Running/ownership costs

Forums › Transport (cars, bikes and boats) › Running/ownership costs - EV vs Hybrid

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gzt

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#3500048 3-Jun-2026 22:43

tweake: one factor with hybrids/phevs is they are hard on the engines. this does vary a HUGE amount as it depends on the specs, battery size, range its driven and how its driven. the simple problem is running engines cold. great if you can do your short trips on battery alone. terrible if you can almost do it and run the engine a tiny amount. this is where BEV will shine. where hybrids work better is longer range where the motor can be used under decent load to put a good amount of heat into it for long enough.

This comment is so generic that it's pretty much incorrect in nearly every case.

gzt

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#3500634 5-Jun-2026 17:21

New Shark 6 Premium and Cab Chassis models both with 3.5 ton towing and V2L

https://www.drivencarguide.co.nz/news/byd-nz-launches-shark-6-performance-and-cab-chassis-now-there-are-three/

MadEngineer

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#3500664 5-Jun-2026 22:00

2020 AWD Hybrid Rav4 after a small trip through town:

I've only taken it out of town a couple of times in the few weeks I've had it, will need to check that the next time I go for a proper drive.

edit:6.6 L/100 km

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mudguard

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#3500702 6-Jun-2026 06:23

Oh boy, can we at least agree on L/100kms or put the conversion in? KMS per litre is hurting my brain 🤣

Goosey

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#3500708 6-Jun-2026 07:34

I’m a consistent 4L per 100Km in a hybrid… across the last 2 years

mixture of city, motorway, highway, rural each week,

I find my fuel economy is the best when city driving….low speeds.

often I slam on the sport mode and dump it….. and yet, I’m still a consistent 4L per 100km

gzt

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#3500710 6-Jun-2026 08:01

2020 AWD Hybrid Rav4

AWD is never good economy with any fuel. It's in the ballpark for that vehicle unfortunately.

If you've just bought it ex-japan consider resetting the average to better record what it does with NZ fuel and conditions.

My ex-japan Prius took about 90 days to reach the rated economy after I picked it up from the dealer. I figured that was a combination of battery conditioning and automatic fuel adjustment.

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MadEngineer

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#3500756 6-Jun-2026 14:14

gzt:
2020 AWD Hybrid Rav4

AWD is never good economy with any fuel. It's in the ballpark for that vehicle unfortunately.

If you've just bought it ex-japan consider resetting the average to better record what it does with NZ fuel and conditions.

My ex-japan Prius took about 90 days to reach the rated economy after I picked it up from the dealer. I figured that was a combination of battery conditioning and automatic fuel adjustment.

I don't think it has a reading other than for the current trip. I've noticed I can trigger it into using the battery more by lifting my foot off the accelerator like you do to trigger an automatic transmission to shift up a gear, to then gently depress back down again to maintain speed.

It is ex-Japan and still under a 10 year warranty here. Basically mint condition. I was willing to drop the required ~$60k onto a new PHEV to charge the car from solar but the reigns from the wife held me back... we plan to keep this for a couple of years then update after that.

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DamageInc

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#3500760 6-Jun-2026 14:42

'Pulse & glide', a common technique used to encourage the hybrid system into EV mode.

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gzt

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#3500771 6-Jun-2026 15:49

My partner gets better fuel economy than I do. My long habit maintaining momentum hypermileing in petrol vehicles and I just like to drive that way.

Partner tends to drive to the lights or the nearest vehicle and hits the brakes regularly all trip, like most people do. Hybrid battery battery picks up slightly more charge that way imo and has more available.

MadEngineer

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#3503343 15-Jun-2026 18:22

This was from a 90KM trip a few weeks back:

I've since been considering your post:

gzt: My partner gets better fuel economy than I do. My long habit maintaining momentum hypermileing in petrol vehicles and I just like to drive that way.

Partner tends to drive to the lights or the nearest vehicle and hits the brakes regularly all trip, like most people do. Hybrid battery battery picks up slightly more charge that way imo and has more available.

... so started driving with no regard for fuel:

I think Eco mode needs to be renamed Chauffeur, and sport needs to be renamed Eco Madness. It seems to be as a result of pushing the motor, when used, into a zone where it's more economical at both driving the wheels and charging the battery whilst also being more aggressive at how much it pulls power from the battery.

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Wheelbarrow01

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Chorus

#3503415 15-Jun-2026 22:36

MadEngineer:

... so started driving with no regard for fuel:

I think Eco mode needs to be renamed Chauffeur, and sport needs to be renamed Eco Madness. It seems to be as a result of pushing the motor, when used, into a zone where it's more economical at both driving the wheels and charging the battery whilst also being more aggressive at how much it pulls power from the battery.

That's quite interesting! I've been driving in Eco mode in my Corolla since I got it back to Christchurch. Even on the trip home from Auckland, I only switched it into Sport mode when I was passing someone (and the difference in performance and throttle response was pretty insane).

I might keep it in Sport mode for a couple of weeks and see what happens...

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mudguard

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#3503428 16-Jun-2026 07:26

MadEngineer:

I think Eco mode needs to be renamed Chauffeur, and sport needs to be renamed Eco Madness. It seems to be as a result of pushing the motor, when used, into a zone where it's more economical at both driving the wheels and charging the battery whilst also being more aggressive at how much it pulls power from the battery.

I think you need to go off the litres that are actually going into your tank and the kilometres done. I feel that Toyota's estimates and read outs are pretty good, but in my experience they tend to be conservative. So if you get a display saying 6.0L/100kms, you might find it's a bit better than that when the actual number of litres of petrol are added.

I suspect the range estimate is based on a kind of history too. When I was doing 40,000km per year, the tank estimate when I'd fill would frequently be 800, now with a desk based job it's 700.

sidefx

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#3503456 16-Jun-2026 09:46

mudguard:

I think you need to go off the litres that are actually going into your tank and the kilometres done. I feel that Toyota's estimates and read outs are pretty good, but in my experience they tend to be conservative. So if you get a display saying 6.0L/100kms, you might find it's a bit better than that when the actual number of litres of petrol are added.

I suspect the range estimate is based on a kind of history too. When I was doing 40,000km per year, the tank estimate when I'd fill would frequently be 800, now with a desk based job it's 700.

I've got a 2014 hybrid Fielder (which I believe is pretty much just a wagon version of the Aqua) and the couple of times I've checked real km/litre, the estimate on dash has been spot on.

It's got ~140000km on the clock and the estimates say it gets around 23.3 Km/L long term (over last 4000 and 9000 km which are when I last reset A/B trips) - I do drive it fairly carefully.

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drain

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#3507656 1-Jul-2026 12:03

Everyone's situation is different, as is what factors are important. For me, for several decades I've always wanted an EV, and eventually the stars aligned for me to get a Tesla Model 3 back in 2021. Like most people who get an EV, there's no way I'd go back to ICE, because I find it just so much nicer in almost every respect!

As for the economics, I got the timing right in that I got the clean car discount, the no RUC for the first couple of years, and I mostly charge at home in the free power window. I've been lucky enough to get one new and it cost me about $20k to upgrade from my CX5 and I've saved more than $30k in running costs since then. (I stopped looking closely at the costs after I broke even.) I've done 92,000km and so far only needed one set of tyres, despite regularly using all of the (effortless) acceleration available to me!

As for driving long distance, I reckon when charging at fast chargers combined with RUC there's not really any cost savings compared to many petrol cars. And for range, personally, I don't usually drive longer than 2 or three hours before taking a break (even when we used to do 18 hour drives in the US), so stopping for a coffee and snack while grabbing some charge is no problem.

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