Hybrid cars sit in a fascinating sweet spot. Done right, they give you the efficiency of an EV for everyday driving with the safety net of a petrol engine for longer runs. Done wrong, they’re just a heavier petrol car. The difference between those two outcomes is almost entirely down to how you drive.
I’ve spent time behind the wheel of some genuinely impressive hybrid systems over the years, most recently the BYD Sealion 5 DM-i, which runs as an EV first and uses the petrol engine primarily as a generator. Over 1,000 miles I was consistently hitting 2p per mile. The techniques below are exactly what made that possible.
Many of the principles from our Hypermiling Techniques page apply here too, but hybrids have their own set of opportunities that are worth understanding on their own terms.
1. Get Familiar With Your Efficiency Display
This is the starting point for everything else. Your hybrid car will have some form of energy flow display showing you when the electric motor is working, when the petrol engine has cut in, and when the regenerative braking system is recovering energy. Spend time understanding it.
Once you can read it in real time, you’ll start to understand the exact throttle inputs that keep you in EV mode, the moments when the petrol engine wakes up, and how your braking technique affects how much charge you recover. It turns efficient driving from a vague intention into something you can actually measure and improve.
2. Be Feather-Light on the Accelerator
The single biggest lever you have in a hybrid is throttle control. Most hybrid systems will stay in electric-only mode under gentle acceleration. Press too hard and the petrol engine cuts in immediately, burning fuel you didn’t need to burn.
The goal is to find the exact threshold where the car accelerates smoothly on electric power alone. It’s different for every car and every speed, but it’s learnable. Watch the display, feel how the car responds, and keep adjusting until smooth electric acceleration becomes second nature.
In the Sealion 5 DM-i, getting this right consistently was the single biggest contributor to the efficiency figures I recorded.
3. Use EV Mode as Much as Possible
This is where a lot of hybrid drivers leave the most money on the table. EV mode is nearly always more efficient than running on petrol, sometimes dramatically so. If your car has a dedicated EV button, use it constantly in towns, built-up areas, car parks and slow-moving traffic. These are exactly the conditions where electric power shines and where petrol is at its least efficient.
The goal is simple: stay in EV mode for as long and as often as possible. A gentle right foot is what keeps you there. The moment you ask for too much power, the petrol engine wakes up. Learn where that threshold is on your car and stay just below it.
If your car has an ECO mode, use that too. It softens throttle response and makes staying in EV mode significantly easier. Many drivers ignore both buttons entirely and wonder why their real-world efficiency doesn’t match the brochure.
4. Master Regenerative Braking
Regenerative braking is one of the most powerful tools a hybrid driver has, and most people use it badly.
The mistake is braking late and hard. That’s exactly what you’d do in a petrol car, but in a hybrid it wastes energy. What you want instead is a long, early, gentle deceleration that feeds as much energy as possible back into the battery through the regen system.
Anticipate what’s ahead. Lift off the accelerator early when you see a junction, roundabout or queue forming in the distance. Let the car slow gradually. Monitor the regen display if you have one. The more you recover, the more free electric miles you get on the other side.
On the Sealion 5, pairing early anticipation with smooth regen braking was what kept the battery consistently charged enough to run in EV mode through town.
5. Use Hills to Your Advantage
Going downhill is free energy if you use it properly. Take your foot off the accelerator and let the regen system do its job. A gentle touch on the brake pedal will often increase the rate of energy recovery. What comes down can power the next stretch of flat road.
Going uphill is where hybrids often let the petrol engine take over, and that’s fine. Don’t fight it. The system is designed to use the engine when it needs to. Your job is to make sure you arrive at the bottom of the hill with as much charge as possible to handle the next section on electric power.
6. Manage Your Ancillaries
This matters more in a hybrid than a petrol car because every watt you draw from the battery on heating, cooling, lights or entertainment is a watt that isn’t powering the wheels.
Air conditioning is the biggest drain. Use it sparingly. Seat heating is far more efficient than cabin heating if your car has it. Below 40mph, open windows rather than running the air con. Pre-condition the cabin while the car is still plugged in, so you set off with a comfortable temperature without draining the battery in the first few miles.
7. Charge Regularly and Charge Smartly
For PHEV owners, this one is non-negotiable. If you’re not charging regularly, you’re driving a heavy petrol car. A depleted battery means no EV mode, no regen benefit worth having, and significantly worse efficiency.
