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zinckiwi | 2 years ago

This seems like the goldilocks zone to me. A day's urban driving comfortably, and fossil fuels for the very occasional long trip.

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nolok|2 years ago

Not familiar with hybrid very much, but doesn't that mean essentially carrying the internals of two different engines, and thus double the maintenance risks just "for the very occasional long trip" ?

windowsrookie|2 years ago

No, it does not double the maintenance risk. Hybrid cars have one gasoline engine, and one (or more) electric motors. Toyota I believe, uses one of the electric motors to also start the gasoline engine (eliminating the starter motor on a traditional ICE engine). Toyota Hybrids are actually a much simpler setup than a modern turbocharged/direct injected ICE car.

Electric motors are essentially zero maintenance. Also, the gasoline engine in a hybrid is running less per mile (compared to a standard ICE car) extending its lifespan.

The Toyota Hybrid also uses what they call an E-CVT transmission. It's not related at all to traditional CVT transmission. The Toyota E-CVT uses planetary gear sets and the electric motor to vary the output speed. It has proven to be extremely reliable.

Toyota's Hybrid drivetrain likely makes Toyota cars the most reliable on the market. It has been refined over 20+ years and I am not aware of any significant issues with it.

I am somewhat of a car enthusiast. I don't own any Toyota products because I find their cars a bit boring. But, for anyone who just wants reliable transportation, I always recommend a Toyota.

lm28469|2 years ago

ICE wear and tear mostly is due to short trips with frequent stops when the car doesn't have time to heat up properly (ie. city driving) and when you put pressure on the gearbox

If you use the electric part in the city and the combustion engine on the highway you should get very low wear on the ICE (constant rpm/speed at highway speed = low wear and low consumption)

hytdstd|2 years ago

The prius is one of the most reliable vehicles on the road today. These are just priuses with larger batteries and more powerful electric motors.

ldarby|2 years ago

They haven't published the fuel tank size or non-electric range (at least, I couldn't find this info easily), so I'd expect it to be similar to the BMW i3's tea cup sized fuel tank.

ZeroGravitas|2 years ago

The i3 had it's fuel capacity artificially limited in the US due to some rule necessary to get subsidies.

But I think the same pressure will apply, if they make it too big then it'll look like a regulation workaround.

hcho|2 years ago

120 miles of urban driving? Are you a taxi driver?

zinckiwi|2 years ago

I'm thinking: cross town errands, 40 or 50 miles round-trip, traffic, maybe it's winter and the usual range is cut by a third... plus general headroom to reduce anxiety. ~100 miles seems like a good target for the 99th percentile of days.