Toyota Hybrids like Prius set a global standard for fuel economy excellence by combining an efficient gasoline engine via orbital gearing PSD to a traction motor & generator motor that save or recuperate energy via brake regeneration, so when Prius not accelerating, it can turn the engine off, coast, go down slopes or hills and capture energy in the NiMH or Li-Ion traction battery energy storage unit, where power from that ESU then added into the motor to help the gasoline engine efficiently accelerate, in sum HSD or Hybrid Synergy Drive proved by the millions of models of Hybrids by Toyota sold worldwide, that ICE fueled by gasoline Hybrid cars such as any of many generations of Prius can get more than 40, 50 or 60 MPG in the real world.
PRIME are plug-in hybrid versions of Toyota Hybrids that have largest battery storage capacity. In practice this means recharging with a regular extension cord over a normal power outlet at home overnight, giving PRIME vehicles around 50 miles of daily driving range as BEV mode, with the gasoline engine off the entire time & no fuel consumed. When the PRIME engine does come on to warm up in a Toyota PRIME model, it does so with every fuel saving trick practical to implement, so in the real world PRIME models mix $20 a month of electricity with $20 of gasoline to get over 70MPG overall, so many people with PRIME Rav4 for example driving daily to work & back, their energy & fueling costs only about $40 per month.
REEV or range extended electric vehicles offer all the benefits of BEV around town & between cities, while giving long range performance of ICE, just like Toyota PRIME, since Plug-in Hybrids are a kind of Range Extended Battery Electric Vehicle. BMW famously released an actual REEV variant of i3 know as the i3 REX which featured a twin cylinder scooter engine generator in the trunk area and a small gas tank that holds about 2 gallons of fuel or 7.5 liters, so when the Li-Ion battery of i3 depleted to 30% state of charge, the REX engine activated producing 22KW of electricity that can power the i3 traction motor while also charging the battery storage system, which when it reaches 80% state of charge the REX motor turns off & it operates in BEV mode again. The REX i3 weighs about 600lbs more, so handling & acceleration suffer but with the major benefit of longer-range operation in REX or range extended mode. GM via Chevy also sold two generations of VOLT which are range-extended electric vehicles.
Prime Toyota or Lexus are finest quality, longest lasting, most reliable, lowest total cost of ownership models available to buy. These are the only ones I consider buying & the best overall value because they mix a few dollars worth of grid power with few dollars of gasoline to go hundreds of miles. Its all the benefits of BEV without any of the limitations & the best of Toyotas highly developed Hybrid Drivetrain technology perfected over twenty years now! Toyota does not pay me to post this, this kind of information based on the pleasing ownership experiences of 05 Prius II for 17 years & 170,000 miles sold inside our family at a song & dance price & continues to be driven with a new hybrid battery upgrade installed.
Meg has a 2010 Prius III with 2ZR-FXE engine that still works & our 2022 Corolla Hybrid Sedan LE my daily driver also has the same engine as third generation PRIUS, but with tweaks to improve thermal efficiency, a 4AH 207.2V long-life lithium ion battery instead of the 6.5AH 201.5v NiMH battery of her Prius. The smaller, lower mass lithium-ion Hybrid battery is 50% lower mass, has 70% higher current output, & can operate Corolla hybrid at up to 80 MPH without turning the engine on & has better energy recovery efficiency in brake regen or more efficient & expensive, but with the downside that it does not work well at very low or very high temperatures, since lithium ion batteries are thermally fragile, or break down faster when they too hot or too cold when charging or discharging.
