44 Mile Range + 52 MPG! | Toyota's 2024 Prius Prime Over Delivers

despite its sexy new looks the Prius and the Prius Prime have always been number cars let's talk about the four most important numbers for this new 2023 Prius Prime 44 52 6.6 and 32 350. now let's talk about how those numbers combine to make this quite simply one of the best compact sedans you can buy in America let's be honest very few people have ever considered the Prius to be pretty opinions usually ran the gamut from boring to ugly but this Prius is neither of those things not only is it attractive I think it's also elegant and restrained something that the Prius has never been in the past these headlight modules are definitely a defining feature with this dramatic C shape right there that really pinches in and this wing-like profile to the front bumper as well the headlight modules are pretty large they actually span about 24 inches from one side to the other and they give this that very Sleek very dramatic look as it wraps around to the side of the vehicle really the only controversial element up front is the license plate bracket but of course if you live in most it's in the US there's going to be a license plate there anyway at just over 181 inches the new Prius is right in line with the rest of the compact sedan competition the Hyundai Elantra hybrid Toyota's own Corolla hybrid the Honda Civic doesn't have a hybrid anymore but oddly enough the Civic SI is going to go 0-60 about as fast as this Prius Yes you heard that right Civic SI and Prius in 0-60 head-to-head battles that's something that I want to see but you'll notice that the profile is quite different than the competition we have this very dramatic very low slung Hood it's just above the knee right there at the front and the practically same angle that's going on with the hood just goes right up there to the windshield very low roof line it is definitely lower than Priuses of the past as is this rear end design here and that has reduced practicality in the cargo area versus Priuses of your this is still a hatchback so it's not technically a sedan even though in this generation it certainly looks more sedan-like up front we find pretty traditional door handles back here we find electronic door handles integrated into this trim section there really the only change on the side side is going to be this charge door right here where we find the j1772 charging connector no DC fast charging for this plug-in hybrid from this angle you can see that the greenhouse does Pinch in towards the rear as we find in a lot of high efficiency vehicles that really improves the aerodynamics as things go to the back no windshield wiper on this really practically horizontal rear end either the other thing you'll notice that we found in previous Priuses was a second window right back here in this area that does have the effect of really dropping rear visibility because this window is pretty high the hatch is fairly high and now you can no longer see through this area but we now have an LED light bar that runs from one side to the other full LED tail lights including the turn signals a power hatch is available but this particular model has a manual hatch to it and other than that nothing really funky to report back here well okay there is one thing funny back here it's the Beyond zero logo right in front of the Prime Beyond zero is what Toyota is calling all of their alternative fuel vehicles from hydrogen to battery electric to yes plug-in hybrid vehicles like this my thought on this is that this is literally before zero because it still runs on gasoline if you want it to under the hood we find the fifth generation of Toyota's hybrid system and the third generation of the Prius Plug-In system at its core we find a two liter four-cylinder Hybrid engine that's basically the same one that we see in a variety of different Toyota hybrids Under This Hood it produces 150 horsepower 139 pound-feet of torque it's mated to two different motor generator units on this side of the engine bay and a planetary gear set those three things together act like a transmission and of course because it has a big electric motor to make that hybrid system work they can just power it off of the bigger battery pack in the rear 161 horsepower is the rating for mg2 in this vehicle and the battery in the back is a 13.6 kilowatt hour lithium ion pack total that gives you 220 horsepower and 52 to 48 miles per gallon depending on the trim you're in and 44 to 39 miles of all electric range for a grand total of 600 miles of ladder busting driving the one downside to choosing the Prius with the plug is that you can't get e all-wheel drive because there's no room in the back for that electric motor that's where the battery pack is living so if you live in an area that gets snow you're gonna have to choose do you want the all-electric 44 miles of range and the really quick 6.5 to 6.6 seconds 0 to 60 or do you want all-wheel drive and yes you heard that right 6.5 to 6.6 seconds is the manufacturer estimate to this that's about what we've been getting out here I'll talk more about that in the drive section and of course stay tuned because hopefully I'll be able to have this at home for full testing just as soon as possible to charge the bigger battery in the rear there's an onboard three and a half kilowatt AC level 2 charger that is on the slow side for a plug-in hybrid you will find some with 6.6 kilowatt Chargers but you'll still be able to get this battery from zero to completely full in about three and a half to four hours and it's right in line with the direct competitor to this which would be the Nero plug-in hybrid but it's not going to look like this it is not a Sleek sexy sedan it's more of a pragmatic