That first-generation Toyota Prius looked odd, and it just wasn’t the steering wheel on the wrong side. Here was a compact sedan with a gasoline engine, plus a battery with electric motor that could add boost to the little four-banger, or even motivate on electric alone. It was quiet as a golf cart when it did that, shutting off the gas engine at a stop light or parking lot.
The second-gen Prius had more electric-only power, while the third-generation 2010 model more streamlined wedge shape could go up to 25-mph for a mile on electric alone. But now, there’s another in Toyota’s planned long line of Prii (officially the plural of Prius.), and we had one of 163 pre-production test versions of it for 2.5 days.
Called the 2012 Prius Plug-In Hybrid, or PHV, it uses the sleek third-gen shape and takes it further with a higher-tech battery that can recharge via a 110- or 220-volt plug to get up to 13 miles electric range at speeds up to 70-mph in our case, then operate like the efficient (if slightly boring) gas/electric hybrid it’s always been. Welcome to the bold new world of factory alternate propulsion, joining the all-electric Nissan LEAF (up to 100 miles on electric alone) and Chevrolet Volt (25 and 50 miles on electric, with a 1.4-liter gas generator to expand electric range an added 344 miles). Now comes the Prius’s new Hybrid Synergy Drive, with new lithium-ion batteries that offer something in between. Let’s zap on down the road.
· Prius primer – There are more than 1.2 million Prius owners since its Japan intro in 1997. The 2012 Prius PHV lives in the third-gen Prius’. It starts with a wedge-shaped nose flowing into a raked windshield while the rounded roof gets carved wind channels before it slopes into a near-horizontal rear window with gloss black spoiler on a high tail that ends in a vertical back window. The semi-Kammback design adds flat flanks with a low sill line that help the aero-efficiency, a .25 coefficient of drag vs. the 2009’s .26. What you can’t see - a fin under the rear floor to increase linear stability, trays under the front, floor pan and back to channel air flow under the car, plus splitters behind the rear axle to direct air flow and improve straight-line stability. And while alloy wheels covered by wheel covers look odd, they improve streamlining as the car rides on high-efficiency 15-inch Yokohama rubber that look small.
To make sure you know the Prius PHV is special, stickers proclaim “PLUG-IN HYBRID” and “The evolution of hybrid for sustainability” only on this demo vehicle. There’s a “PLUG-IN HYBRID” badge on the right fender, a power plug under the left front fender door marked “PLUG-IN HYBRID,” and a PHV-only silver trim under the rear window. Toyota says some other minor trim changes may be made before the final production version comes out in mid-2012. A few car friends noticed the stickers and plug door, and how quietly I arrived at a breakfast gathering. A few questioned it when I dropped into a cruise-in, and the side stickers got some intense looks on the road. But it’s just another Prius to most.
Inside, pretty much a third-generation Prius except for an electric plug-shaped “EV” indicator when you are driving off the battery, and a miles-to-empty display. It’s all hard plastic, dark over light gray, with a high center-mounted digital display many hybrids and imports carry. There’s a digital speedometer with digital bar graph to the left for fuel, another to the right for instant mpg, and a gearshift indicator.
To the right is a multi-function display – it can show an animated pictograph of the car’s power sources and how the gas or electric power is being used, plus battery charge. You can display a bar graph that shows when it’s charging on deceleration, using a little or a lot of volts, or in Power mode when accelerating hard. Bar graphs can display current and average mpg/power usage (we never saw better than 5 percent battery/95 percent hybrid), while a linear graph monitors the best mileage and makes you moderate the gas pedal to keep it in the center economy mode. Too much power means the graph heads into the “Power” band. Our teenage son loved the clear skin displays that popped up when you used the flat-bottomed, tilt/telescope steering wheels’ soft-touch controls. The right side let me toggle through multi-function screen’s functions, plus adjust a/c temperature, re-circulate and trip meter. The one on the left handled the stereo. The dash center houses a simple satellite navigation touch screen that also handles the good six-speaker AM-FM-CD sound system. The dash flows into a floating center console, a climate control system just above an electronic gear shifter that acts like a computer joystick - “Park” is still a counter-intuitive button. There is storage space under the console, with a 12-volt power outlet and seat heater controls. The center armrest slides back to reveal the second cup holder, with removable tray for an MP3 player, audio input and 12-volt outlet underneath. There are upper and lower glove boxes but no Bluetooth for your cellphone. And as slick as it is, we had some wind noise from the driver’s-side mirror at speed.