In a little while, still dark black outside early AM Saturday, I am going to change the engine oil & oil filter of our 22 Corolla Hybrid, with 4.4L of 0W-16 Oil & new oil filter, then save the spent used motor oil drained into a catch pan into a 1970's metal gas can that's been used to save used motor oil since the 1990's, such that I take the spent oil when the about 4 gallons worth in the can, to a local autoparts store for recycling in their blue painted 600 gallon rectangular motor oil recycling container in the back, then get a new oil filter, some motor oil & any other parts I need while I am already at the Autoparts store. Changing engine oil regularly a great way to enhance the life of an engine. When I do it at home in the driveway it takes about an hour overall including setup, procedure & putting it all away after completion. The filter & oil cost me about $24 & I do it on my day off, correctly, so I know its done correctly & been doing that with cars since 1992 when my dad taught me how to do it. I did a short "Pre-lab inspired" write up of the Tools & Parts & Procedure for 22 Corolla oil change
*Update 9:05A Sat, 9/6/2025 completed engine oil & engine oil filter change OW-16 synthetic oil
Cleanest, fastest, least noise, fewest number of moves, best one of my life oil change by doing the pre-lab inspired write up, corrected, it pre-loaded my brain with every move, so completing the procedure went by smooth as butter :) At The Grange ethanol free gasoline 5.8 gallons for $31.32 added to fill the tank for estimate remaining range of 624 miles now :) '
Why use $5.20 per gallon ethanol free, straight or pure gasoline? It contains around 7% more energy content, no ethanol so it does not attract moisture, being purely isomers of gasoline, nearly entirely hydrocarbons they prevent corrosion of the fuel system as my car parked for 22 hours per day or more, outside in the rain, not stored in a garage, for the indoor garage space used for our 2020 Yamah MT03, by Crossroads 2.0 Specialized Bicycle, Megs LECTRIC 3.0 Step Through Folding E-Bike, our cherished sentimental 01 Audi A4 2.8 Quattro with Porsche PDK TipTronic steering wheel button shift automatic, or bump shifter shifting automatic AWD with Torsion limited slip differentials on the front & rear axels, it can tow 3500 lbs from a tiny sedan using the gorgeous torque of that 30V 2.8L V6 engine that requires premium fuel. Leather heated seats, sunroof with tilt mode tinted glass, BOSE premium sound system. It was about $41K in 2001, way more than I would ever spend on a vehicle, given adjusted for inflation that's almost $65K in 2025 USD because of currency inflation, so an ultra-premium compact executive 4 door Sedan made in Germany & imported, the don't make them like that anymore :) I recently had Butera Motors of Seattle do almost $4200 worth of work on that B5 Audi to make it road-worthy & update timing belt & other wear items from differed maintenance that needed work. I was given this vehicle by my late adoptive mother CMS who died in 2023, & she knew I loved this car, so promised that when she "clicked the bucket" it would be mine & that's how the cookie of the estate closing crumbled. Aside from a few cosmetic blemishes, perhaps in need of a deep clean, it's a creampuff in minty condition for its age :) All original except the front splitter which I had an autobody shop install after buying the part online.
Tools & Parts
Nitrile Gloves, Paper Towels
Battery electric impact wrench 12mm socket to remove drain bolt fast & easier.
Size specific tool to remove oil filter
Used oil catch pan, dirty & clean funnels for used & new oil transfer without spilling any
Jug for used oil recycling, I use an antique 5-gal gasoline cannister for used oil recycling
Hydraulic floor jack, new 14mm crush washer for the drain bolt
New engine oil filter vehicle specific
10mm socket for door access bolts
14 mm short socket for impact wrench
14 mm long socket for torque wrench
Oil filter removal tool to aid removal of tight hard to remove oil filter
Oil Change Procedure for 2022 Toyota Corolla
Park the car level, parking brake engaged, turn it off. Jack up car for access with hydraulic floor jack.
Use 10mm socket to remove 4 bolts of cover door to access engine oil drain bolt & engine oil filter.
Place oil catch-pan under, then use impact wrench 14mm socket to loosen drain bolt.
Now place clean impact wrench & battery away to keep clean.
Using gloved hand unscrew drain bolt careful that stream of used oil goes into oil recover pan, a paper towel in your other hand as you're going to get used motor oil on the drain bolt & gloved hand removing it. Towel off used motor oil from the glove & drain bolt.
Install drain bolt crush water onto drain bolt & retain for install.
Allow used engine oil to drain out all the way for a few minutes, then replace drain bolt with crush washer & hand tighten.
Now use a torque wrench set to 20-foot pounds via 14 mm deep socket to secure the drain bolt.
Now apply the oil filter removal tool & unscrew the oil filter, carefully noting that used motor oil will spill, so keep that over the oil catch pan.
Now removing the oil filter, use a clean paper towel to clean the oil filter socket.
Put clean motor oil into the new filter, a few ounces enough to soak the filter element, roll it around to saturate the filter media, then install it hand tight, then using special removal tool to tighten it into place.
