Toyota Prius Prime
You’ll be excused for bypassing the new
Toyota Prius Prime’s headline fuel economy rating of 120 MPG that’s expected to
top all production plug-in hybrids, and focusing on its revamped looks.
Toyota has been
trying to shake off its ‘beige’ image lately, bringing more emotion to the
brand through livelier designs – you may not fall in love with their newest
cars, but they won’t go by unnoticed either, something that applies to the new
Prime member of the Prius family.
To distance it from the plain hybrid
Prius, Toyota’s designers went all Acura NSX with the Prime’s front that now
features pinched quad LED headlights, a new grille and a heavily sculpted
bumper - and yes, the end result is more complicated than biochemistry pathway
chart. They finished up the exterior makeover at the back by swapping the
tear-drop-style tail lamps for a unibrow-style unit.
Some changes were made inside too, with
Toyota giving the Prius Prime additional premium touches highlighted by the
very-Tesla like 11.6-inch tall, high-definition central infotainment screen and
an available full color head-up display, while a number of functions, such as
checking the charging schedule and remotely activating the air-condition system,
are available through a smartphone app.
It also gets the Toyota Safety Sense
suit that packages the Pre-Collision System with Pedestrian Detection and
Automatic Braking, Lane Departure Alert with Steering Assist, Full-Speed
Dynamic Radar Cruise Control and Automatic High Beam.
Strangely, Toyota chose to discard the
middle rear seat turning the Prime into a four-seater, separating the two rear
passengers with a console.
Of course, the prime reason why you
would go for this version of the Prius in the first place is the improved
efficiency and the increased battery-only driving range. Toyota estimates that
the Prime will get 120 or above MPGe (miles per gallon equivalent) offering a
total range in excess of 965 kilometers, and a pure electric range
of 22 miles, which is double what the previous Prius PHEV offered, but it’s
slightly behind Hyundai’s new Ioniq PHEV that is said to return over 25 miles.
To get these numbers, Toyota’s engineers
doubled up on the older Prius plug-in hybrid’s battery capacity, with a new 8.8
kWh lithium-ion battery pack that can be charged in approximately 5.5 hours
using a standard household outlet or half the time with a 240V source. The
Prime is also the first Toyota model to feature dual motor generator drive
system that uses both the electric motor and the generator for drive force, to
boost acceleration. The electric drive system is paired to the familiar
1.8-liter Atkinson-cycle four-cylinder gasoline engine with a planetary-gear
continuously variable transmission (CVT).