Charge overnight on an off-peak tariff whenever possible. If you’re on something like Octopus Intelligent, the cost per kWh overnight can be as low as 5.5p, which makes even a modest PHEV battery genuinely cheap to run. Our EV Charging and Savings Calculator can show you exactly what the numbers look like for your car and tariff.
If you have a smart charger, set it to charge automatically during the cheap overnight window. It takes five minutes to set up and saves money every single day.
8. Plan Your Route With the Hybrid in Mind
On longer journeys, think about when and where you want to use your electric range. Motorway driving at 70mph uses significantly more energy than A-road driving at 50mph, so if you have a choice, the lower speed route is usually the better one for efficiency.
Save your EV charge for town driving where it makes the biggest difference. If you know you’re heading into a city at the end of a motorway run, manage the battery so you arrive with charge to spare rather than depleting it on the motorway where the petrol engine would be nearly as efficient anyway.
The Results Speak for Themselves
None of these techniques are difficult. They’re habits, and like any habit they become automatic over time. The Sealion 5 DM-i was the clearest demonstration I’ve had of what a modern hybrid system can achieve in the right hands. A consistent 2p per mile in daily use, from a large family SUV, is a result that would have seemed impossible a few years ago.
If you’re driving a hybrid and you’re not applying these techniques, you’re almost certainly leaving significant money on the road every single week.
Our Hybrid Pence Per Mile Calculator is worth bookmarking too. It helps you track your real-world costs and see the impact of your driving technique in actual pounds and pence.
Have you tried any of these techniques? Got a tip we haven’t covered? Drop it in the comments below.
Hi,
I have a yaris hsd which i bought amonth ago.. I am only getting 35-30mpg. i have only driven 600 km. I dont drive very hard am always careful with acceleration. I dont know what i am doing wrong if I am only getting those figures. regarding regenerative breaking i have 2 slopes which are over 500m from my way to work i usually take my foot of the pedal am i correct or do i have to press the break pedal gently for efficent braking.
Hi Anu
That sounds a little low. Hybrids normally excel in city conditions due to the reliance on the battery at low speeds.
What types of roads are you using and how fast are you driving? At usual motor way speeds hybrids rely on the ICE rather than the battery, there fore you would get efficiency comparible to a similarly sized petrol car.
Mainly city most of my travel is below 50 km/hr if i drive on motorway i stick that on cruise control. I am wondering does the car needs to be run over certain thousand km to be set.
Hi Anu
I am getting around 48 mpg using premium unleaded out of my Yaris Icon using every effort – a mix of in gear coasting and, when the battery is full, a little bit of neutral coasting. It is an interesting mix, but that depends on your attitude to neutral coasting. I have seen others say you would be lucky to get better than 50 and not the claimed 80+.
My Yaris (2013) Hybrid is doing 60+ mpg and even in the colder period we had in dec/jan i was averaging 57-59 MPG. little tips include, over inflate tyres to 32-24 psi, empty ALL rubbish out of car, avoid using heater, use cruise control as much as possible. Let car slow down for you, avoid braking where possible. Try not to exceed 50 mph, most efficient speed seems to be around 43-47mph. maybe look at your route to maintain these speeds.
Hi Tony
You are right! After I cleared the data which had been collecting since delivery, I have had up to and around 60 mpg, which I am happy with.
If you put a Toyota Auris in neutral, and let it coast along a flat road, it goes further thna if it is regenerating power. However, no conversion of energy is 100% efficient. SO….
1. Is there any possibility of causing damage to the engine running it in neutral
2. Is it MORE efficient to use neutral to let the vehicle roll further, or let the battery charge up by using regeneration.
The philosophy of HSD requires that energy re-generation should be involved most frequently possible, so by coasting @ N you maximize the distance you cover (eg slightly downslope) but you fail to capture the difference in your bat! Having said so, a car consumes most energy when changing speed, either from stop or accelerating. Therefore by trying to start from stop gently up to, say 10-15mph, you use the energy saved at descenting, decelerating. Fail to do means you have less available for your next acceleration, move from stop… I hope this was useful!
