2009 Toyota Prius Hybrid Review
Toyota's new hybrid Prius is a vast improvement over the previous model.
It's become the whiter-than-white charger of the green car revolution. Critics of the petrol/electric hybrid Prius argue that its CO2 emissions and fuel consumption are no better than those of a good diesel, that its motorway fuel economy is very average and that it makes little sense to carry the heft of an additional battery and an electric motor that is frequently idle when the car is cruising.
The need in the Nineties to produce cars with lower CO2 gave Toyota – and Honda, which was first to market with its two-seater hybrid Insight in 1997 – the chance to adapt this technology for a slightly different purpose, mainly because of the US market's aversion to the diesel-powered cars that achieve lower CO2 emissions with far greater mechanical simplicity.
Toyota categorises the Prius in the Ford Mondeo class of family cars. No conventionally propelled car in this class gets close to the Prius's 89g/km CO2 figure, nor its 72.4mpg Combined fuel consumption (which happens to be the same figure for Urban consumption).
During a brief economy run we achieved 80.5mpg, though we travelled quite slowly. You can also conserve energy by switching the blue-knobbed gear lever into "B", which produces more engine braking and regenerative energy. The slightly confusing dashboard displays are part of a new interior that's vastly more appealing than that of the previous Prius. The previous Prius didn't win much praise for being fun to drive, and in a conventional sense neither will this version. Richard Bremner is editor of cleangreencars.co.uk and is assembling the FoS-TECH display of eco cars at this year's Goodwood Festival of Speed from July 3-5
For starters, the next generation "Toyota Prius" will get a much needed increase in engine size, moving from the 1.5 liter engine we’ve seen from 2004-2009 to a 1.8 liter powerhouse.
In addition, the Prius will be an inch wider and and inch shorter in length. Statements have been made by Toyota that the next generation Prius might include some form of plug-in hybrid option (aka PHEV), and a lithium-ion battery. Lithium batteries are said to be more powerful and lighter than the nickel ones in past model year Prius.
Lastly, I ran across a post on Motor Authority (here) citing another article (unreferenced) in Automobile Magazine that mentioned Toyota’s plans to release three new hybrid vehicles labeled the Prius A, B, and C, with the new models due in 2009, 2010, and 2011 respectively.
