Vladi

I can relate to that. SUVs are nothing more than false sense of security and I have to be bigger than you on the road egotrip. All of that justified with some wagon like utility which is not even true across the board. For example F-Pace, Stelvio and other small RWD based SUVs have no substantial additional space compared to their sedan counterparts. Keep in mind that most of the CUVs have really bad performing tires and they are a liability in emergency braking. Buying a proper performing tire for a bargain CUV like CR-V, RAV4, Q3, X1 is not cheap.

Sulu

The official government (e.g. EPA) fuel economy figures for Toyota's Hybrids give them better city numbers than highway numbers. Theoretically, that is because with the slower city street speeds and more stop-and-go traffic as you travel from stoplight to stoplight, you are using the electric motor drive more often than you are using the engine to drive the car, and giving the battery more chances to recharge with regenerative braking.

That said, this is true only as long as you are driving for a fair distance during each "trip" in the city, allowing the engine to warm up. If, however, you drive short trips in the city that do not allow the engine to warm up, you will use more fuel. The engine will not shut off at slow speeds or when idling if your engine is cold.

I get great fuel economy on my daily commute in stop-and-go highway driving. I drive long enough for the engine to warm up so that the engine can shut off in slower (or downhill) traffic and when traffic stops, and the coasting / braking and occasional higher speeds recharges the battery.

nuraman00

Thanks. The driving portion of my work commute is 3.6 miles. How much time/distance do you think it would take for the engine to warm up?

Sulu

I find that engine warm-up time is really dependent upon seasonal temperatures; I also believe that 3.6 miles is not really enough time or distance really for the car to drive in pure electric vehicle mode.

I noticed when my commute was about 2 or 3 km (about half your commuting distance), and during the southern Canadian winter (although I parked in my garage), the coolant needle barely moved during that short trip. Yet now, in the spring and summer, the car will have warmed up just enough after I travel about 1 km that I can force the car into EV mode (by pressing the EV mode button).

Thinking about it, I think a city trip of about 20 minutes is required to allow the car to switch off the engine (automatically turn off the engine when idling and travel far enough in EV mode).

nuraman00

Thanks for sharing your insight.