The heated front seats were gray cloth, comfortable and mostly supportive, while fit and finish were fine and all controls had a solid feel. The rear seats are very roomy for two adults. The real change is behind them. The PHV has a bigger battery pack of different batteries (more later), so the cargo floor is a few inches higher. The bigger battery means no spare tire either, with only a sliver of under-floor storage space compared to the regular Prius. The “regular” Prius has 26.1-cu.ft. of space behind the seats; the Prius PHV is so new no measurement is available, we are told. Other comments - the split rear window seam still divides rearward view; some of the digital dash display wasn’t easy to read in bright sun; and there’s an annoying backup beeper in the cabin, not outside.
· PHV power – I drove a second-generation Prius a year ago with a $10,000 Hymotion Lithium battery pack that made it a plug-in hybrid. The pack charged in a few hours off a 110-volt line, and I spent a half hour driving around under electric power, gasoline backup ready if needed. It worked well, but at a premium. Toyota’s Prius PHV is the factory version, although our test car’s spec could change before final production, we are told. Our 2,200-mile-old test car had the third-generation Prius’ more powerful (98-hp) 1.8-liter Atkinson-cycle engine, plus two electric motors. One is the starter/generator, while the second and the gas engine drive the front wheels through a continuously variable transmission. That’s a combined net 138-hp, 24 over the previous generation. The PHV’s lithium-ion batteries are stacked in three packs, one to handle the hybrid duties, two to handle strictly all-electric motivation. They replace the standard nickel-metal hydride batteries, and take three hours to charge on 110-volt, or about 90 minutes with 220-volt.
Our car came with a transformer/circuit breaker-equipped 110-volt cable that plugged in within seconds, power flow indicated by an orange dash light and a test light on the box. Why shift to lithium-ion? They work better in pure electric and plug-in hybrids due to higher energy density with higher demands of charge-depleting operation (large swings in charge/discharge), Toyota says.
What’s it mean to a driver? The “regular” Prius I tested a year ago actually gave me less than a mile on full electric EV mode, and only neighborhood speeds. After its first full charge, this Prius PHV predicted 13.7 miles electric and got me 14, starting with neighborhood 40-mph driving and hitting 70-mph on the interstate. The gas engine kicked in briefly to get on the interstate, then went off as the instant mpg bar gauge zipped to 100-mpg. Batteries drained to two bars, it resumed normal hybrid operation – engine off/electric on at stoplights and low speeds like a regular Prius. The next full charge saw it go 13.62 miles on electric, a round trip to church and back. There was one minute of gas engine input going onto a highway ramp, then all electric until we came home, .02 miles EV range left. When the miles-to-empty meter’s tenths-of-a-mile indicator hit zero, the gas engine came on with a gentle shiver and we were a regular hybrid again. We could extend EV range by a tenth or two by anticipating a red light and gently braking early, which kicks the motor in generator mode and puts more juice into the batteries.
We stuck mostly to “ECO” mode, which dampens gas pedal response and cuts back on a/c for more economy. It works, but the result is leisurely acceleration coming off the line at a light unless you push it harder, with a slight sci-fi like electric motor whine as you accelerate. Outside, a bit of electric motor noise, but so quiet I surprised people in parking lots. And on electric mode through historic St. Augustine, people walking the narrow streets didn’t hear the Prius as in motivated electrically. No information on whether the Prius PHV will get a low-speed noise maker like the Volt and LEAF.
The car has a Power mode that brings the acceleration and a/c back to normal, and the gas engine engages more, so down goes gas mileage. Push the Power button and get to 60-mph in 10.3 seconds as battery boost helps the gas engine through a continuously variable transmission. A “regular” Prius took 9.6 seconds when we tested a 2011 model with the standard battery and powertrain. The few tenths of a second off may be due to the fact that the Prius HPV is heavier.
Like the “regular” Prius, the gas engine does power down during low-stress driving on neighborhood streets or downtown stop-and-go, motivation taken over by electric up to almost 40-mph. The result – our average mpg started at 23-mpg. A weekend of driving mostly in “ECO” and adding some hyper-miling techniques like light throttle application, braking gently to regenerative brake to a stoplight and lightening throttle down a hill or bridge to save gas/charge batteries brought it to an indicated high 53-mpg at its best, compared to an average 48-mpg in the “regular” Prius I tested a year ago. The “regular” third-gen’s EPA estimate is 51 mpg city/48 mpg highway, while the PHV’s is yet to be determined, but should be higher, says Toyota.
The Prius PHV’s ride was just fine, firm enough and comfortable over bumps. Handling was pedestrian, with understeer showing up early, tackled by stability control that can’t be shut off and beeps if you push too hard. There was some brittleness over sharp bumps, and the electric steering was a bit dead in feel, but better than some others I’ve driven recently. This isn’t a sports sedan, but it had a bit more fun in its genes than a Nissan LEAF. Disc brakes all-round vs. the last-generation’s front disc/rear drum brakes offered solid stopping power with no fade, but the pedal feel was wooden.
