2018 HyCam amateur review and ongoing blog

wow 13 gallons? that's a bummer. i just pumped 13 from va to ga yesterday.

on the plus side, at 50 mpg, we would only have burned 10.

 

IIRC, the passenger space a tiny bit less(half cu.ft.) in the hybrid than the ICE, but otherwise the same.

The ICE has a 16 gallon tank, but the L has 14.5gal and 1cu.ft. less trunk space.

 

I went to Toyota's site. There you can compare the different trims(they call them grades) under specs, including the hybrid ones.
L is the base, no frills ICE trim. Struck me as odd that it would have a different tank and trunk size from the other ICE trims. Note that the LE hybrid shares the same wheels with the L ICE.

 

i had similar odd experiences. toyota.com showed LE, SE and LSE iirc, but my local dear has an xse for sale.

either way, the toyota website is as horrible as it has always been

 

The XSE is on their site. The full spec comparison can only show three 'grades' at a time though.

 

wow!
i'm getting 50mpg on the first 150 miles of the tank on our 2013 hycam. in florida, flat as a board, no hvac.
can't wait to get my hands on gen3.

 

i hear you, and that's how i get 50 currently. it isn't easy.

my biggest problem is going to be deciding between the high mpg package or one of the higher.

 

I'd go with the higher trim. I like the paddle shifters on my SE.
Then look into getting a smaller, lighter set of rims. Much of the efficiency reduction is from the large wheels.

 

My current ride is a 2016 SE. Compared to the LE, it has the paddle shifters, dash display of all four tire pressures, larger wheels, and a 'spoiler'. There are several blank filled spots for other switches. I sat in a last gen hybrid LE. The hybrid system monitor was a step down from what my 2005 Prius had; the higher trims had better displays.

So for a car that you will have for 5+ years, it is worth appraising the features of the higher trims.

 

i need pleather seats, larger display, better stereo, not really sure what else or what differences there are on gen 3

if i knew this for sure, i would too

50 is an anomaly. the lifetime average is more like 40. we have a high trim, but i don't think it mattered in gen 2 mpg

 

Compare Side-by-Side

The difference between trims for your gen is because of wheel size and weight. It is the same for the current, but also in battery chemistry.

The weight different for both gens' trims is in the 70 to 100 pound range, and the curb weights are virtually the same between the generations. So it has the same impact if the difference is in the same locations of the car.

The Li-ion pack Toyota uses is smaller and lighter than the NiMH one. Li-ion can provide better efficiencies for regen braking, but both packs have about the same usable capacity. Toyota's choice here likely had more to do with the weight savings.

Larger wheels hurt fuel economy by having wider tires that hurt aerodynamics, and by being heavier. It is unsprung weight, and thus has a bigger impact than if the weight was elsewhere on the car. In the last gen the wheel sizes were an inch apart; a slight difference. For the current one it is 2 inches; the difference in tire widths is just over an inch. The current hybrid LE wheels are smaller than the ICE LE's.

A set of lighter wheels on the higher trims may not get you all the way to the LE fuel economy, but it will narrow the weight gap in the spots for the biggest impact.

The other way to look at is this, a 2019 XLE doesn't get the magic 50mpg, but is still a 15% improvement over what the last gen XLE was rated. With 15k miles a year, the XLE costs $150 more to fuel at $3/gal than the LE, but is still $150 cheaper than your current hybrid. It likely isn't worth buying lighter wheels at that difference. Then every generation of hybrid gets easier to reach the EPA.

Plus, having an XLE now, a new LE may seem to be a step down in terms of features.