Diesel vs Hybrid Economy Test. Is the New Hybrid Worth it?

How does the fuel economy of Toyota's "self charging" hybrid compare to an older Euro 5 diesel? Which one is more economical in town, on country roads and at 70 mph. Are petrol full hybrids really cleaner than diesel engines?

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00:00 The cars
00:52 Diesel in the City
07:20 Diesel at 70mph
11:37 Diesel on rural roads
14:01 Hybrid in the City
18:58 Hybrid at 70mph
24:50 Hybrid on rural roads
29:00 Combined results
30:57 Hybrid emissions

[henryrolt]

As a rule of thumb, the more a driving environment requires you to use the brakes, the greater the benefit of a hybrid. Nearly all the hybrid economy gain is from regen braking. It's why taxi drivers love them.

[alphalupine]

Just passed my test this weekend! Thanks for the videos. Took me four tries so dont give up people!

[fix-and-drive-diy-repairs]

2023hybrid euro6 vs 2011 diesel euro5? Fair comparison? Next time, compare same age!
1.6hdi, absolutely amazing economy. I have 2 now.
As a taxi driver, I owned both prius plug in and 1.6hdi. My verdict, as a taxi driver, Citroen is better.
Cheap to buy, cheap to maintain, good economy(800 miles from a tank). All this is in my channel.
I just paid less than 5k for a 2016 Citroen c4 grand Picasso 1.6hdi. A 2016 toyota prius/auris/corola hybrid would cost ~£15k~£20k. It doesn't make any sense for me!
I am staying with Citroen until 2035 or later.

[oleksiikovalenko]

Nice video, thanks Richard. As an owner of a 2013 citroen of the same model and engine I can confirm that it's super economical on highway at sustained speeds

[christiansills]

I have a 2022 71-plate Corolla Touring Sports (estate), which I bought to use as a taxi. It has the previous Gen 4 hybrid system, with the 1.8 litre 122bhp engine. Today, so far, I've done 53 miles, and the mpg meter is reading 69.1mpg. The best fuel economy I've ever seen across a full shift is 74.7mpg, which was a day of long straight roads, with the worst being 48.7mpg on a very cold winter's day in stop start traffic with the heater and heated seats on. Typically, I don't often see less than 53mpg in the winter months and not usually less than 62mpg during the summer months on a combined cycle. If you can get over the noisy CVT gearbox when you accelerate, these Toyota hybrids are brilliant.

[art]

My partner has a 2019 corolla which she upgraded to from a 2008 diesel avensis. I have a 2012 prius. Absolutely everything you say in this video is true! Or at least I can say my experience matches yours exactly. I can also add that in the case of the Prius it’s very nice (and weird) to own an 11 year old car that still has 4 year’s warranty on the hybrid system. I always look forward to your videos, and this was an especially good one, thanks!

[sajpan]

hey man i just want to tell i was terrified of driving and because if you in 6 months yesterday i was able to just pick up the keys and drive for the first time and all goes back to you and your videos i love them never stop foing them please ❤️❤️

[maksymfedoriaka]

These videos are great, very in-depth. Congrats to the GF on the Corolla, it's a nice car, hope it serves her well

[michaelarchangel]

My 1997 Peugeot 306 1.9 TDLX has a smidge over half a tank of diesel remaining, after I brimmed it literally to the very top of the neck last time and has done 384 miles on almost 6.6 gallons. That's 58 MPG, all local, for shopping etc. The only minus aspect is road tax of £325 a year, which is an increase of £30 over last year. The car weighs about 1135 kg. The only evap worry is from my sweating forehead, as it's a non air con car.

[fix-and-drive-diy-repairs]

Taxi drivers get around 50mpg because of heavy loads, rushing, and get even less mpg if they do a lot of airport runs!
Hybrids don't like steep hills and heavy loads!

[SDav]

The Citroen is old but still looks modern next to the Toyota. I loved that Citroen.