plug-in hatch it also won't give you the range or fuel economy we find in here 33 miles of electric range 48 miles per gallon once that electric range is consumed but the interior is a bit more practical an interesting feature that's going to be available on the new Prius Prime is this 185 watt solar roof now obviously this cannot be combined with the glass see-through since these are opaque solar panels but this is really an interesting twist according to Toyota this could get you about 700 miles of free EV driving per year assuming your car is parked out in the sun like it is right now this is only a 185 watt solar panel though so if the battery is completely empty it would theoretically take about 14 days to completely charge the battery in the summer down here in Southern California but it's certainly going to mean that if you go away for a trip and your car's parked at the airport you can either come home to a more full battery than you left or at least you won't have to worry about the 12 volt battery draining does charge the high voltage battery in the Prius Prime so this is a little bit different than some of the solar panels that Toyota's used in the past front seat Comfort is pretty similar to the regular Prius and pretty average for the compact stand category in this top end trim we have a power drive driver's seat with two-way adjustable lumbar support no memory settings for the driver over here and a manual seat for the passenger some folks have been a little bit confused by the LCD instrument cluster and steering wheel setup that we find in this and of course the Toyota bz4x that I usually call the Busy Forks that's Toyota's EV here's what's going on the instrument cluster is really high on the dashboard and you're meant to look at it over the top of the steering wheel so you don't move the steering wheel up like that and try and peer through this little Gap you're supposed to move it down like that it feels a little bit unnatural at first but it does result in having the steering wheel in a very comfortable position and having your eye line brought closer to the road with that instrument cluster higher above we'll take a look at that design in a bit hopping into the back leg room is pretty good for a compact vehicle I have maybe two to three inches of legroom but the front seat comfortably adjusted for me at six feet tall if I scoot over to this side this seat is all the way back in its tracks my knees are just about touching the seat back but still a reasonable amount of room the issue for some folks is going to be Headroom back here if I try and put my head back here to the headrest it hits the ceiling before it hits the head restraint back there and my hair is certainly brushing the ceiling in any sitting position you will find a little bit more room in some of the competition but honestly not much even though we do have that sexy profile this is going to be similarly roomy to the Elantra the Civic the Corolla Etc but not as roomy as Priuses have been in the past this model has a dual paint moon roof though so if your passengers at least get somewhere to look behind the lift gate we find just under 21 cubic feet of cargo capacity which is a little less than we find in the regular Prius that comes in at about 23.8 we still have this foldable style or I guess a fold in half style cargo cover rather than a roller style shade back here and of course we still have the practicality of the lift back design where you could shove your Ikea furniture in here surfboards Keys things like that absolutely no problem the rear seats fold in a 60 40 fashion but you'll notice that we can no longer put 22 inch roller bags in this position and still close the hatch cargo area has shrunk just a little bit too much in this generation now part of that is of course because the sex your profile and the rest is because of the battery pack which is mostly located back here let's go in for a closer look under the floor we find the standard single voltage evse that comes with the vehicle this is probably going to be okay for most Shoppers because you can completely charge the battery overnight then we have a lot of foam divider going on here if I pull out the foam divider you'll notice that we don't have a lot of room under here because the battery pack is located under that area of the vehicle over on this side we find the high voltage Charger 3.5 kilowatts and on this side we find the 12 volt battery the majority of the Prime's interior is shared with the regular Prius except for a few trim differences here and there bearing in mind we're in the xse trim we have this dual pane moon roof set up with separate shades for the front and rear but neither of these glass panes open and obviously you can't combine this with the solar roof the driver and front passenger get high adjustable shoulder belts and two-way adjustable headrests the seats are upholstered with imitation leather and you can see that we have a tritone color scheme going on for the front seats that doesn't translate back to the rear seats but here we have a dark red section A light red section and then the charcoal intersection we have perforated Center sections of the seat back and seat bottom cushions although in this trim they're not ventilated but that is available if you get the top end xse premium trim moving on over to the front doors we find a decent percentage of soft touch materials mostly on the upper section of the door and the armrest and then hard plastics down there at the bottom of the door to help improve durability the dark red trim on the dashboard is the biggest differentiator between this and the regular Prius we also of course have that red ambient lighting strip running across the dashboard the regular Prius has