CdO

Annoyingly, inexplicably, even internally the car has no engine timer/mileage counter. There is an engine run time (maybe on all cars?); but, it resets after every ignition cycle.

Perhaps just to annoy us, the car does keep track of "AC Charging Total Time" in minutes. That might be useful if you always charge at the same rate.

There are all sorts of timers and counters. It counts how many times you open and close the "rear door". It counts how many times you try to shift before it's ready. It goes on and on; but, no engine timer.

drox

The justification for a break in oil change is that there are metal shards in the filter. If there is stuff in the oil filter, isn't the oil filter doing its job? Will keeping that filter in for a bit longer really make a difference in the longevity of the car?

Also, for those of us driving NX450h+ and charging up our car on a regular basis, for example driving 30% HV and 70% EV. Putting 5,000 miles on the odometer is really 1,500 miles on the engine. Both videos by Car Care Nut are ICE vehicles that get all of their miles from the engine, including a lot more idling. My engine sometimes doesn't even turn on at all while driving during pure EV trips. How is this going to consume my oil or damage my engine?

I get oil is cheap, but I would rather not spend the time, money, and pollution on something that is unnecessary by applying a recommendation on an ICE car to my PHEV.

lsft

I didn't do my oil change early. Overall, I would have just driven about 4 gas fill ups ~3000km at my 12 month maintenance where my odometer was about 10500 km.

Droid13

Many comments focused on distance and EV vs ICE run ratio. The thing is, especially for plug ins, time and lack of use are by far the much bigger factors then engine miles. As soon as you open the cap on that oil bottle, it begins to deteriorate and become contaminated. Its like opening a big bottle of Coke, useful life time starts ticking much faster as soon as the cap comes off, and more so again pouring it out. Engine pan in a car is not hermetically sealed, oil in there is going to react with air, water, and fuel. And like so many other things on a car, using it is far better than not using it. The absolute worst thing you can do is say to yourself, I only run the engine 15 minutes a month, my oil will be good for a very long time. The opposite is true. 15 engine minutes a month means you probably need to change your oil more frequently. An engine that gets oil changed after 10,000 engine miles every 3 months is going to do a lot better than an engine that gets oil every 12 months after 250 engine miles. A Toyota engine will easily outlast the vehicle if it is well but kindly used and cared for, but it is more than happy to self install new inspection ports in the side of the block and convert pistons into gravel when oil is left to congeal like last Thanksgiving's turkey gravy. By no coincidence this typically happens in poorly cared for engines not too long after extended service agreements bow out and say you're on your own, that is the unofficial definition of manufacturer's lifetime, how long it will put up with poor conditions before something lets go.

Search YouTube for engine failure teardowns. There are literally hundreds and hundreds of videos showing all kinds of ways engines give up after a tough battle with their owners and 90% of them, caused by oil issues. Clean oil is your friend, its ok to make new friends regularly even if they want you to buy the first round all the time.

lsft

At the end, it depends on how you plan to keep the car. Some people will drive it until it can't be driven. Some drive for 8-10 years. If you are the ones who keep the car forever, the more frequent oil change would be the better deal.