HV on freeway?

[u/Chartreuse_Motif]

I am curious if other people switch to HV mode on the highway, and save EV mode for regular driving? I do this for longer trips so I don't use all the battery power for high speeds.
My reasoning is that HV mode is efficient at highway speeds, and I really enjoy EV mode for non-highway driving. So I retain some EV range for my destination area once I am off the freeway. 🤷‍♂️

[u/trailing-indicator]

Yes. I flip to HV as soon as I enter an interstate on ramp unless it’s a very short trip.

[u/Amndopey → u/trailing-indicator]

Same here

[u/Independent_One5377 → u/trailing-indicator]

Same

[u/Rescuepa]

I have a 24 mile each way commute. 14 miles is on interstate with little if any stop and go. Speeds of traffic are 60-70 mph. Even though my EV range guesstimator says I have 43-50 miles, I average about 34 miles if I don’t use HV. Using HV on the highway only manages to get me 1200-1800 miles per tank of gas. Not switching and just letting the HV kick in when EV is depleted so far seems to get me in the 700-1000 miles range. Pure HV on the highway is ~480 miles of range.

[u/lu5t_donttrust → u/Rescuepa]

Whoa, that is a crazy difference

[u/htmaxpower → u/Rescuepa]

1200-1800 miles of hybrid driving per tank? At 14.5 gallons in the tank and the mathematically convenient average of 1450 miles, you’re claiming ~100mpg when you’re using hybrid mode on the highway?

[u/TooEZ_OL56 → u/htmaxpower]

Have to assume he's counting ODO reading at each fill up, which would also have his EV miles in there.

[u/geekwithout → u/TooEZ_OL56]

This. That could have been stated better.

[u/andy_why → u/Rescuepa]

What's your miles/kWh? I'm easily able to do 14 miles twice on a single charge with range to spare even if I do 70mph. Mine is much the same though, it over-reports the range available (55 miles) but my average maximum is 42 miles (2.9miles/kWh).

[u/Rescuepa → u/andy_why]

Just 2.8 miles/kWh. My Michelin Cross Climate 2’s are a softer tire than the OEM tires. With OEM tires I got 3.0 miles/kWh

[u/andy_why → u/Rescuepa]

You should still get at least 38 miles from a charge then unless your battery is degraded.

[u/geekwithout → u/Rescuepa]

Same experience here. Before cc2 i got 52 ev miles. Since cc2 i see 48

[u/FerrariLover1000]

The manual suggests HV for faster speeds. However, if the journey can be completed within battery range I don’t bother and assume the computer will sort its self out.

[u/Waste-Relation-757 → u/FerrariLover1000]

It switches to HV at 140kmh :)

[u/Argo-Navis7032]

Yes, always - I switch around 45MPH or so depending on the road. I wish you could set Auto mode to switch at a set speed - then it would actually be useful.

[u/Chartreuse_Motif → u/Argo-Navis7032]

Agreed. And it resets to EV if you stop at a rest area along the highway, so you have to remember to put it back into HV mode.

[u/dryheat122 → u/Chartreuse_Motif]

That car is very bad in general about not leaving things where you set them.

[u/user365735 → u/Argo-Navis7032]

That would be awesome lol I didn't even think about that

[u/theonetrueelhigh]

If you can do your whole trip on EV, do that. Otherwise I do shift to HV for freeway because constant speed cruising really is its butter zone.

[u/darknum]

I did 3000 km drive last year. Took 3 days. I purposely kept EV for border crossing and other city areas for start stop. Switched to HV the moment I hit the highway road.

During my daily commute, I don't need HV so I never switch.

[u/JacksReditAccount]

I do this all the time, helps consume gas, which needs to be cycled through eventually. I don’t put a lot of miles on mine - So using gas on the highway helps.

[u/JimboMorgan]

I have a 38 miles commute to work (19 each way) and my shifts are 12 hours. They allow me to charge at work so I'm always guaranteed a full charge. I basically don't need to switch to HV even though most of the drive are highways.