very similar trim components and ambient lighting as well it's just not red like we find in this model the upper section of the dashboard is hard the mid section is soft and then down here we find a pretty typically sized glove compartment for a compact sedan I wasn't able to fit an 11 inch tablet computer inside but some smaller ones might fit front and center in the dashboard is this enormous LCD infotainment system as you can see it supports full screen smartphone integration Wireless or wired your choice and the screen runs the same software that we find in other Toad and Lexus vehicles with the menu over here on the left side it's a pretty flat design some vehicle settings and energy flow diagrams right there but it's pretty easy to navigate although it's not as fully featured as some below that we have the controls for the single zone automatic climate control and some air vents also the engine start stop button there USB input and USB charge port right there both USBC in this little area where I have my glasses it's a tray where you can actually open it up and stick some knickknacks right there under out of the prying eyes two large cup holders right there have my smartphone connected to the system right now because that's my preference down here we have a joystick sound shifter B is for the aggressive engine braking or regen mode but this doesn't have one pedal driving over here we have the Qi wireless charging slot you can see there's an Android phone in a thicker case and it's charging just fine over here we have the various ways to control the hybrid system these two buttons are a little bit confusing because this one switches between auto mode and EV mode this one switches between hybrid mode and EV mode so there are two different ways to get in the dedicated EV mode EV mode pretty self-explanatory EV all the time hybrid pretty self-explanatory it's a save mode auto mode is going to prioritize the battery but also use the engine when needed over here we have a drive mode toggle this basically affects the throttle mapping as well as the steering boost over here we have brake hold stability and traction control and an electric parking brake then of course we have that charge mat over there again pretty softly padded armrest right there that opens to reveal a somewhat small storage area underneath it's not terribly deep but it is nice and long two more charge points inside in case you're wondering this is the new prius's key we don't have a power hatch in this model so we just have lock unlock and the panic button I think the general design is a bit more attractive than what we find in the bz4x I think it mainly has to do with the trim around that display and how it's integrated into the dashboard now again you're supposed to be looking at that display over the top of the steering wheel like this so the camera is right about at my eye line and that means that that LCD instrument cluster instead of being down here is positioned closer to your eye line as you're driving we have some pretty typical hybrid and plug-in hybrid displays turn by turn navigation directions media readouts things like that trip computer certain vehicle settings are done with this display but the theme generally does not change you'll notice that dial sort of looking thing over here it's a charge Eco and power gauge at the top fuel level over there battery level right there on that side and aside from just a slight color change as we move into sport mode or normal or eco mode there really isn't any design change on this display the steering wheel is very similar to what we find in the bz4x it has a slightly smaller diameter than average for this segment and pretty close in and buttons here as well these are the controls for that multi-function LCD cluster with the back button dedicated phone button volume toggle and voice command button on this side we find track forward backward mode and then the controls for the standard radar adaptive cruise control and the aggressive Lane keep assist system this is part of the driver monitoring system that we find in this trim these two little LEDs are not visible to the naked eye but they're giving out IR so that way the system can see your eyes and see whether you're paying attention to the road as you're driving along it will then complain if you're looking at the side of the road a little bit too much now for me I found a little bit distracting because if as a driver for instance I'm looking over here at maybe a freeway exit I can still actually pay attention to what's going on over here but the car starts beeping at you because you're looking for that exit out on the road the Prius has done more than turn over a new Leaf as is obvious when you step on the gas pedal you will actually get a little bit of front wheel slip here and there and 0 to 60 times in here we're actually going to be really similar to a Honda Civic SI that is absolutely nutso when we're talking about a Prius according to Toyota this should run 0-16 about 6.5 to 6.6 seconds thanks to the extra torque that we get from the bigger electric motor up front most of that of course has to do with the battery because the design of this hybrid system is basically the same as the regular Prius we just have the ability to power that motor more because we have the bigger battery pack in the rear now obviously your zero to 60 times are going to depend on the drive mode that the vehicle is in if it's in hybrid mode even if the engine's off 0 to 60 six and a half to 6.5 seconds every time if however I move this control over to EV mode where it's actually going to exclude the gasoline engine even if I floor it full EV mode fully on the gas pedal right there Then 0-60 should stretch out to maybe 11 or 12 seconds