Considering Coming Back To A Tacoma! Got some iForce Max Hybrid Questions.

Hi y'all! It's been about 15 years now since I was behind the wheel of a Tacoma. My first car was that 2008 Tacoma in my profile picture and it's long gone now. I'm actually glad my old account never got hacked or deleted on here lol.

Recently I test drove a TRD Off Road 4th gen with the hybrid powertrain and loved it. I'm no stranger to Hybrids/EVs though as since my old tacoma I've had a Prius and a Model 3. Now I'm looking for a fun adventure toy and the new Tacoma, a Bronco, or 4xe Wrangler is on the radar. I'm definitely heavily leaning towards the Tacoma since I had such a good and reliable experience with my old 2nd Gen truck.

The questions I was wondering was:
1.) Does the truck shut off the engine for long when stopped? During my test drive the engine never really shut off whenever i stopped at lights.
2.) Does it creep or drive at parking lot speeds with the gas engine shut off too? I also noticed during my test drive that driving around the dealership parking lot the engine was still running.
3.) Does it use a blended braking system like the Prius does, and does anyone else actually feel the drag of regen braking? I couldn't find a screen/monitor to tell what was regen and friction braking like the Prius has. I also couldn't feel much drag when slowing down either.
4.) Lastly, Does it have some sort of hybrid system monitor like the Prius has to see where the power is going? I found the iForce Max gauge in the speedo area, but thats it. Not super crucial, but the nerd in me would love it if it does. In the Prius it looks like this:


Cheers y'all!

 

FYI - The Tacoma, Land Cruiser, GX hybrids are mostly designed around supplemental power on top of the 4cyl turbo. They are different than the gas sipping, efficient Prius.

I wouldn’t go with the 4xe unless you plan to unload it before the warranty is up.

 

Having had 2 Prius's (C & V models) concurrently for 12 years, and now a 2023 RAV4 Prime owner for almost 2 years, I would say our Tacoma Hybrids are nothing like them, and it just doesn't have all the display tech like in the Prius and RAV4's. Every time I drive my Pro, I long for the missing Hybrid information that I am used to seeing. You just get a glimpse, but not much more.

The Tacoma is a Truck, and not a Car, so they treat it as such and designed the Hybrid to suppliment the Gasoline Engine, not be the main emphasis. Add to that the missing alternator on most Tacoma Hybrids, and you have a different animal altogether. Yes the engine can stop at times, but not very often like in a Hybrid car. I have also failed to see it not startup without the gasoline engine. Maybe it can, but I just haven't seen it. As far as the braking is concerned, it does feel similar to other Hybrid braking if you use it effectively, but nothing is stopping you from putting your foot down on the disc brakes either.

What you do notice is the immediate Hybrid torque boost followed by the Turbo which is very nice.

 

1. The engine will shut off when coasting to a stop and remain off while stopped. If you are stopped too long (5 minutes?) the engine will turn back on.

2. Cruising 35-45mph the engine will regularly shut off and go full EV for several minutes. In my neighborhood, driving 20-25mph, it will also drive EV.

3. It doesn't feel like it regen brakes with foot off the accelerator. I think it only regens while friction braking and it's so smooth I don't notice it.

 

1. Engine shuts off at any low torque opportunity, so flat or downhill cruising will often get the rpms to drop to zero. You don't feel the change at all, but you can hear it as the engine cuts out. As another mentioned, if I'm easy on things, I can often go over half a mile on electric only.

It'll creep as soon as it's in drive or reverse and you ease off the brake, unless you have the "brake hold" on. The engine kicks on any time immediate torque is needed or if the in-cabin demands are high (cooling/heat/etc.).

The regenerative "braking" is transmission based. Nothing to do with the wheel brakes themselves. If your familiar with the concept of downshifting to engine brake, it's a similar principle. If the wheels are rotating the drive shaft faster than the engine needs it, the extra energy is "reversed" into the hybrid battery.

