How far can a hybrid vehicle travel in fully electric mode? Toyota reveals it in a study

Hybrid vehicles are occupying an increasingly large niche in our cities. These are vehicles that use a dual-powertrain system, a combustion engine and an electric motor. Hybrid propulsion systems are becoming more and more advanced and are increasingly capable of covering more kilometres in purely electric mode. But there is always the key question for this type of vehicle… How far can a hybrid vehicle travel in electric mode?

This question has been answered by Toyota, through a study commissioned from INSIA (Instituto Universitario de Investigación del Automóvil), an institution belonging to the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid. This study does not focus on kilometres travelled, but rather on how the two driving modes of hybrid vehicles are used, with the combustion engine and with the electric motor, under real driving conditions on urban and peri-urban routes.

To test this, a Toyota Prius hybrid was used, driven on 60 trips by 20 different drivers, 10 men and 10 women. Of these, 5 were drivers over 35 years of age and 5 under 35. They completed just over 50 hours of driving, and the data obtained shows that this hybrid vehicle operates in purely electric mode 84.4% of the time during urban journeys.

In the case of peri-urban journeys, almost 8 out of every 10 minutes of operation are in electric mode, which provides fairly relevant data for the design and development of hybrid vehicles. Of those 1,300 kilometres travelled, the majority were driven in electric mode, meaning zero-emission driving.

The important thing about this study is that the differences between drivers of different ages, genders and driving experience are fairly similar, and they even repeat results from other similar studies carried out in Italy and France. Obtaining these results makes it possible to understand the driving habits of hybrid vehicle users and to act in the future in line with this data.

Hybrid vehicles are the stepping stone towards the complete electrification of urban vehicles. At present, they offer several advantages for city driving, such as access to areas like Madrid Central and other zones with urban traffic restrictions. Using the electric motor in the city can help reduce urban pollution and avoid problems for drivers in town.