Move the oil catch pan with lid installed out of the way, over near recycling jug.
Install the door & 4 bolts 10mm to secure the door.
Now carefully remove the hydraulic floor jack, slowly letting the car back down.
Change to clean gloves. Open the engine access hood.
Locate the oil filler cap, then turn counterclockwise to remove it, sett it down carefully, retain it.
Install a clean funnel into the oil filler port, then carefully add about 4.3 liters of OW-16 oil, then allow the funnel to drain all the way so no drips. Remove the special clean oil filler funnel & retain it.
Now restore the oil filler cap, hand tight to keep debris out of the engine lubrication system & to prevent splashing hot engine oil from spewing out of the filler port.
With hood open, start the car, let it idle for 30-90 seconds, then turn it off & wait a few minutes.
Using a clean glove & paper towel, pull the oil dip stick & check the level on the engraved portion that shows the engine oil level, near the bottom tip of the dip stick, now wipe it clean, then insert & remove it again & read it again. If the oil level correct, then you're done with the procedure.
Take the used motor oil catch pan & carefully pour the used motor oil into the dirty funnel inserted into the motor oil jug for recycling later on.
Now put everything away for next time.
When you take the oil in for recycling, obtain more OW-16 & a new vehicle specific engine oil filter for the next oil change down the road.
Extension & Commentary
Engine oil lubricates metal parts that slide, piston rings against the cylinder walls, the valve train or camshaft pushing & rubbing, the crankshaft, so many other parts, hundreds of moving parts in piston engines that need clean oil to work with minimal wear to enhance engine operating life. Clean oil acts to move heat & funk to the oil filter & evenly spreads heat into the block & oil pan, so the engine coolant & radiator work together to moderate engine heat along with the thermostat that controls when to open to allow engine cooling fluid from the engines water pump to circulate through the cooling channels in the engine block, liquid cooled engines have better thermal control than older lower mass air cooled engines & can produce more power & torque & tend to produce less nitrogen oxide emissions because of the tighter temperature control enabled by liquid cooling. Nearly all modern automobiles fueled by gasoline or diesel fuel feature liquid cooled ICE or internal combustion engines, say ICE, ICE baby, but these even have a nice role as thermally efficient versions as the range extending generators of REEV or range extended electric vehicles.
So even PRIME require an oil change periodically, based on engine operating hours & number of on off or cold start to hot cycles, or by calendar if vehicles parked for long periods of time. Used older engine oil becomes acidic because of engine blow by, some of the combustion gasses under pressure shoving the pistons down to perform work to crank torque output, some of that gas squeaks past the oil control rings & other sealing gapped rings wrapped around the side of the pistons, just above the piston skirts, near the wrist pin that connects the pistons with the arms, metallic, that like human legs pedaling a bicycle crank, the piston arms transfer linear pressure from the pistons being forced down by hot pressured combustion so that chemical energy become potential physical torque as those piston arms crank the engines crankshaft so it produces rotational torque output to the transmission, drive shafts & wheels that push or pull the tires against the road surfaces.
In other words, incomplete non-absolute sealing especially during cold start, allows combustion chemical products to slowly leak into & foul the engine oil with hours as the engine started & stopped over & over again, day by day, from one cold start to another daily as you commute, or weekly if your retired & only drive once per week. Prime & Hybrid vehicles are much better for working people commuting daily, as they are going to get more value out of the fuel savings while the batteries are wearing out slowly, such that infrequently used PRIME or Hybrid batteries are just sitting around Calander aging from sitting not being utilized in infrequently used vehicles.
ICE is better for vehicles only driven irregularly, for a 3rd car in a 2-person household, or for retire people that stay home most of the time, or for people who live in another home abroad & leave a vehicle idle at one of the homes for 6 months or even a few months. Gasoline without fuel stabilizer added starts breaking down chemically oxidizing forming waxy threads of alkane goo after 3 months of sitting, but if you do add fuel stabilizer it increases gasolines shelf life from 3 months to 2 years. Conventional gasoline powered automobiles can last hundreds of years in proper storage. If a BEV or Hybrid or REEV stored like that, the NiCD, NiMH or Li-Ion batteries will fade progressively inside of 20+ years of storage, even if not cycled at all, & have to be boost charged every few months to keep them working, otherwise they will die as in no longer work.
