If You're Really Green, This Is The Car To Get: 2020 Toyota Prius Prime

[Music] for America peak Prius happened back in 2012 when toda sold over 230,000 Prius family vehicles there was actually some concern in the industry that the Prius would soon outsell the tota Camry but in reality that never happened and in fact Prius sales overall in America are down to just about the same levels that we had in 2004 why is that and should we be looking at something like this refreshed 2020 Prius prime or should you be looking at some of the other electrified alternatives the Prius prime is arguably the most efficient Prius available in America sure the Prius L eco the non plug-in version gets a slightly higher mpg score but this gets also 133 MPGe when running on electricity and for a lot of folks that is the greater efficiency metric and if you take a look at this just as an Eevee this is really the second most efficient Eva available pretty much anywhere in the world the only vehicle in the u.s. that will top this in terms of MPGe efficiency is the most efficient trim of the Model 3 but of course the Prius is not a model 3 competitor it's not even anywhere close because totus mission when designing the Prius Prime was very very different and it's centered entirely on efficiency and in my opinion that's really the reason that Prius Prime and Prius sales in general haven't quite lived up to some of their expectations this is the rational man's vehicle so too focused on high efficiency engineering precision reliability longevity all those sorts of things that it just seems like customers don't seem to care as much about it turns out that the average green shopper in America is more interested in brand performance and in some ways evie range / efficiency in this video we are going to be talking about the Prius prime for 2020 but we're also gonna be talking about this question of efficiency vs. range plug-in hybrid vs. Eevee regular hybrid vs. plug-in hybrid the key thing to know about the Prius prime is that it's a pretty good deal in America at the moment we still get a federal tax credit on this because toda has not sold as many plug-in hybrids or v's as someone like General Motors or Tesla whose et tax credits have essentially sunsetted this is about $2,200 more in base form than a non plug-in Prius 27,000 750 starting and if you're looking at the top-end limited trim like we are here this is only eleven hundred dollars more than the limited trim without the plug so if you're shopping for a Prius in America in my opinion the Prius prime really ought to be the one on your shopping list it also should be on your shopping list if you're worried about operational expenses on the outside I think the prime is the most attractive Prius available in America we have a slightly more sedan shaped profile than we find in the regular Prius and this is about three inches longer as well we still have a lift back so we still have a lot of cargo practicality but we have a much smaller cargo area because we have a battery that's nearly nine times larger overall cargo capacity goes from just over 27 cubic feet to just under 20 cubic feet so we do lose almost a third of the cargo room but we gain the slightly more attractive rear end overall the important thing to remember about the Prius line in general and the Prius Prime specifically is that totus focus on overall efficiency really rules the entire design for this vehicle it defined the shape of the Prius the tire size the amount of power we have under the hood and the battery pack in the rear as well under here we have basically the same engine that we find in the regular Prius it's a 1.8 liter four-cylinder engine on its own it produces 95 horsepower and 105 pound-feet of torque it's then mated to a hybrid synergy drive transaxle up front the most important thing to remember about totus hybrid system is that this is not a CVT like most people think out there so the overall design of the system bears zero resemblance at all to the CVT s that we find into the hoods of Subarus or Nissan's or even something like a toad a Corolla it is completely different at the heart of the system there's a single planetary gearset and two motor generator units that's what allows the system to either operate as a conventional driving vehicle it's going to use those two motor generator units to act as a transmission that can change ratios or it can just use those electric motors to drive the vehicle down the road in easy mode now unlike the regular Prius this vehicle will use both electric motors to help motivate the Prius Prime down the road giving us a theoretical maximum of about a hundred horsepower or so when and Eevee mode if you're operating in hybrid mode then we get a bit more because the engine can add to it about 121 total oddly enough the Prius prime will get slightly better fuel economy than the regular Prius 54 miles per gallon combined when operating as a regular hybrid versus 52 miles per gallon combined for the comparable non plug-in Prius now there is a slightly higher fuel economy based Prius but that's not the direct corollary to the models and trims feature set et cetera that we're looking at right here the two main reasons for improved fuel efficiency versus the regular Prius are the overall profile this seems to be a little bit slippery or because of the different look out the back and of course the battery pack in the rear this is an 8.8 kilowatt-hour lithium-ion battery pack located right