How much money I saved switching to a hybrid

Switching to a traditional hybrid from a small-engined petrol-powered car is saving me roughly R630 per month in fuel costs for my daily commute, working out to over R7,500 per year.

I recently traded in my Volkswagen Golf 7 1.4tsi DSG for a Toyota Corolla Cross Hybrid XS, and while the change has taken some adjustment, the fuel cost savings are clear.

I went for a low-mileage pre-owned 2024 Toyota Corolla Cross Hybrid XS, not to be confused with the newer, face-lifted model.

My daily commute is just over 75km for the round trip, working out to roughly 1,650km per month, assuming an average of 22 working days per month.

In the Golf, which averaged 6.4ℓ/100km in the last few months of driving, my daily commute would have cost R107.56 at February 2025’s inland unleaded 95 price.

Over a month of commuting to and from work, these costs amount to approximately R2,367.

It’s important to note that these figures were from driving fairly carefully, focusing on fuel economy.

As mentioned, switching from the Golf to the Corolla Cross Hybrid was an adjustment, and I likely haven’t eeked out as low a fuel consumption figure as possible.

The first few days of driving saw relatively high fuel consumption figures compared to the manufacturer’s claim of 4.3ℓ/100km.

However, after just under a month of driving, the Toyota Corolla Cross Hybrid’s fuel consumption figure now sits comfortably at 4.7ℓ/100km.

I should note that I got it as low as 3.8ℓ/100km at one point during the month. However, it has since normalised to 4.7ℓ/100km.

At 4.7ℓ/100km, the Corolla Cross Hybrid costs me roughly R79 on my daily commute to work and back, working out to approximately R1,738 per month.

This fuel cost saving is roughly R629 per month or nearly R7,550 per year.

It’s important to note that these calculations include the same route to work taken daily and don’t consider any of my other driving.

We used the inland unleaded 95 price for February 2025 of R22.41 per litre for all calculations.

What I’ve learned

Adjusting to driving the Toyota Corolla Cross Hybrid has come fairly quickly. As one who has been pretty obsessed with minimising fuel consumption (I swear I’m fun at parties), I found it pretty seamless.

Traffic can be a bit confusing. Toyota’s hybrid system fares very well in traffic, and I often found myself panicking about being late but then being calmed by the knowledge that the traffic meant my fuel consumption would reduce.

This is because the system rarely uses the internal combustion engine at low speeds, meaning you are almost continuously running on battery power when in traffic.

However, if you’ve been in traffic for a while and depleted the battery enough, the system will then use the engine to charge the battery, at which point you are met with a generator-like drone.

When the “generator” kicks in, the system generally drives the wheels using engine power while continuing to charge the battery.

While this can raise fuel consumption, I have yet to deplete the battery enough during the commute to see these effects.

At the risk of stating the obvious, it’s good to ensure the car’s engine gets warm before setting off.

When it is cold, it can be challenging to drive economically. While it is also essential to ensure petrol-powered cars’ engines are warm before taking off, I never noticed as much of an impact in the Golf if I set off too quickly.

One of my main expectations when switching vehicles was that I would have to adjust to far less performance, and while this is true to some extent, the Cross wasn’t as much of a performance compromise as I thought.

As with many modern vehicles, the Toyota Corolla Cross Hybrid offers various driving modes: Normal, PWR, and Eco.

I primarily drive the car in its normal mode. However, switching to the “PWR” mode is a lot of fun.

In PWR, the accelerator is incredibly responsive, with the electric motor ready to engage at a touch. The drive setting effectively combines the electric motor’s and petrol engine’s power for rapid acceleration.

It’s nothing crazy, but it’s more than enough if you need a quick boost to overtake on the highway. The rapid acceleration from the electric motor is also a lot of fun.

On the tech side, the XS Corolla Cross Hybrid comes with most of the necessities, including Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, a reversing camera, park distance control, and voice control.

It should be noted that while wired Android Auto and Apple CarPlay are supported in my Corolla Cross Hybrid, the wireless equivalent would be preferable.

It also has a physical handbrake, which, while activated with the foot, fills me with more confidence than my Golf’s electronic handbrake.

The Toyota Corolla Cross Hybrid also provides continuous and real-time information about which part of the hybrid system is being used at any given time.

It shows when you are driving on battery power, a combination of battery and engine power, or when driving purely on petrol power.

The animated hybrid diagram also shows when the battery is being charged — either through braking or through supplementary power from the engine.

The table below summarises my experiences with the Toyota Corolla Cross XS Hybrid during the first month of ownership.