I have now had my Yaris Hybrid 2013 model for 2 weeks and I am disappointed with fuel consumption. Believe it or not this is my 3rd Yaris, the first two second cars. The first 1.0 petrol could get up to 70mpg when trundling around country lanes, even with 4 adults in the car.
I then bought my Yaris 1.4 D in 2009 and I loved it. It clocked 100,000 last month and consistently did over 60mpg, even commuting 9 miles to work across Manchester. It would keep up with the hot hatches within reason and was regularly used to visit Cornwall. Dawdling under 65mph I could get up to 75mpg but at 80mph down to 48mpg.
My hybrid sadly, even driven in hypermile mode (I know how from getting 70mpg+ from other cars)only does 60-62 even when in EV as much as possible, in ECO, and driving with most cars passing me. Very disappointed already, but happy to see my daughter enjoying my old car’s much better economy.
Lynne, I’ve had an Auris hybrid for a few days and get much better economy than your getting with the Yaris. My first 30 mile round trip gave about 80 mpg. That was on fairly quiet country roads and not exceeding 50mph. A trip today gave me about 62mph. That was mixed driving on dual carriageway and light traffic. I suspect that a small engine petrol (or diesel) will beat a hybrid on dual carriageway or motorway trips. Main points are 1) avoid too rapid acceleration 2) brake well in advance of a junction – coast to a gentle stop. My thoughts after a couple of days driving “this wouldn’t suit Peter”. Peter’s driving style is the opposite of mine – fast acceleration, rapid braking.
I have just bought a Toyota rav4 hybrid automatic. I have never driven a hybrid before, any tips? I have a route to work that involves some good hills I can use to generate energy. Most of my driving is a 30 min route to work, on 40mph roads in light traffic.
Hi Judy
Nice buy. The RAV4 hybrid is a great car.
Make sure you use the regenerative brakes as much as possible, accelerate smoothly and make full use of the EV mode. If it’s like the Aurus then it works up to 30Mph.
It’s a fine balance between using the battery too much and letting the engine do it’s work to help charge it.
Let us know how you get on.
Cheers Karl
Thanks, I’ll keep you updated!
ravv4 hybrid lucky to achieve 40mpg (uk) never mind claimed 55 which is fantasy unless you on a slight incline downhill/
Toyota and many other car firms should be sued because mpg figures are not recorded in normal human driving.
I also owns a prius and average mpg 48 never mind the 70 odd claimed
Hi to all. I’ve just become a new owner of a 16 reg auris hybrid. Previous owned a Mercedes C200 cdi auto. I’ve done now about 200 miles in and around london with the new hybrid technology and driving stile like a older diesel car.
The Auris hybrid showing me about 57,9mpg with aircondition always on, even in the hard traffic today it came to 49,5 mpg on A406 which is twice better than the c200 cdi. It’s a far below claimed mpg, but still better than my old car.
The only bad point is snailish acceleration!
PS: I’ve driving it in Normal Mode
So I decided recently to get an new Auris Hybrid and thus far I’ve been very impressed with the MPG. My daily commute consists of country roads, some fairly steep hills, duel carriage ways and some stop start in city center traffic. At the moment I’ve been getting around 62-63 mpg per each trip. I’ve generally kept it in eco mode, except on one of the hills where I switch to power mode.
On the weekends I’ve been doing trips where I’ve been able to get the mpg up-to 75-80. It seems the newer hybrids can maintain speed at higher speeds on just electric only, saving fuel.
I use the petrol engine to get up-to speed, drop the power and then gently re-apply it, if the car is warm then it’ll just use the battery and motor to keep the speed.
Hi Aaron
I do like the Auris Hybrid – I drove one from coast to coast with Car Magazine and it was great.
Have our tips helped you in any way? Are there any top tips you would give to a would be Hybrid Hypermiler?
Cheers
Karl
I’ve just bought a 2016 Hybrid business model 1.9 and am getting 52mpg at best, not ever exceeding 50 mph on a 40 mile trip today and obeying the recommended best driving practice and always using the ECO mode. If I press the EV Button will I get higher mpg?
I’ve had my new Toyota Yaris Hybrid for about a month. My questions are, (1) why would you not ALWAYS have the car in ECO mode; (2) I find acceleration sluggish. Is it because I’m in ECO mode?, and (3) if you put the car in EV mode so that it just uses the battery around town, what happens when you join a motorway? Do you have to turn off EV mode?