there under the cargo area it's about 8 or 9 times larger than the pack that we find in the regular prius according to the EPA that makes this battery good for about 25 miles of evie only range now at this point in time I know that a lot of you are thinking 25 miles seems useless why bother even making a plug-in vehicle with this kind of range when you take a look at the numbers you can really see what todo is focused on real-world driving range the average American commutes less than 25 miles a day as well as efficiency as I said before because at 133 MPGe only a single trim of the Model 3 in America will get better overall efficiency than this particular vehicle and remember that the model 3 is not lugging around a gasoline engine so it's going to be a little bit more aerodynamic than this overall shape which does have more cooling demands going on up front and obviously when operating is a hybrid this is gonna get 54 mpg this is not the same kind of balancing act that we saw with the Chevy Volt the Volt was trying to be everything to everyone it was trying to give us a very long AV range relatively speaking for the time and of course give us gasoline range as well but it ended up being ultimately compromised with poor efficiency on both sides because of that particular choice charging happens back here via this charged door we have a little cap over the J 1 7 7 2 port but one thing I noted is that there's really nowhere to hook this it seems like there's a hook over there but it actually pulls out from its little retaining clip if you try and use that you can't actually park that anywhere really it just was left to dangle on the paint and then we have an included emergency charge connector this is only going to operate on 110 volt of course the vehicle will charge on 240 as well to give you that 25 miles of electric range charging should take under three hours if you're charging on a 240 volt level to station it'll obviously take probably about seven hours or so if you only have access to 110 volts and that emergency charger in the back when it comes to the sales numbers clearly there's a lot of internal competition going on that's part of why the Prius isn't selling as well there's also external competition there are a ton of different hybrids and plug-in hybrids available in America now but I also think there's something different going on here a lot of Americans have forgotten that the Prius is all about efficiency and if you want to save money and reduce emissions then efficiency is incredibly important unless you're getting all of your power from a truly zero emission source and you have a truly unlimited quantity of that power then relative efficiency should be important to just about every green shopper out there but a lot of folks are buying other vehicles that have much lower efficiency ratings than theoretically could have higher emissions overall than the Prius here certainly will have higher operational costs as well this Prius to drive 25 miles will cost you a dollar six cents even at California's high electricity rates something like a Tesla Model 3 the most efficient version available is only going to be four cents cheaper to drive 25 miles and remember this vehicle starts at 27,000 dollars it will have a federal tax credit on it as well the model 3 is gonna be an awful lot more expensive than this and that's not the model 3 that a lot of green shoppers have moved to remember back when the Prius first launched in America there were tons of Hollywood stars that were out there buying the first model Prius they were focused on the green image etc a lot of those people have moved on to test the model 3 performance models or Model S performances model X performance models etc and those are gonna be a lot less efficient than the Prius here and have higher operational costs according to the EPA on gasoline and electricity this should cost the average consumer in America about $800 a year theoretically a model 3 could save you perhaps $200 a year and overall emissions would be a little bit higher than this then in the model 3 if you're just talking about the consumption on the vehicle now if you're talking holistic emissions then overall the model 3 is going to be a little bit higher I'll let you dive into those videos there are a number of really videos about overall holistic efficiency numbers the Prius generally speaking is going to be a little bit lower than some of those depending on the amount of driving you do in easy mode but anyway you slice it this is going to be about half the price to operate every year versus a toda Corolla and it's gonna consume significantly less gasoline the average Corolla or Honda Civic out on the road is going to consume about 450 to 500 gallons of gasoline a year now very clearly if you move from one of those to a full evie you could drop that down to zero and if you moved from one of those options into a Prius prime you wouldn't go to zero but you could get pretty close relatively speaking so moving to a vehicle like this is all about efficiency as well as sort of gasoline mitigation if you want to take a look at it this way rather than going cold turkey there's an argument that you can have a greater environmental impact by taking the same number of batteries that it would take to have a hundred thousand full EVs out on the road and instead make three hundred thousand plug-in hybrids because this Prius prime according to the EPA on the average driver scale should be consuming