Finally, a GREAT Result from a Toyota Hybrid- The 2023 Crown Takes on the TFL Slip Test!

Hey everybody, we've got a great video for you today because behind me is the all-new Toyota Crown with the new Toyota Hybrid all-wheel drive system, and in this video we're putting it through its paces on the TFL slip test. We've got these rollers, we're gonna get various wheels stuck on purpose in the rollers to see how the all-wheel drive system works, and we're gonna see can the Crown get unstuck. The Toyota Crown is an interesting approach at transportation because it is fundamentally a sedan, but it's lifted and it's got an all-wheel drive system, and this one, well this one is something special. I've got the Motorona here, this is the Crown Platinum with the Hybrid Max all-wheel drive system, a $55,000 car as tested, but what that means is we get a 2.4 liter turbo engine with all-wheel drive and 340 combined horsepower. Now the all-wheel drive system Toyota uses on their hybrids is a little bit unique, so you've got the gasoline engine in the front which feeds the front wheels directly through, you know, the hybridization of a power train, and then in the rear there's no drive shaft that goes to the rear axle. Instead there's a separate electric motor back there, and in some of the older Toyota all-wheel drive systems they would really struggle in the slip test because the rear motors were just not beefy enough. They couldn't push you out of a lot of terrain situations, and that was representative, I think, in snow and slush and ice as well, but we're going to see if Toyota has fixed that in the new Crown. So we're in the rollers, we're nice and settled, so I'm going into drive, we're normal drive mode, and what I like to do is foot off the brake, gentle accelerator, and let's see if we can get it stuck. Okay, so that was by far the best result I've seen out of a Toyota all-wheel drive system. So that rear electric motor engaged quickly and pulled us off, so that was a good first test in the Toyota Crown, but it's about to get a lot more difficult. All right, the diagonal slip test in the Toyota Crown. So the left front and the right rear are stuck in the rollers. Now this is a very common situation off-road. Granted, the Crown is not an off-road vehicle, but it is a vehicle designed for snow and slush and ice. Very common situation in the snow, right? You're driving up on a snowy curb, a couple wheels pick up in the air or, you know, are unweighted off the ground, I should say, and then the wheels, you know, on the ground have to get traction and pull you off. So let's see what happens. Now, in a vehicle like this, we rely on what a lot of manufacturers would call brake lock differential, but essentially the car has to stop the wheels that are spinning to force torque, to force wheel speed to the wheels on the ground. So we're in the rollers, in neutral, nice and subtle. We're in normal drive mode, traction control on. Let's see if the Crown can get us unstuck. Onto the accelerator. Nice programming, Toyota. So once again, in the past, Toyota traction control systems have allowed too much wheel spin. I find myself constantly sitting there playing with the accelerator to convince the traction control to force wheel speed to where it needs to go. But in the Crown, light application of throttle, quick activation of traction control, and we got down. So far so good. It's looking pretty hot. Bringing it up a couple notches. So in this test, both left wheels are stuck, rear right wheel stuck. Only the front right has traction on the ground. Now, this is an extreme test. This is harder than what you typically find in the real world. And that is a hundred percent the point, right? We want to torture test these all-wheel drive systems to see how they perform in a controlled environment. So you might have an idea how it performs in snow and in ice. We're not in neutral. This e-shifter can be a little tricky to engage. So we're going to leave it in normal mode so far. No issues, even in normal mode. Traction control on. Let's see how this Crown does. That right front is going to have to be the one to work its magic. Okay. Well, you could feel the vehicle shifting a little bit as torque was applied to that front right wheel. And ultimately enough torque was applied that the whole vehicle kind of shifted itself off the rollers. But once again, I felt the traction control engagement. It was smooth. It was consistent and it did allow us to get unstuck. We'll try it one more time here just to try to get a more consistent result. Now we're going to attempt the same test again. We had a good result the first time, but want a little bit more of a consistent result. Now, I also want to try a sport mode. Let's see if that's more aggressive in distributing torque. Definitely more throttle tip in. Okay, sport mode engaged. I'm going to drive. Wow. Wow. Great result. Super smooth activation and delivery of torque to that right front wheel. Not that much slippage. Smooth delivery out of that 2.4 liter engine. A nice wave of torque. You know, the engine that's in this, that turbo, is largely the same engine that's in the new Tacoma and the new Land Cruiser. Both vehicles we haven't driven yet, but if the off-road torque delivery in those vehicles is anything like the on-road torque delivery of this Crown, I'm going to be pretty excited. All right, let's go to one rear wheel. This is the hardest test yet. So for this last test, both left wheels are stuck. Front right is stuck. Only the rear right has traction. Now I've run this test in other Toyota Lexus hybrid vehicles. This is the one that typically gets most of those vehicles kind of stuck, right? Because there's just not enough power in those rear motors in a lot of those vehicles. But this Crown, specifically the hybrid max model, let's see how it does. Now there is of course a standard Crown, which is just the standard NA engine with the hybrid system, but this is the chunky max one. Let's see if this one does any better. Okay, come on. Oh, interesting. So this is normal mode. Let me just verify that. Normal mode, stuck. Interesting. I'm definitely feeling those front wheels. They get a lot, a lot, a lot of spinning. Feels more so than the rear wheels, but let's try sport S mode. Oh yes. Oh yes. So this is a situation where the performance of the vehicle is going to be very mode dependent. By sticking it into sport mode, it was able to apply more torque from that rear electric drive unit and pull us down, get us unstuck. Now there's no snow mode in this vehicle. You got comfort, sport, sport S, sport S plus, excuse me, and eco, but stick this vehicle in sport, you get more activation out of those rear wheels and that's what it took to get us unstuck. But impressive results out of the Crown with the hybrid max system. I'd like to try the standard Crown and we'll see how that compares. Overall, I'm very impressed with the Crown performance. For the first time ever, I'm impressed by a Toyota e-all wheel drive system. I've driven it in Lexus SUVs, Toyota SUVs, and it's a pretty good system for round town driving and light snow. But when you get it in the slip test, oftentimes that rear motor just doesn't have the oomph you need to get unstuck. But in the Crown, at least with this hybrid max powertrain sticking in sport mode, tons of torque out of that rear motor got us out of even the hardest of the TSL slip test. Toyota, nice work on the programming of the Crown all-wheel drive system. As always, this has been Tommy behind the hammock, behind the camera, excuse me, cave. We'll see you on the next episode.