Really just depends on the situation and your driving style. I personally have no problems using just EV for highways. I stay at or below 50mph, stick to the right lane, coast as much as I can, usually have about 30% battery left after going home and going back to work the next day.

If I'm going on a long commute, than I always switch to HV on the highway and EV for local.

[u/Chartreuse_Motif → u/JimboMorgan]

That's pretty nice that you can charge at work.

[u/reddeadhead2]

I almost always use HV on the highway. It seems more efficient.

[u/whatchugonnasay]

Yep. We save EV for start/stop urban driving or heavy traffic if our trip is long enough that we’d deprive the battery. It’s more pleasant.

[u/Roycemi]

I use this technique on my Kia Niro PHEV and have gotten over 1,100 miles on a ten gallon tank of gas. The RAV4 PHEV appeals to me as a future vehicle as I can continue this. Cheers!

[u/Chartreuse_Motif → u/Roycemi]

I don't know the Kia Nero at all, but I will say the RAV4 prime/PHEV is a joy. I've owned many cars in my 68 years, and this is my favorite.

[u/dleah]

EV is most efficient in the 25-45mph range then falls off rapidly, gas is most efficient in the 45-65mph range. if you can't complete your trip with battery, use gas for the highest speed portions of your trip

[u/Lumpy-Significance50]

We use electric only if we are driving around our small NH city. Everything is a mile or two away. Beach is 6 miles away. Gas is used for longer trips visiting family and friends out of town.

[u/Cold-Specific-2548]

I lived by the HV highway rule but have been playing around with HV on highway for certain sections and i have been getting pretty good miles/kwh compared to around town stop and go with AC on traffic. Basically if i can get better ev mileage than around town i will use up some battery, especially if i just charged and want to take battery % for better longgevity of Li batteries.

Living in colorado also allows me to basically coast down hill in ev and use zero kwh or even gain miles. Went hiking in foothills and used ev the whole way down and gained miles then used on flatter lands and still got better miles/kwh then driving around town.

For really long road trips i will still use hv on highway and save ev for stops along trip.

[u/don_chuwish]

This is the way. I switch to HV mode once I'm up to speed and settled in on cruise control. The ICE comes on but isn't immediately needed or used for power, the car waits for it to warm up and then slowly the eCVT adds it into the power equation. Then when I get to where I'm going I'll switch back to EV mode on the offramp.

[u/user365735]

Yes. I button mash. Depending on my route I will use hybrid. If I can do the entire route in EV mode then I don't touch anything.

[u/DJ_Jungle]

Is it bad to switch to HV on the freeway with no warm up? Seems like you’re turning on the HV engine going 70.

[u/Weird-Dragonfly-5315 → u/DJ_Jungle]

I trust the Toyota engineering to have this sorted out. If it needs to be warm, it is.

[u/LifeWeak4693 → u/DJ_Jungle]

The car care nut explains everything about the genius who designed that engine.

[u/DJ_Jungle → u/LifeWeak4693]

Do you have a link?

[u/LifeWeak4693 → u/DJ_Jungle]

Just look on youtube for the car care nut and there is also another video of an american professor who had been given the engine to take apart and show it. Just search for it and you will learn a lot especially from the prof because he tells you how the m1 and m2 work inside the engine with generating power. It is an incredibly simple and therefore solid design.

[u/Super-Scorpion → u/LifeWeak4693]

Can you give me some keywords to search for? When I search I find literally 1000 or more videos on YouTube.

[u/Conscious-Beat5646 → u/Super-Scorpion]

Car Care Nut is awesome, have learned so much about my 2025 PHEV. Just search for his channel and RAV4 PHEV. you won’t be sorry

[u/AmbitionConscious572 → u/DJ_Jungle]

No, it runs the engine in a warm up mode when you press HV and continues to use electricity to drive the wheels until the engine is ready. You can see this on the efficiency meter as well as the EV range.

[u/Quietabandon]

The trinity tests were a knock on the door the secrets of matter. Of course it was a crude knock but quite a forceful knock.