unfortunately I don't have any official 0-60 timing but that feels about right for what we're experiencing down here in San Diego I also don't have any official 6-0 stopping distances but you can bet this is going to be ever so slightly longer than the regular Prius which is still a definite improvement over Priuses in the past and handling is also definitely better in fact this is very impressive out on winding roads like this I would never have thought that a Prius could be as fun as even a regular Honda Civic let alone something like a Civic SI but the comparisons are really interesting here same acceleration time as a Civic SI of course we get the cvt-like Drone from the hybrid system personally I don't mind that because we're going 0-60 pretty quickly and then of course we're getting over 40 miles per gallon even without the battery pack being involved but obviously stopping distances and handling numbers are going to fall behind the Civic SI and even the regular Civic 1.5 liter turbo May mainly because of the added weight of the battery pack we find on board of the Prius Prime but I have to say they've done a really good job masking that extra weight in some plug-in hybrids they can feel definitely rear end heavy especially when you're on broken Pavement in the corners the rear suspension can get a little unsettled like the Mitsubishi Outlander plug-in hybrid that we just got as a long term but in the Prius Prime the rear suspension feels just as settled as the regular Prius definitely an improvement over the previous generation in fact every generation of Prius has really set the bar a little bit higher for the most fuel efficient car in America now's a good time to talk about the various Drive modes the most important switch is the one that allows you to choose between hybrid mode EV mode and auto mode in auto mode if you have a full battery pack it's going to prioritize power from the battery but if I floor it it's going to turn on the gasoline engine because it thinks you want maximum acceleration in EV mode it's going to prioritize the battery until the battery is either too hot or you've really been exceeding that power output for too long but even when floored it's going to just be in EV mode so 0-60 around 11 or 12 seconds or so hybrid mode is basically a save mode so if we engage hybrid mode instantly the engine is going to turn on because we're cruising here at 46 miles an hour of course if I floor it I'm going to get all 220 horsepower which mode is right for you is really going to depend on how badly you want to stay in EV only mode auto mode is again going to prioritize the battery but if I floor it it's going to turn on the gasoline engine because it's assuming you want all 220 horsepower and for me that's the most logical mode to be in however some folks are offended by the fact that a plug-in vehicle like this can't just stay in EV mode which is why we get that lockout selection in those controls now aside from that the other Drive modes normal ecosport Etc they're not really going to have any impact on 0-60 acceleration and because this doesn't have an Adaptive suspension system it's not going to have any effect on the handling or ride quality either really all those Drive modes are going to do is adjust the throttle tip in so exactly how much oomph you get from the drivetrain based on the throttle position that's really just a personal preference thing a little bit less of a personal preference is likely going to be the sound deadening in the cabin this is just about the same as the regular Prius so if we're in hybrid mode you're definitely going to get a decent amount of engine noise in the cabin and even in EV mode you're going to hear the motors more really than in any other battery electric vehicle that I can think of at the moment this is pretty much average for a compact vehicle in the US think something like a Hyundai Elantra or of course Toyota's own Corolla amount of sound deadening in here is substantially similar to that but the price tag of the Prius and the Prius Prime is a little bit higher so you will certainly find more refinement in terms of the cabin noise in something like a Camry or an accord then this even though the price tag of this is actually above a decent number of Camrys fuel economy is a bit difficult to Divine but even driving this hard it has been one of the most fuel efficient vehicles we have ever tested over this day of mixed driving in EV mode it's been averaging 3.1 miles per kilowatt hour even though we've been flooring it pretty much everywhere and in hybrid mode we've been getting over 45 miles per gallon obviously for my official fuel economy test scores you should wait till I get this at home but it's pretty logical that in steady state highway driving there's not going to be a huge difference between this and the regular Prius so you could easily expect 50 miles per gallon out on the open Highway as long as you keep your speeds in check a perennial benefit of this kind of hybrid system is that fuel economy is still excellent at higher speeds say 75 or 85 miles an hour like you can legally drive in some states like Texas now clearly at 85 miles an hour fuel economy is going to be a lot lower than at 55 miles an hour but the difference between this and a regular Corolla that Gap really starts to widen as you get up to those higher speeds so this is still going to be considerably more efficient than average even at 85 and that's not what we see in some of the serial hybrid systems out there like the Honda hybrids or the Mitsubishi hybrid in those systems you will really notice that the fuel economy will radically drop off as you get to those higher speeds not so in the Prius or the Prius Prime I never thought this statement