I’m looking for a car for my mother and think the Yaris hybrid might fit the bill, I have a real world question which I can’t find an answer for;

My mums house has a very steep narrow drive that she has to reverse up and it’s near impossible with a small engine petrol without stripping miles off the clutch, would the Yaris Hybrid reverse up the drive on the electric engine which I assume is quite hight torque?

can’t comment on the yaris howabout going for a fully Electric car?

I’ve driven several different alternatives and the E-UP is v good (test drive several alternatives and try getting them up the drive)

i think the only way you’ll answer this is to test drive one and try it.

I would be amazed if it did as it sounds like you’re asking for quite a bit of umph to do what you need to do, and besides, clutch control is all about speed control, so you’ll still need to slip the clutch quite a bit I imagine.

my subaru legacy with low ratio transfer box is great for this sort of thing, but may be overkill for your mother!

Are you sure a hybrid is worth it?

I know some one who has got the Prius. Harked on about what wonderful economy he got from it.

Turns out it is no better than my standard diesel, which drives far better and is much quicker…

IME the mpg figures depend heavily on driving style and the journey types

I’ve got a Prius, an older one.

There’s no clutch, and no torque converter or anything similar. Varying the wheel torque and speed is all done with electric current. So provided you have traction on the tyres, it’ll be fine.

The transmission has a huge range of effective gears – it can change down to an almost infinitely low gear, so when going up something really steep the engine note keeps climbing so it feels like a slipping clutch, but in reality you’re continually shifting down. It has to be silly 1:3 steep to notice this mind.

Turns out it is no better than my standard diesel, which drives far better and is much quicker…

Mine easily does 60mpg on the motorway in summertime, which is about what I’d expect from a ‘standard’ diesel like my other car. However it also does 55mpg round town, where my diesel can drop to 38mpg. The new Priuses are better and faster. So they are better, just not spectacular. Cleaner at the tailpipe though.