The hybrid in these trucks is not a fuel economy assist, it is a torque/HP assist. The motor sits inline between the engine and the transmission to supplement any lows between engine rpm and gear stepping. It provides for immediate punch with no delay of the engine "spinning up". It also offsets the sluggishness you might feel when towing. But it's focus is power assist, not range assist, so you'll likely only observe 1mpg gain (some have seen less, other more, it's down to personal drive style and very dependent on your area roads and terrain). In the Mid-Atlantic, I'm nearly 5K miles in and have only seen 23mpg+ on very long road trips being easy on the pedal and staying under 74mph in the beginning I would see about 18.7mpg, and last 2 tanks have been about 21.5mpg.

There is a dash gauge you can display in the mid telling you when the hybrid motor is active and what it's charge level is, but it's not the "flow" diagram you might be thing of that Toyota has in the mpg focused hybrids.

 

I was still wondering if anyone has put the hybrid on a dyno? I know I've talked about that before but I can't remember seeing it, or the numbers.

 

Oh yeah the Wrangler is at the bottom of
My list lol. I just mostly liked how it felt like my Model 3 in its driving dynamics with regards to the EV side of it.

 

I’ve put my Prius on a dyno! Everyone got a hoot out of it .

 

Sweet thank you!

 

Thanks man haha. I’ll try my best to eke out the MPGs when no one is behind me and see. It was a fun game when I had my Prius

 

Dyno results here - https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...or-tuning-ott-tune-for-4th-gen-tacoma.851779/

 

OTT did some dyno runs and 0-60 runs comparing non-hybrids to hybrids, but TFL did a drag race of a non-hybrid vs a TH (4R) and the 650lb heavier (battery + skid plates + bigger tires) TH starts ahead and pulls away from the non-hybrid in the 1/4mi.

https://youtu.be/-EfsQLr6T5Q?si=wTSAnE3IfpcgEQaR

 

I've never seen the at the wheel horse power numbers published for the hybrid. It never even comes up in hybrid discussions.

 

Here's a Hybrid (Stock) vs. the same truck with our Stage 1 calibration.

 

1.) Does the truck shut off the engine for long when stopped? During my test drive the engine never really shut off whenever i stopped at lights.

Yeah, but the engine has to be up to temp first.

2.) Does it creep or drive at parking lot speeds with the gas engine shut off too? I also noticed during my test drive that driving around the dealership parking lot the engine was still running.

Yeah, but it will only really do this if its already warm. If the truck cooled off while you were shopping or something ice will start.

3.) Does it use a blended braking system like the Prius does, and does anyone else actually feel the drag of regen braking? I couldn't find a screen/monitor to tell what was regen and friction braking like the Prius has. I also couldn't feel much drag when slowing down either.

Yeah. You can feel it.

4.) Lastly, Does it have some sort of hybrid system monitor like the Prius has to see where the power is going? I found the iForce Max gauge in the speedo area, but thats it. Not super crucial, but the nerd in me would love it if it does. In the Prius it looks like this:


No, but I have a scangauge to do that.

 

Thanks!! What kind of hybrid info does the scangauge see?

 

What happens when the hybrid battery dies and it’s past the warranty? Can you drive it like normal, or do you need to replace the hybrid battery?

 

dunno your looking 10 years into the future... but im sure it will just with 7 warning lights on lol

 

More than likely you will need to replace it if it is totally shot. You have to change a Prius battery if it is dead. You should see degradation, but that is not a failure, and should still allow you to drive even with only 10-20% of the original capacity. You can buy 3rd party and remanufactured Prius batteries, so I do see why no one would try to make one that works for the Tacoma if not done already. I am pretty sure that the same battery the Taco uses is shared on other platforms.

 

Hybrid battery fail? You do not hear of many hybrid batteries failing in Toyotas. I had one for 15 years and 165,000 miles and had not issue until the car was totaled. Through software programming, Toyota dials the stress down and does not allow the battery to become either overcharged or over depleted. Toyota warranties for 10 years and 150,000 miles