about 30 gallons a year versus 450 to 500 in a total Corolla well that may not be zero that number is significantly lower because the average American should spend at least ninety percent of their time in evey mode and even in my relatively odd commute where I Drive up in over a twenty two hundred foot mountain pass and I Drive twenty eight miles each way to the office I still spent ninety percent of my time in easy mode in this Prius Prime so it's all about efficiency with this vehicle now the trouble of course is that efficiency is just not sexy with some plug-in hybrids out there if you were to floor of the vehicle it will turn on the gasoline engine to give you the best acceleration possible but because there's really not too big of a difference in terms of overall IV horsepower and hybrid horsepower tota elects two different modes for you we can have it in easy mode where it will not turn on the gasoline engine and then will go zero to sixty hit twelve point eight seconds or we can put it in hybrid mode get zero to sixty in ten point three remember this is about three hundred pounds heavier than a regular Prius and the last mode is evie auto that has that separate button there in the center console if we put the vehicle into evey auto mode and we floor it then it will stay in AV mode at the beginning then shift hybrid mode if you keep the pedal floor for just a little bit longer in terms of stopping distances all versions of the Prius Prime that we've tested so far stopped from 60 miles an hour back to zero in 127 feet this is a little long for the compact second but remember the Prius prime is on the heavy end as well because we have that much bigger battery pack in the rear we also don't have tires as wide as some of the top-end options in the non hybrid competition so if we're taking a look at an Elantra sport or a civic or even top-end versions of the Corolla the tire sizes and the tire compound choices on the Prius are just not quite as grippy now logically we have to go back to the e V competition talk for a while because clearly a Tesla Model 3 is going to be more fun to drive out on the road than this clearly a hybrid camry is going to be more fun to drive out on the road than this as well it has significantly more power nearly double the horsepower that we have here it also has slightly wider tires it's gonna hold the road a little bit better it's gonna feel more sporty than the Prius but it's not going to give you a fuel economy that is this good same thing goes for a wide variety of plug-in hybrids out there because again the Prius is not about overt driving enjoyment even though this generation the Prius has really made significant strides in terms of overall driving dynamics it's all about efficiency efficiency first and again for some reason oddly enough efficiency just isn't that sexy good example is whenever we have talked about alternative v's out there whether it's a Porsche taken or a Jaguar ipace or an Audi e-tron and I comment about the relatively low efficiency versus a modern Tesla folks are like well what does that matter always struck me is interesting that people are so interested in range but not terribly interested in efficiency and relative efficiency is what's costing you money every time you charge your car and again high efficiency is what the Prius is all about and there has been a lot that has been sacrificed on the altar of efficiency namely performance also handling this is not going to handle like some of those EVs out there even some of the mid-range mainstream EVs are going to handle a little bit better than this Prius Prime now I think arguably this has a better handling feel to it out on the road than the regular Prius because we do have more weight in the rear that's improved the overall weight balance but that doesn't mean that the Prius Prime is going to handle like a model 3 or a top-end version of the Kia Niro Eevee for instance Tony's engineers were just frankly willing to sacrifice that in the name of efficiency and on a rougher road like we're on here the softer suspension of the Prius is definitely comfortable that's something people have noticed about the Prius lineup for a long time is it this still gives us the ride that you would associate with probably a slightly larger more classic American vehicle there's definitely a little bit more tip and dive a little bit more body roll than we find and something like a Honda Civic even though this is about the same size overall as the Civic and curl it's not too far off the average compact stand in America so if you're looking for a practical efficient vehicle that rides like a bigger car then the Prius should definitely be on your list we also get more cabin noise in here because we don't have as much sound deadening as we find in some of those other green alternatives out there seventy four and a half decibels is what we scored in this at 50 miles an hour now this point number of you are probably thinking but hang on a minute how is it that this matches some of those most efficient EVs out there but does not exceed them even though we don't have the sound deadening we don't have the acceleration we don't have any of that going on it's all about the range that we have in this vehicle and the fact that we have that range delivered by a gasoline engine the gasoline engine components obviously add weight and there's a relative efficiency trade-off in the overall drivetrain design we have those two electric motor/generator