4 XLE AWD like I bought (not the lowest level), on Toyota Canada's website the cost is $35,265.xx and it is rated for 7.1l/100km highway and 8.8l/100km city.

The lowest level Rav4 Prime SE AWD is $46,090.xx and is rated for 5.7l/100km and 6.4l/100km, and that is if you are fortunate enough to get one for list price and not the dealership inflated price.

Obviously everyones driving varies as to how much city versus how much highway driving they do, but let's generously say you are saving a combined total of 2.0l/100 KM. Even if gas is $2.00/l that equals $40/1000 km's driven. Just roughly and quickly that means you are driving almost 300,000km just to recover the cost difference in fuel saved.

Now of course we would need to calculate total cost of ownership over 300,000km of driving including maintenance, insurance, etc etc but this number certainly give one pause to consider that any potential long term savings are not as effective as one would think and that you have to spend all that money up front hoping to get it back later...

Again, this is just considering fuel cost to overall cost.

Trochu · #18 10-30-2022, 10:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Spidey

Ouch! Is that what the Rav4 Primes are going for? That's a big jump from regular and hybrid. We paid $2800 more for our Prius Prime over regular Prius.

Not sure what they are going for, but alot of dealers that actually have them on the lot are asking $70k plus for them.

snipz · #19 11-01-2022, 01:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by trigger7mm

Hybrid vehicles, love ‘em or hate ‘em? My wife is thinking of getting a Toyota Rave 4 hybrid. I know they might be good in warmer climate like say, L.A. or Houston, but what about up here in the frozen north? What’s it going to be like when it’s -35C? Anybody have one, a d what do you think? Thanks.

Definitely less charging more gas.