[marijankagerkoren]

I own an 2012 Auris Hybrid and it is the best car I ever owned. It's very reliable, reasonably comfortable, easy to drive and extremely economical. Low maintenance combined with low running costs hits at least my spot... we have driven this car across Europe and it has 240.000 km on the clock and I use it as a daily driver to work and back. Little to no problems at all. It's on its second set of brakes, first hybrid battery, had to change the AC cooler last year and a stabi rod on the suspension and that's it. Rust is no issue so far and the car is holding up pretty good for its age and mileage. Fuel consumption is around 4 to 4.7 liters per 100km depending on the road conditions. In the city one can achieve figures below 3.5l/100km, on country roads around 4.2l/100km and.on a motorway app 5.5l 30:22 /100km. I will drive this car until it dies on me, no need for something else and my next car is either a corolla 1.8 or a RAV4 hybrid.

[Xenon_]

One of our 1.4 tdci cars gets around 64 MPG doing 30 miles a day on a range of speed limit roads. It is manual, no DPF or stop start either.

[dimitri]

I just wanna say thanks, I recently passed my test with 0 faults, and a lot of it has to do with watching and learning from your videos. Even though I'm from Australia these videos were still incredibly useful and relevant for passing the test. You're a legend keep doing what you're doing.

[nicholasriley]

Toyota Hybrids are very efficient and reliable. That's why virtually every Uber etc car is a Toyota Hybrid. Other car manufacturers are not nearly so good. As you pointed out there are various forms of 'Hybrid' technology and I think that Dispatches Documentary may have been looking at some of the less efficient cars on the market that don't perform as claimed.

[matthewjones]

I have a Toyota Corolla 1.8 hybrid . I bought it in September 2021 and I have found it to be very economical and also a great drive .I enjoyed watching this video . Thanks

[josephmarsh]

I do think this was an excellent test Richard. Toyota really do prove they do an excellent job with their petrol hybrids, and its no wonder the Toyota Corolla, not just the estate but all the different body styles, are best selling cars worldwide. About the end of the video where you mentioned about channel 4 with the hybrids emitting more harmful gases than diesel is interesting to me too, and also I find some emissions regulations a bit strange. For example, my Ford, with a 2.0 diesel, is Euro 6, but unlike most Euro 6 diesels it doesn't use adblue. I was told by the dealer Ford was late to bringing adblue, but its strange to me how it's Euro 6 compliant. I dont know much about emissions and how they work much. I do care a lot about fuel economy, and there was one thing about the Corolla and Citroen. I don't know their drag coefficients, but sometimes longer, lower ground cars are usually better efficient than small hatchbacks, because they are more like a tear drop, than a box shape. I don't know if thats the case, but I just learned it from videos online by car channels and social media. Whats your thoughts? Loved your video by the way, its great

[johnkeepin]

Good to see the tests done with both types, and in particular the latest Corolla hybrid. I now run the current Yaris hybrid, which to a large degree is very similar, albeit smaller - better than the previous Yaris. The Corolla is made in Derby, with the engines in North Wales, whereas the Yaris is assembled in Valenciennes, northern France.

Years ago, the last diesel I ran was a Honda Civic with the 1.6l engine, which was the most efficient one I had, at least for long runs. It did well at higher speeds, because it had lots of tweaks to drag down the aerodynamic resistance - even low ground clearance (not nice on rough surfaces, though), sealed doors, other minor items etc, and it had the Michelin “energy saver” tyres on. On account of all that, it just came under the zero road tax figure on test (when there was zero tax below 100 g/km, to encourage the use of modern diesel engines, in 2013).

In round numbers, at higher speeds about two thirds of the resistance is down to air resistance, with the other third being down to wheel resistance, with that bit being variable with the tyre products. Thus the latter bit is more important at lower speeds. I often do day trips that are affected by the wind direction - east/west typically, which is quite noticeable on the trip meter display. So a 30 mph headwind at 70 mph is like 100 mph on a calm day. The best figure I had was with a named storm behind me one day!

The confounding factor when comparing diesel with petrol thermal efficiency is, of course, the notably different thermal content of the two. It’s roughly 9.7 kWh/litre for E10 petrol, and 10.7 kWh/litre for diesel. Of course, the excise duty is per unit volume, not energy content, so the less we get, the more we pay (with VAT on top), although petrol is often a bit cheaper per litre than diesel, depending on the season.

[chesterlester]

The intro reminded me of the old top gear 🤣
Thanks for helping me pass in February!!

[Grahamvfr]

Absolutely brilliant real world comparison, thank you for the effort and clarity Richard.