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Electrictrickery


Centrepin
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Monday I took delivery of a Toyota RAV4 4x4 hybrid. 2.5 petrol and self charging electric.

Towed my  heavy caravan with it today and was really quite surprised. I thought it would be entirely petrol but not so. On the flat and downhill it switches to electricity. Cruise control it switches to electric once a steady speed is achieved, only changing to petrol to accelerate or hill climb.

I've only done 102 miles but it's achieved 30.1 mpg average. Manufactures figures I think said 50.4 mpg.

As a tow car and I've driven many it's easily comparable to my Volvo XC70 and long wheel base landrovers and Disco 1 & 2s. Far better than my old Range Rover and that surprised me.

I'm hoping to have it for five years and is fast becoming my favourite car ever.

I was worried about getting a hybrid but so far so good.

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They’re a pokey 2.5 petrol lump as well as the torque of the electric motor no wonder they go well…..30.1 towing the caravan? Otherwise nothing to write home about economy wise! 
A friend has had one for 6 months or so and loves it, certainly looks much better than the older models 😂

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It's taking me shooting tomorrow and I'm wondering if it'll go all electric.

30.1 mpg, compared to my 3.0 V6 Mav at 5mpg, Disco 2 at 22mpg, Volvo XC70 at 25, Range Rover at 17 is excellent so I'm wondering what it'll do when long term. 

Plenty of torque, took it on a legal byway to take some pictures near my local grouse butts, selected "trail" and it pottered along using just electric.

 

20211102_122206.jpg

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Coming home today with caravan on back, 33.3mpg at a steady 60mph on cruise control. Running solo for the last week around 38mpg.

I'm not a fan of reversing cameras as I prefer the Mk 1 eyeball but this has an excellent camera which allows me to reverse directly under the hitch without guessing.  I can normally get to within a couple of inchs or so without but this is precise.

On cruise control there is an adjustable radar which regulates your speed and prevents you from driving too close to the vehicle in front. If you indicate to overtake then it's temporarily disabled to allow the speed to be maintained once you you move out. It has lane assist so knows if you have moved. 

Sort of taking the skill out of driving a bit. 

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22 minutes ago, Centrepin said:

Coming home today with caravan on back, 33.3mpg at a steady 60mph on cruise control. Running solo for the last week around 38mpg.

I'm not a fan of reversing cameras as I prefer the Mk 1 eyeball but this has an excellent camera which allows me to reverse directly under the hitch without guessing.  I can normally get to within a couple of inchs or so without but this is precise.

On cruise control there is an adjustable radar which regulates your speed and prevents you from driving too close to the vehicle in front. If you indicate to overtake then it's temporarily disabled to allow the speed to be maintained once you you move out. It has lane assist so knows if you have moved. 

Sort of taking the skill out of driving a bit. 

That towing economy is awesome. Was that overall or just at a steady speed?

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1 hour ago, Centrepin said:

Coming home today with caravan on back, 33.3mpg at a steady 60mph on cruise control. Running solo for the last week around 38mpg.

I'm not a fan of reversing cameras as I prefer the Mk 1 eyeball but this has an excellent camera which allows me to reverse directly under the hitch without guessing.  I can normally get to within a couple of inchs or so without but this is precise.

On cruise control there is an adjustable radar which regulates your speed and prevents you from driving too close to the vehicle in front. If you indicate to overtake then it's temporarily disabled to allow the speed to be maintained once you you move out. It has lane assist so knows if you have moved. 

Sort of taking the skill out of driving a bit. 

radar thing aint new, my vitara has it and its 3 years old.

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12 hours ago, oowee said:

That towing economy is awesome. Was that overall or just at a steady speed?

Overall, I just mentioned the speed to show I wasn't trying to maintain 50mph to get the best out of it or 55 whatever the figures are these days for max economy. I just drive normally but tow above lorry speed. 

 

11 hours ago, billytheghillie said:

radar thing aint new, my vitara has it and its 3 years old.

It's new to me.  Maybe new to others that don't have it on their current vehicle. Doesn't replace common sense or the original Mk 1 eyeball but is effective especially if someone overtakes, pulls in front of you and immediately slows down which is something that most people towing and all lorry drivers are aware of.

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We swapped our second car for a cheap used, first generation, full EV Nissan Leaf a year ago and I must admit, its brilliant (if ugly!). 

Once you've driven EVs everything else seems slow, smelly and so noisy! Coupled with DIY solar and a home battery store it also costs us nothing to run from April to October as its running on sunshine! 

Journeys over an hour need us to use of the rapid charging network, which has been good and fast (20mins for a quick coffee) and servicing is virtually none existant (the pollen filter, tyres & brakes are the only consumable). 

Most journeys are now done in the EV with the exception of very long journeys and occasional towing for which we use the other car. 