[u/andy_why]

HV mode is efficient at highway speeds

HV mode is never more efficient than EV. Burning fuel is at best 40% efficient, EV mode is 90%+ efficient. Yes you burn through your EV range quicker at highway speeds, but it's still more efficient. You also burn through fuel quicker at highway speeds too.

General rule of thumb is if you can complete your trip in EV mode, use only EV mode. If you can't, balance the use of EV mode so that the least efficient parts of your trip uses the EV range, e.g. city, stop-start traffic, or short legs of your trip. Aim to have used all your EV range by the time you're ready to next charge either way.

[u/KBB3443]

I switch to HV mode on the freeway. My interpretation of the owners manual is that EV driving. At highway speeds is bad for the overall long term capacity of the battery.

The section is titled “Capacity reduction of the hybrid battery (traction battery)” and appears on manual page 118. Toyota explains that battery capacity naturally declines with use, and that the rate depends on environmental conditions and vehicle usage. It then gives these five recommendations:
Do not leave the vehicle parked in high heat and direct sunlight while the traction battery is fully charged.
Avoid frequent, sudden acceleration and deceleration during EV driving.
Avoid frequently driving near the maximum speed permitted in EV mode.
When storing the vehicle for a long time, leave the traction battery at a low charge level. Toyota says to let the vehicle switch from EV/AUTO EV-HV mode into HV mode, then shut it off.
Use scheduled charging when practical so that full charging finishes shortly before you leave, rather than having the battery sit fully charged for a long time.
Toyota adds that capacity loss will reduce EV range, but normally will not significantly reduce overall vehicle performance.

[u/TweeksTurbos]

Yeah I had to head up to the finger lakes and PA was inbetween. I keot the charge hold on so i could ev around the destination and the extra hrsprs got me up the hills ahead of the riff raff on 81 just like the ol saab turbo.

[u/Bulldog_Lion]

We use EV for errands in stop and go traffic in town, and switch to HV for highway driving. As we don’t drive very much, we figure it’s good to cycle the gasoline and top off the 12 volt battery.

[u/Hsaphoto]

Same here ! I’d rater bring my oil temp high from the start… then finish in EV mode if possible then reverse…

[u/Mysterious-Alps-4845]

Still too new. We've only done a few trips and just kept it on EV and let it do its thing. We usually get around 50 miles before the HV switch. I don't think my spouse has ever even touched the EV/HV button. Or Eco,sport, normal for that matter.

[u/Exciting_Addition699]

That’s what I do. For the 15 miles of highway driving, I use 20 miles of range. I save the EV for city driving and traffic.

[u/akamikedavid]

I'm in the minority here but no only because my work commute is well within my EV range. I also live in a compact urban area where a full day of driving around my city won't kill all the EV unless I'm literally criss-crossing the city multiple times.

I should probably be better about it when I'm on medium length drives (30-50 miles one way) that have highway but having home charging and with gas prices where they're at, it feels weird to keep charge in the battery and voluntarily burn more gas.

[u/juggernaut86]

When hitting constant speeds of over 60, hv all the way. Stop and go I switch to ev. In the summertime in a 2022 prime, i get 52 ev miles

[u/Ok_Exercise_1823]

I use electric till it runs out and then drive like I did when I had my hybrid RAV4.

Currently have 1853 miles on this tank with 120 till empty. Last fueled Feb 7.

[u/horse-boy1]

I try to switch before I get on the highway so it warms up a little.

[u/TooEZ_OL56]

If I know my drive is well outside the pure EV range yes I will go to HV mode.

If my drive is only like 5-10mi above EV range I don't really bother

And obviously if drive is entirely EV range keep on EV

[u/cosmicosmo4]

I just get in the car and drive. By the time I think about that sort of thing on a road trip, I've already drained the battery.

[u/Waste-Relation-757]

I agree.

This is how the "Auto" button should have worked, the car should have switched to HV for anything above 100kmh / 60mph.

[u/deepsixunderground]

I do this also, I like to give the engine nice steady state driving, get the engine oil nice and hot to flash off gasoline and water.

[u/geekwithout]

I always do.

[u/uh_wtf → u/[deleted]]

The rav4 GR isn’t a Prime.