would cross my lips but this Prius is the craziest combination of features 0-60 like a Civic SI fuel economy like a Prius quite naturally electric range like you'd expect out of someone else's plug-in hybrid because Toyota had been really dedicated to very short-range plug-in hybrids that is very very rational on a resource utilization front and of course a fuel efficiency front but they've decided to go in a very different Direction with this Prius there is so much power you definitely get a lot of torque steer right from a standstill when you put everything together the plug-in Prius is unquestionably the most fun Prius and that's also something I never thought I would say if you're looking to get your hands on the new Prius Prime these should be on dealer Lots this summer so be sure and reach out to your Toyota dealer now and be prepared to pay about five thousand dollars more than the regular Prius it's going to start at thirty two thousand three hundred fifty dollars and they're only going to be three trims SE xse and the xse premium trim xse is what we're driving right now this is thirty five thousand six hundred dollars plus a few options that are available the xse premium takes things up to 39170 Plus destination charge right around eleven hundred dollars any way you slice it that's about five thousand dollars more than the regular Prius but you do get about 40 miles of all electric range fuel economy depending on how you drive it is going to be pretty similar this is EPA rated lower than the regular Prius but depending on your terrain and the way that you drive you may either get slightly better fuel economy or about the same in previous generations of the Prius Prime I average slightly better fuel economy on my commute for instance because it was able to regenerate power going downhill and I live up and over a 2200 foot mountain pass so in those driving conditions the extra capacity of the battery may actually be an asset but there are a few things to consider no all-wheel drive smaller cargo area than we find in the regular Prius and of course something like the Kia Nero but we get that much faster 0-60 time which is again the really interesting twist with this generation Prius it's not just better looking it's better to drive as well better handling and significantly faster I never thought that there would ever be a Prius that would win a stoplight race with a Honda Civic SI but that is this Prius you might be able to roast your clutch in your Civic SI and get about as fast as a Prius but nine out of 10 times this Prius is going to beat you to 60 and beat you to 100 practically every time now at this point in time the other thing to know is that we are unsure how plug-in hybrid tax credits might apply to the Prius Prime because as I was recording this video today there was just an agreement signed between the United States and Japan which may allow Japanese manufactured plug-in hybrids and EVS like this to qualify for some portion of the federal tax credit whether or not that actually ends up applying to the Prius Prime is anybody's guess however you may be able to get some portion of the tax credit if you lease one obviously there's still a lot of details that are Unknown about that but that could level that price tag and that price comparison off a little bit if this has a future with a tax credit on it it might actually be less expensive than a regular Prius and that would certainly put this at a significant advantage and I'm not talking about the all-wheel drive Prius I'm talking about comparably equipped front-wheel drive models the last thing you should know of course is that this comes only in sexse and xse premium trims that's quite a mouthful so the styling of the vehicle and the suspension tuning is a little bit different than the Le focused range in Toyota's lineup this is something that we've seen from them for a while basically the more luxury or softer tuned lineup is the regular side Prime ends up being the sportier trim as we see in some of the hybrid lineups as well so two things definitely to keep in mind how this Compares against a Kia Niro again you'll have to wait till the full video on all those details but I think it Compares quite well we get a cargo area that is pretty similar a bit more practical in the Nero a bit more Headroom in the back of the Nero but a lot less fun to drive and even though the Nero hybrid has been pretty reliable if I were to bet on future reliability something to drive 300 000 miles without too much trouble the odds probably are in the prius's favor just because of the design of the hybrid system however if you prefer something that feels more like a traditional automatic transmission vehicle you're going to want the Nero because that's essentially what's going on there has a pretty traditional six-speed dual clutch under the hood let me know what you think about all that down there in the comments section and of course hit the Subscribe button because there will be a full review of this just as soon as I can get this at home run it through official 0-60 testing handling testing and of course find out exactly how loud the cabin is again keep in mind this is essentially a 35 to 40 thousand dollar car in its upper end trims but the cabin is not going to be as quiet as something like a 35 to 40 thousand dollar Camry or a cord on the other hand significantly better fuel economy and that really long electric range let me know about that and I'll see all of you later thank you [Music]

Channel: EV Buyers Guide

Views: 86,180

Keywords: Alex Dykes, Alex On Autos, Review, Detailed Review, Road test, Driven, Car, EV, Electric

Id: TcyFrMhwz8Y

Length: 25min 5sec (1505 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 05 2023