Overall though, I'd highly recommend going electric. 👍

Edited by Oly
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On 04/11/2021 at 12:22, sandspider said:

Be interested to know what sort of fuel consumption you get when not towing? Can you get anywhere near the 50mpg quoted by the manufacturers?

I have a Rav4 hybrid awd since Sept 2020.  I regularly achieve nearer 60mpg on cross country cruises and typically 51-53mpg overall.  If you drive 'progressively' it will drop to around 48/49.

It's quick and quiet and very comfortable.

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On 11/11/2021 at 09:31, Oly said:

Coupled with DIY solar and a home battery store it also costs us nothing to run from April to October as its running on sunshine! 

Now that is interesting.  Are you able to share any more details of that  - perhaps you've written something up in another forum?  Thanks in advance if you can...

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22 minutes ago, udderlyoffroad said:

Now that is interesting.  Are you able to share any more details of that  - perhaps you've written something up in another forum?  Thanks in advance if you can...

It was all on the Navitron forum but its closed now. 

Nissan Leaf

Plyontech batteries

Sofar ME3000SP battery invertor

Trannergy solar invertor (if installing in one go one hybrid invertor would suffice) 

Solarworld panels

 

Best place for solar is SolarBimble and for batteries is Triple Solar. Ignore overpriced Tesla powerwalls. I have double the capacity at less than half the price with 90% of the performance. 

Return on investment was 7years, but with all my renewables, given the constant increases in fuel etc that easily drops to sub 5 years over time

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  • 4 months later...
13 hours ago, Centrepin said:

5 months old now but only 1500 miles due to illness. 

It's returning between 39.8 and 40.1 mpg. 

If I use it just for short trips of less than a mile it can drop as low as 30mpg.

 

 

Mines averaging 52mpg but I drive it steady, It is the all wheel drive version but not been off road, done 30,000 miles, super ride

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19 hours ago, Centrepin said:

5 months old now but only 1500 miles due to illness. 

It's returning between 39.8 and 40.1 mpg. 

If I use it just for short trips of less than a mile it can drop as low as 30mpg.

 

 

Is that still  while towing or just solo ? 

I bought a mazda cx5 recently. And went for the 2.0 ltr petrol  . It returns around 45 mpg on the motorway  and 42 on the commute .

Very pleased with that since its naturally aspirated  . And not far off my old .20 ltr diesel   that did around 50 mpg - motorway   .

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8 hours ago, Charliedog said:

Mines averaging 52mpg but I drive it steady, It is the all wheel drive version but not been off road, done 30,000 miles, super ride

 

1 hour ago, Ultrastu said:

Is that still  while towing or just solo ? 

I bought a mazda cx5 recently. And went for the 2.0 ltr petrol  . It returns around 45 mpg on the motorway  and 42 on the commute .

Very pleased with that since its naturally aspirated  . And not far off my old .20 ltr diesel   that did around 50 mpg - motorway   .

Solo miles and mostly in Sheffield and Derbyshire which are known for the steep hills and death of gearboxes.

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11 hours ago, Charliedog said:

Flats of east anglia for me, probably explains the variation in return

Quite possibly, I used to spend a lot of time in the Norfolk area and even my 17mpg Range Rover could achieve 30mpg on your not hills.

As someone once said, "Isn't there a lot of sky in Norfolk "😄

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hybrids have never made sense to me unless it was a way around beating the ulez charge in London. 
The battery range isn’t the best and your lugging around all the weight of the extra electric motors and batteries , so petrol or diesel economy suffers. 
 

 

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19 hours ago, figgy said:

Hybrids have never made sense to me unless it was a way around beating the ulez charge in London. 
The battery range isn’t the best and your lugging around all the weight of the extra electric motors and batteries , so petrol or diesel economy suffers. 
 

 

London I couldn't care less about. It's not the sort of place I would ever want to go or visit.

Battery range isn't a range. It doesn't have a set range on just electricity due to the hills and load. Although it can be switched to electric only I've never tried it. I run in economy mode unless off road when I switch to trail. Even off road it will switch to electric as needed.

What happens is kinetic energy such as braking or downhill travel is used for the battery and when the car is not under load it runs on that thereby conserving fuel.

Electric is more of an assist or auxiliary power than stand alone. Or alternatively you could say petrol is a power option 

When I use cruise control, which is as often as practical, it switches to electric. When I'm on the flat or downhill it switches to electric and so on.

I can easily achieve over 40 mpg even towing a caravan so there's no loss of economy only gain.

However, the car is on a 5 year lease so I've no idea if it would be a good long term investment given the initial purchase cost as it has no resale value to me.

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  • 3 months later...

An update to MPG. Around 65mpg.

It's very smooth and quiet and the only downside so far is the alarm is prone to going off if the car isn't kept clean. Strange but true.

Its now 3381 on the clock as I'm not using it as much as I'd like due to illness.

Used in eco on road and trail off.

Average load shown below.

 

 

20220803_122153.jpg

20220803_105538.jpg

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