Written by: Martin Ward
Wednesday, June 17, 2009 

It was last summer when I first saw and drove a very early pre-production Prius near Barcelona at the IDIADA test track. We had hours of technical presentations by Toyota’s engineers and these were mostly in Japanese. We learnt how they had improved the hybrid system and they told us how it was more fuel efficient, had a lower Co2 output and the weight had been reduced wherever possible. We were shown the old model’s workings, which were then compared to the new and they showed us the old electronic components and demonstrated how much lighter the new ones were. This was all very impressive and wholly believable. We had the chance over a two day period to understand how the Toyota hybrid system worked and what measures had been taken to improve it.

 

I remember thinking in Spain just how good the system was but it wasn’t until I’d been able to drive one around home that I realised how good it is. The dashboard on the Prius is like something out of Battlestar Galactica, as it has more buttons than my local Haberdashery shop. All of which have a purpose and are relatively easy to understand but I did on two occasions have to reach for the handbook to fully appreciate what some of them did.

 

This hybrid is a true petrol/electric car as it can run on electric alone and does not just use the electric motors to add extra power to the wheels when needed. There are three buttons on the dashboard that are used to select the type of power needed at any time. These are: full power for quick acceleration, eco power when economy is needed more than a quick getaway and an EV button which shuts down the petrol engine and just runs on electric power alone.  This does however have limitations and will only last for a couple of miles at low speeds but nevertheless, all three are very different yet effective. The EV button is particularly useful when you have an early start and don’t wish to wake the neighbours. The Prius is only available with an automatic gearbox and in normal drive position the engine does not help with braking when driving downhill; it uses this energy instead to recharge the batteries. However, if ‘B’ is selected on the gearshift, the engine will help with braking.

 

The new Prius is a good looking car with some nice design lines and Toyota has managed to some extent to move away from the slightly odd styling that has put many people off.

 

Despite the fact that this car is supposed to be efficient and green, the mpg figure on our test car was not brilliant. On a variety of journeys and roads, with all types of speeds involved, we averaged just over 48mpg which is well below some of its competitor’s diesel cars.

  

The cabin is spacious and comfortable for five adults and has plenty of leg and headroom. The boot is adequate in size; the engineers have made clever use of where they have positioned the batteries to achieve maximum luggage capacity. The whole of the interior is of a high quality, with Toyota spending good money on the fit, finish and quality plastics. They have made sure not to use all of the budget on the hybrid system.

 

With all the electronic wizardry that Toyota has fitted to this car, it was surprising to see that they are still using the outdated and disliked foot operated parking brake. This has to be operated with the left foot to engage and disengage. Why couldn’t they have just added another button to make it easier to use? Especially for those like my neighbour who has lost the use of his left leg following a stroke. The new Prius has now been crossed off of his list.

 

The new Prius is powered by an all new 1.8 litre petrol engine and an electric motor that is used in parallel. The electric motor produces 60kw and combined with the petrol engine, produces a total of 136ps. The official combined fuel consumption figure is 70.6 mpg which is a long way off from the figure we achieved on the test car. The Prius has a low Co2 figure of 89g/km so the VED cost is zero. It goes from 0-62mph in 10.4 seconds and presumably this time is taken when the power button is being used.

 

The cost of the car we tested was £21,209 but prices start from £18,370 for the T3 model. The argument is that for this money you could buy a very nice Volkswagen Golf or something similar and potentially have more miles per gallon.

 

 The new Prius has however, improved so much over the previous car in all aspects.

Trackback Print

Location: Blogs Martin's Blog

Your name:
Your email:
	(Optional) Email used only to show Gravatar.
Your website:
Title:
Comment:
Security Code Enter the code shown above in the box below
Add Comment   Cancel