units under there not just one electric motor which could have been more efficient and we have the entire weight of the system designed for propelling this vehicle along as a gasoline vehicle as well and if we're talking about range the Prius really excels there as well six hundred forty miles of range in this Prius on about 11 gallons of gasoline or so that's the twenty five miles of electric range and the rest is going to be given to you by that 54 mile per gallon hybrid system and overall range is going to be much more predictable in this just like in a regular Prius then in most EVs out there obviously in colder weather the gasoline drivetrain can be used to generate heat for the cabin this vehicle will also heat the cabin or cool the cabin via electricity and we don't have to worry as much about battery conditioning because the batteries use envelope is just very different than an appear evie on the other hand and the absolute bottom line for the Prius out on the road of course is that this still drives like a Prius it's not as inspiring as something like a three or even some of those other electric alternatives out there from companies who are not named Tesla it's not going to be as fast as most easiest out there even relatively inexpensive EVs like a Nissan Leaf Plus and because a lot of green shoppers don't seem to necessarily factor efficiency into their buying decisions quite as much it's also gonna be a little bit louder in the cabin as well front seat comfort is good for a compact vehicle in America we have a power driver seat with a reasonable range of motion no memory seats even in this top-end trim no powered passenger seats even in this top interim either but we do have a two-way lumbar support there we have a tilt telescopic steering column we have a reasonable range of motion but the telescoping function does seem a little bit more limited than in some of the competition hopping into the back we have a reasonable amount of rear seat room overall that's been long one of the best selling features about the Prius and the Prius Prime if I put my head all the way back there on the headrest my hair is touching the ceiling but my head's not quite touching the ceiling even though we don't have quite the same profile that we find in the non plug-in Prius I still have about two inches of overall length to Prius Prime is however a compact vehicle so if I move over here to the middle my head does touch the ceiling there and you'll notice that the rear bench seat is just not as wide as something like a Camry or an accord now why a Camry or an accord well because on the inside and in the cargo area we actually find interior dimensions that are not too far off some of those larger sedans so like a Camry is not really gonna give you that much more legroom it's definitely not going to give you more Headroom or more cargo room than the Prius Prime the cargo air is also more practical than something like a Camry or your average compact or midsize sedan because of this lift back design if I were to lower these rear seats down they do fold completely flat but not flat with the cargo area because of this extra battery you can't put long items right there into the Prius we have this entire large opening available Prius fans have definitely long commented on the incredible cargo practicality that we find in the Prius lineup that applies to the prime as well just in a reduced capacity versus the regular Prius on the inside we have Hydra decibel shoulder belts and two-way adjustable headrests for the green crowd out there this is imitation leather not real leather moving on over to the front doors we have a decent amount of hard plastics remember the hard plastics are going to be lighter than a slush molded interior that's one of the reasons that we find that kind of plastic technology and a lot of efficient vehicles on the passenger side we have a reasonably sized glove compartment this is pretty average for a small car in America you couldn't fit a larger tablet computer in there this is not a storage area that actually just part of the trim over there for the dashboard in the center of the dash we have this large screen that we first saw with the Prius Prime this was one of the first vehicles in America to give us a 12 inch display in the dashboard we now see them in vehicles like the Outback the Subaru Legacy the RAM 1500 and of course the competition from Tesla if you're going to consider them competition up above that we have two smaller LCDs in the dashboard this gives us the instrument cluster readouts trip computer information overall I have to say that these displays are not as well coordinated as we find in a wide variety of other vehicles out there this system right here in the middle gives a smartphone integration something that we didn't see when the Prius Prime first came out but as you can see one flaw with that is that the smartphone integration is always going to operate in this very small window up top this is basically the same thing that we see in the RAM 1500 s large display as well as the Subarus below that we can choose whether we want the climate control readouts or you can also bring up the infotainment readouts right there so if you're listening the satellite radio would be displayed there single zone automatic climate control again that's kind of a weight savings thing because a dual zone system would require more baffles more systems that would increase the weight below there we have controls