So is the Prius PHV’s extended EV ability, extra weight and smaller trunk with recharging cable in a bag in it worth it, not to mention the unknown price? If your commutes are within 10 miles with a bit of 110-volt recharge at each end, the Prius PHV would use no gas at all. Five days a week, a few weekend errands on weekends and nightly overnight charges might mean filling up with gas in a month or two. That’s a plus. Running 14 miles on electric means less pollution as well. For those worried about their utility bill going up, Toyota says a Prius PHV draws about one kilowatt an hour, so a nightly recharge should be inexpensive. Toyota says the lithium-ion batteries should last “the life of the vehicle;” first-gen Prius batteries are still working fine for the most part, 10 years later. “Power” or “ECO” mode didn’t change the way the Prius PHV’s EV worked – be nice with the throttle when fully charged, and it went just as far on electric either way. One note to Toyota – it might be nice for the driver to select when they want to go EV, instead of right after a charge. Let me pick my EV time, such as when I get into diesel bus-choked downtown rush hour.
That said, a Honda Insight hybrid gets to 60-mph in 10.5 seconds and averages 33-mpg; a gas-engine Honda Fit with manual tranny gets 37-mpg and is fun to drive for four; and a turbo-diesel VW Jetta can get 40-mpg or more in a fun sedan too. They all cost less than the Prius PHV. Of the alternate powered vehicles out now, a Chevy Volt got to 60-mph in 9.1 seconds with an average 36-mpg in our hour-long drive, and was good for 34 miles of all-electric. It starts at $41,000, but a $7,500 federal income tax credit can cut that down. My recent test in a Nissan LEAF saw 83 miles range on a full battery charge (which takes about 20 hours to recharge on 110-volt current or 8 on 220-volt), and it starts at $32,000, less with tax credits. All of these carry four people and stuff, the Prii and Volt winning on people space. The LEAF has the most range anxiety of the alternate powerplant cars – when it’s out of juice, there’s nothing but an electric plug to get it going. A Volt and a Prius PHV can both run for hundreds of miles on gas if the batteries are drained, but a Volt goes a lot longer on electric, making it more EV for the money.
· Prius price – We don’t have a final price on the plug-in Prius yet, since our car was one of the vehicles set for market/consumer analysis and demonstration in select U.S. markets. Our model had equipment like heated seats, touch-screen navigation and remote-start air conditioning, with cloth seats and AM-FM-CD audio. Toyota says the final PHV price will be a bit higher than the stock Prius, which starts at $23,050 base on up to $28,320 for the Prius Five. They could even change the battery output before the Prius PHV goes on sale. “This program is a necessary first step in societal preparation, in that it allows us the unique opportunity to inform, educate and prepare customers for the introduction of plug-in hybrid technology,” said Toyota group environmental and PR VP Irv Miller in a press release. “When these vehicles come to market, customers must understand what to expect and if this technology is the right fit for them.”
· Bottom line – The Prius PHV is another example of how technology can improve a design and make a more environmentally-friendly vehicle. After silently cruising in a Volt and Leaf on short test drives, it was nice to have a Prius to electrically play with for a weekend and see what Toyota’s electric life is about a year early. If I had a choice of alternate power vehicles, it would be a toss-up between a Prius PHV and a Chevy Volt. Both offer on-board gas engines to increase range to real-world needs while still offering all-electric range, comfort, room and options. The Volt just zaps along longer on electric, while a Prius PHV could cost less. A Toyota PHV demonstration program website – www.priusphv.com, is running now so folks can learn more about the technology, follow the program’s progress and track the performance of the demonstration fleet.
2012 Toyota Prius Plug-In Hybrid
Vehicle type - gas-electric plug-in rechargeable hybrid compact sedan
Base price – TBA –a “slight price increase” over 2011 price
Engine type - aluminum DOHC, 16-valve in-line four/60 kW electric motor w/three packs of lithium-ion batteries
Displacement - 1.8 liter
Horsepower (net) - 98 @ 5,200 rpm/up to 80-hp from electric motor
Torque (lb-ft) - 105 @ 4,000 rpm/153 lb.-ft. from electric motor
Transmission - continuously variable automatic transmission
Wheelbase - 106.3 inches
Overall length - 175.6 inches
Overall width - 68.7 inches
Height - 58.7 inches
Front headroom - 38.6 inches
Front legroom - 42.5 inches
Rear headroom - 37.6 inches
Rear legroom - 36 inches
Cargo capacity - TBA
Curb weight- about 3,400 lbs.
Fuel capacity - 11.9 gallons
Mileage rating – TBA, but better than the 2011 version’s 51-mpg city/48-mpg highway
Last word – Look Ma, I can zip along electrically for miles and miles!
By Dan Scanlan - MyCarData
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