Hypermiling 2016 Rav4 Hybrid

Rav4 hybrids are made in Japan (3 plants), Canada and Kentucky. I believe the primes are Japan only. I have a '19 non-plug-in. Functional. Powerful. 14k miles, not perfect (no car is) but does exactly what I expected it to do with ease. One T-SB, one CSP. 5th Toyota hybrid in family which shows what we think of them. (Gen3, v, v, Rav4h, Avalon hybrid)

 

While it will lower frontal area a bit for slightly better aero, going smaller tire shifts the final drive ratio to less efficient. Ecomodders will go larger for more efficient drive ratio.

Wait, are we talking tire diameter or tire width?

The difference between factory tire options is actually in the diameter of the wheel. The overall diameter of the tire is virtually the same, so the manufacturer can use the same suspension specifications and odometer settings between them. That means going to the smaller factory tire size will require getting a smaller wheel too. That will likely lower weight in the best spot for the most impact, but the efficiency improvement may not be worth the price tag.

You could try different size tires. Feed your current size to this calculator, and it gives the dimensions in inches and list of other tire sizes that will fit the wheel. Then you compare them to the stock tire dimensions.
Tire Size Calculator - Tire and Wheel Plus Sizing
Going narrower tread width could improve aero to a tiny degree. The tire contact patch actually will stay the same, so traction won't change because of that. Changing the tire diameter will change the final drive ratio and frontal area as I went over above. I saw economy improvement with a tire that had a 1% larger diameter. Changing the tire size can mean changes to how the car handles.

I save such experimentation for when it is time for new tires. You could try increasing tire pressure above the door jamb recommended rating. Higher pressure reduces rolling resistance for better fuel economy, but it will reduce the tire's grip as the contact patch shrinks. Be careful when trying out new pressures, and don't go over the tire's max rating.

I run partial grill blocks year round. Modern cars come with over sized radiators in case a buyer regularly drives through Death Valley. A full block probably isn't a problem, though I'd check to see if your app can display coolant temperatures. The A/C condenser is also there, and the car does run it during winter to dry the defogger air. If the windows seem extra foggy with the full block, that is why.

It might be possible to direct air through the defogger vent without turning on the defogger. It is on the Prius Prime. If that works for clearing the windshield, you'll save energy by not running the A/C unit.

 

You'd have to consider the legalities of putting smaller/narrower rubber on. Whether that would breach TOYOTA's compliance, I'm not sure. You could lose the advantages of a good driving car.

 

I wonder if you could reduce that “delta”, say instead of 10 mph variation, just 2 or 3, and still be effective, in improving mpg? And rather than just letting speed rise and drop regularly, try to take advantage of (aforementioned) circumstances: traffic bog downs, uphill gradients, cautionary slowing down at cross streets or intersections.

In short: stealth pulse-and-glide.

 

The Gen2 Prius was always bad MPG for the first 5 minutes, so it was bad for MPG to turn the engine off at short stops, if you did not have to.

It seems that problem does not happen so much anymore, such that the 40 MPG we get on 2020 RAV4H is almost if not as good as the Gen2 Prius for local style driving. Not sure about the 2016 RAV4H.

 

This also works with traditional ICE cars, though called pulse and coast. There is a Popular Mechanics article from the '50s on the internet somewhere that describes it. Today's hypermilers just rediscovered it.

In my experience, that does work.

Toyota has been improving on the warm up times. The 2016 Rav4 is probably like the gen3 Prius in behavior.

 

Regarding warm up, if you don’t have a lot of spur-of-the-moment cold-starts, and don’t mind a little fore-planning, installing and using the block heater can help. A couple of hours warm up works well.

 

Been many moons since I had a hybrid, and most of my driving these days is only a couple of miles in town.

Traffic and speed limits made the large speed spread for coast and gliding on the commute, so I went with what I could get away with, which may have been a 5mph delta. When I last had the 2005 Prius, I was averaging 58 to 60 mpg in spring weather. The terrain is not flat here, and I tried to take advantage of declines to extend glides. Still do that with any car.

Another hypermiling technique is driving with load, which means keeping the load on the engine constant/accelerator pedal in one spot. That means letting the car slow down on inclines and speed up on declines

 

Yeah, you still have get the engine running where pumping losses are low. Now, at low speeds, I have done EV pulse and 'neutral' glides, but with hills extending those glides.

 

Oy, my brain is full.

Brake-specific fuel consumption - Wikipedia

 

Yep, I remember that article. I think it was re-published during the '70s Oil Crisis - or copied somewhere (I wouldn't have bought it in the '50s). I've always tried to drive that way, no matter what car I've had - certainly makes a difference. Noticeable when 2 people drive the same car.

 

Try to feather the accelerator so you aren't using EV nor having regen charge the battery. If the speed drops below 25, do a pulse to get to 30mph. That means pushing the car enough to get the engine on, and it feels like faster acceleration than would work for fuel economy.

If no one was behind you, I'd let the speed drop closer to 20mph. If feathering the pedal isn't working out for getting a no energy flow, and I've it is more difficult on newer generations of the hybrid system, you can also put the gear in Neutral. Don't need to push the button on the shifter to go from D to N, but if the engine is running, it may stay running when this is done.

The community at CleanMPG.com is pretty dedicated to getting the best fuel economy out of anything. Their founder coined the hypermiling term.