park the shifter right there and then the control buttons for the Eevee and hybrid system you can see that we have a drive mode button here that switches between normal power and eco a button to switch between hybrid and Evi modes if you're in the regular AV mode and you floor it it will stay in Eva mode it will never turn on the gas and engine if you use evey auto it will turn on the gasoline engine and you can switch between the e V and hybrid modes right there by pressing that or press and hold if you want to charge the traction battery in the rear below that we have a Qi wireless charging mat heated seat switches two cupholders right there in the middle and then a pretty small center console storage area a classic Prius design trait is that in front of the steering wheel we really have nothing right there you are looking right up there at the center of the dashboard for your speed and what else is going on we have a leather wrapped steering wheel here there controls for the infotainment system over here on the left is also a trip button that works that trip computer in that too Green LCD up there in the center of the dashboard on the right side of the steering wheel we have buttons that control that LCD cluster up there we have a heated steering wheel button lane-keeping assistance and distance buttons the rest of the cruise control controls are over here on the stock the Prius Prime is definitely a feat of Engineering toda has crafted a 2 motor drivetrain system that can operate as a transmission for the gasoline engine and give us 54 miles per gallon combined this is one of the most efficient gasoline vehicles you can buy in America or it can operate as a pure electric drivetrain giving us the second most efficient vehicle operating on electricity in America the downside of course is that customers in America don't really seem to be interested in efficiency as I keep saying and that's really obvious when you take a look at the sales charts vehicles that are less efficient but more fun like a Tesla Model 3 have definitely stolen the sales crown away from the Toyota Prius especially this Prius Prime right here but does that mean that there's no place for the Prius in the world I would argue that there absolutely is a place for this vehicle still and that's where someone that's interested in low operational costs high reliability and of course that greener footprint because remember the average compact car in America is gonna be consuming about 500 gallons of gasoline and if you drive this even on the average American drive cycle you could drop that down to under 50 gallons of gasoline consumed so that's a serious environmental impact versus the average compact sedan in America it may not be quite what we see going pure electric but it's also going to give you fewer compromises if you don't have the opportunity to charge this Prius Prime at the office or at home one day it's absolutely not a problem you still get 600 miles of range thanks to the gas tank it also is very inexpensive this vehicle starts at just about twenty seven twenty eight thousand dollars there's still a federal tax credit which will drive that cost to less expensive than the regular Prius and definitely in the same price range as many of the alternatives in the compact sedan segment this is going to be a lot less expensive to operate however about eight hundred dollars in savings versus 802 Corolla on a fifteen thousand mile a year cycle and because of the very design of this system it's probably going to be more reliable than that tota Corolla as well and interestingly enough it is worth noting that overall reliability metrics on the indicate fewer problems in long-term ownership windows that many V's out there Eevee's are definitely very very simple vehicles but because most of those V's are luxury vehicles they have a lot more systems on them than we find in the Prius they're not necessarily going to be more reliable in the long run you also have to worry about what to do with your battery pack as it ages maybe it's not going to meet your range windows anymore if any of that is concerned to you then again that the Prius prime is going to be a logical option this is not going to be exercising as much of its battery pack as a fully V and of course if after 300,000 miles this e V was giving you ten miles of electric range it doesn't really matter because it's still going to be backed by that gasoline engine which is gonna give you the full 600 miles of range be sure let me know what you think about all that down there in the comment section below are you interested in efficiency or are you interested in a green vehicle that sacrifices efficiency for the fun to drive factor the performance factor all those other things that we see going on in the luxury evey segment especially and it's worth noting again that a lot of those V's are outselling the Prius let me know down there in the comment section below and I'll see you all next week you

Channel: Auto Buyers Guide | Alex on Autos

Views: 189,943

Keywords: Alex On Autos, Alex Dykes, Review, Detailed Review, Road Test, Driven, Drive Review, car, cars, auto, prius prime, toyota prius prime, toyota hybrid, plug-in prius, 2020 toyota prius prime review, toyota prius prime fuel economy, 2020 toyota prius prime, prius prime review, PHEV vs EV, BEV, Tesla, Prius vs Tesla, Tesla vs Prius, Most efficient

Id: HTSj7ipSeg0

Length: 23min 43sec (1423 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 05 2020