Quick update if of interest to anyone. Got 450km out of 55 litres. (Tank holds 65 litres but I think orange fill light goes on when 10 litres left as it would only let me fill 55 litres.) That works out to about 19 mpg, driven gently, which is better than I thought but still not what I was expecting from a hybrid. I received the translated manuals today from a New Zealand company, JPNZ manuals, and I would highly recommend them, although they took a few weeks to arrive by post. I am still looking into the grid chargers suggested by Stormz, and maybe will go down that road soon, but I doubt the fuel saved would cover the cost of purchase and fitting, I would be doing it more to keep the battery healthy, as there are few repair options here in Ireland.
Did you figure out if the van has the stick batteries or the prismatic modules? The van looks really nice by the way.
Thx, it's the Gen 3 estima, so it has the white modular cell pack according to here: The Battery Clinic – Estima Hybrid – Battery Repair and Reconditioning All quite confusing to be honest.
Wow!!!, you truly do learn something new every day. I have never seen those batteries before. Best of luck with your beautiful van. I hope you get many years of trouble free service from it.!!!!
So familylent, did you ever figure out what was going on with your fuel economy? I have a 2008 Prius and we are considering getting an imported hybird Estima. I have had a hard time trying to get a good indication on the fuel economy on them and would love to hear if you ever sorted out your issues and what I may expect?
Hi FamilyLent, First off, your car is supposed to get much better fuel economy than it is: Toyota announced today the nationwide sales launch in Japan of the completely redesigned Estima Hybrid minivan. The new Estima Hybrid offers fuel consumption of 5.0 l/100km (47 mpg US) on the Japanese 10-15 cycle and CO2 emissions of 116 g/km: Green Car Congress: Toyota Introduces Redesigned Estima Hybrid Minivan in Japan Our 2008 Prius (same battery, but with a 1.4l engine) I very much doubt it has anything to do with your battery. Seriously, as long as the battery is charging up as you are coasting, braking, and using the engine.... using the battery to assist the engine, and shutting the engine off when you are waiting at traffic lights. The battery either works with the engine, or doesn't (and most of the fuel economy is just from shutting the engine off at the lights anyway). Secondly, I just remembered that in Japan, there are much colder regions, with lot's of snow. A common practice in these regions is to tune the car to use huge amounts of fuel (start the car easier? warm it up quicker?) in the mixture. We had a Delica Chamonix which was richly tuned because it came from a colder region. Anyway.... take your car to a professional tuning place, and get them to test the current tuning, and then tune it to the standard mixture if I'm right. Your car is using WAY too much fuel at the moment. As above, check the tyre pressures as well. Use 95RON petrol, not the standard unleaded. The Jap cars are designed for 96RON, so 95RON is closer than 98RON.
A guy I know in Perth (Australia) has the previous gen Estima Hybrid, and he is getting around 9L/100km (11km per Litre). So I doubt the 2nd gen would be much better (i.e. the 5l/100km from Toyota must be extremely optimistic).
The 10-15 cycle is really optimistic. The JC08 is better, but still gives more efficient results than NEDC. The EPA window sticker/consumer numbers are the closest to what most will get in the real world.
