Green Highlander blazes the hybrid trail

The problem isn’t the brakes themselves — the Highlander stops fine. It’s the calibration of a system that uses the vehicle’s electric motor as a generator to recharge its battery during deceleration. It’s supposed to maximize fuel efficiency, but in its current form it’s just too intrusive.

A driver can also help save gas by pressing the “ECON” button on the Highlander’s console. It runs a sophisticated program that modulates throttle input while lighting indicators on the dashboard that coach the driver on how much gas to apply for maximum gas mileage.

The answer for how much gas to apply is, of course, “less,” and the result of the throttle modulation is the feeling that the throttle cable has been replaced by a rubber band.

This might seem intrusive too, but in a hybrid vehicle with a continuously variable transmission, there is already so little correlation between pedal position, engine sound and vehicle acceleration that disconnecting them further in the name of better mileage seems like a good idea.

The Highlander Hybrid has another button on its console — the “EV.” It lets the driver switch the car to “electric vehicle” mode (and presumably creep silently around the neighborhood on electric-only power).

EV is a preview of plug-in hybrid technology to come, but a less-than-satisfying experience when using the “EV” mode is the reason why we don’t yet have plug-in hybrids.

The gas engine has to be warmed up and the battery almost full before you can even try to use it. That’s because if you were to hum out of your driveway on electron power with an ice-cold gas engine, and then suddenly floor it to make a traffic light in your neighborhood your call to the engine room for Warp 6 would be met by a Scottish-tinged reply: “I dannae ken if she can take any more, Captain!”

But when the conditions are just right, the EV mode engages and you can boldly go where few have gone before, but you have to accelerate oh so lightly (no faster than 25 mph) or the Highlander’s gas engine engages. And if you go more than a very short distance, the battery runs down.

Still, the Highlander has its strengths. As a crossover SUV family hauler, it keeps its first and second-row occupants comfortable and happy with multi-adjustable seats. Kids will probably tolerate the third-row seats, which are flat on the floor, but adults will wonder when the sushi will be served.

And Toyota deserves kudos for building the only fuel-saving, three-row family wagon available. The Highlander hybrid is a good first step, but what we really need is a practical vehicle that gets genuinely great mileage.

Customers are ready for truly economical family vehicles, and they won’t care whether engineers had to build a better clock or consult Jupiter’s moons to achieve it.

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