First Drive: 2010 Prius Plug-In Hybrid - You Don't Notice When There's No Gas
By John O'Dell April 12, 2010
I know I'm supposed to be all excited about this, but frankly, it's hard to muster up much more than a heartfelt "hooray" and a litle skip and mabe half-a-jump about Toyota's plug-in Prius with its advanced lithium-ion battery.
That's not to say it's not a nice piece of work - just that the Prius package is so familiar that even with extended all-electric range it really doesn't seem most of the time as though you are doing anything out of the ordinary.
I'm down in San Diego for a Toyota sustainability seminar and have just completed about 40 miles around the beach community of La Jolla in a trio of blue mica metallic Priuses with "plug in hybrid" logos on one front quarter panel and trap doors hiding a J1772 charger connector on the other.
They seem to do everyting Toyota has said its PHEV will do, including powering down the freeway at a steady 60 miles an hour in all-electric drive for a bit.
With atailwind and a downhill run, in fact, I got one of the Prius PHEVs up to 64 mph before the all-electric mode surrendered and the gas engine kicked in.
But absent some heart-wrenching flaw that wasn't apparent in my limited time behind the wheel, the most I can say about Toyota's PHEV Prius is that driving it is pretty much just like driving a standard Prius, but with a bit less engine noise.
That's a big difference, of course. For some of the drive - as much as 14 miles in ideal conditions- the Prius PHEV doesn't use its gas engine.
And that should be exciting, but the car does it with such finesse that you don't really notice.
There's little in the way of feedback to tell you the engine's off - except the muted rumble of the exhaust if you stomp the accelerator for a burst of what passes for performance in a Prius.
Unless you are concentrating on the driver information center instead of the road its hard to tell when to feel all warm and fuzzy and green because you are moving along on electrons rather than carbon combustion.
Perhaps if I'd had more time the wow factor would increase.
On two short routes, one 8-mile city loop and one 12-mile "mixed" drive that incuded a few miles of freeway, average fuel consumption was 99.9 mpg (the default tally when you really haven't used much gas at all) and the Prius PHEV's neat little info center told me I'd managed to stay in all-electric drive almost 80 percent of the time and, on each drive, had an average speed of less than 20 mph..
But on a 23-mile drive with a lot of freeway my fuel economy came it at 58.9 mpg; better than a conventionl Prius, although not by a whole lot.
Still, If I had a relatively short commute, or drove regularly in heavy traffic that didn't permit my speed to get much above 50, I'd be laughing as I passed all those suckers at the gas stations.
Toyota will be testing, and perfecting, the Prius PHEV with fleet users in the U.S., Europe and Japan over the next two years,and there will be more opportunity, I'm told, to put it through its paces under less limited circumstances.
Now that's something to be excited about.
The potential is there - but the leash as Toyota makes these cars available for the first time to the media is pretty tight.
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Plug-in Prius information display shows several screens: This one tells which powertrain - electric or gas - is in use as well as average fuel economy and miles of all-electric range available in battery.
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I'll have more on Tuesday as Toyota's engineering gurus walk us through the technology underlying their first attempt at a plug-in hybrid with an advanced lithium-ion battery pack. Perhaps that will ratchet up the excitement quotent.
PS: For the worriers in the audience - the regenerative braking system feels fine, no loss of pedal feel or degrading of stopping power as was been the case with some of the early 2010 Priuses. And there seems to be plenty of space between the gas pedal and the floor mat and acceleration was, if anything, too sluggish.
John O'Dell, Senior Editor
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Click here to comment on this entry.This sounds wonderful. A lack of 'excitement' is just fine, and a seamless integration of more advanced technology is ideal.
There will be plenty of cars which travel down the road faster etc to come.
Did I read that right?? 2 more YEARS before they start selling these to all comers, that's just pathetic! Why don't they make it 10 years to test ultimate packs to failure and be 100% anal?
Does anyone know if these will count as a new model to qualify for tax incentives or will the fact they dried up for prius effect the PHEV too?
Not very impressive numbers if you consider the Fiesta ECOnetic (not sold in US) at 65 miles to the gallon.
Until the Prius can beat non-hybrid cars fuel economy, including diesels, it doesn't seem worth it.
65 Imperial miles to the gallon which is less than 56 US miles per gallon. And that's to say nothing for comparing apples to oranges (real world vs. euro cycle fuel economy test).
Not that I'm all about this Prius. I'm an SUV driving neanderthal who accidentily stumbled across this article. I just hate those who can't do math.
"76.3mpg Ford Fiesta ECOnetic" (british)
"combined mileage rating of 65.3 mpg (US)"
As quoted from autoblog.com.
Well, kinghalas, you might still be comparing apples to oranges. The Fiesta is a much smaller car than the Prius, and I'm sure its tiny diesel engine has considerably less power than the Prius' petrol/electric combination.
This Prius is impressive. It's main achievement is that, if you drive less than 60 mph for 14 miles, you wouldn't use any gas at all. This describes my daily commutes....it's 10 miles and do 45 mph at most!
gwmort - yes, Toyota says they will qualifty for $2,500 federal inc. tax credit under bill that gives credits to first 200,000 plug-ins and EVs sold (or to those sold throiugh 2014, whichever comes first). And that's 200,000 from ALL automakers, not 200,000 from each.
Folk should specify cars for their needs.
Here in the UK the 14 miles a day of petrol free use will cover a lot of people for most or all of their everyday needs, and if you only have one car you can still take road trips.
There is no point for most in paying a lot more for the bigger batteries in the Volt.
Doing five thousand miles a year without petrol will save people here around £1000, and mean that essential mileage is not dependent on oil supply.
I own a Prius and although I enjoy the better gas mileage for my commute, the driving experience of the Prius is mind numbing.
A diesel with a manual transmission like the Ford sounds more engaging with the same mileage benefit.
My daughter owns a new Jetta Diesel Wagon, with the manual transmission. It is very fast, off the line-- which is probably more important than 0 to 60. It seems like a really nice vehicle for 27K, including the massive sunroof. Don't know yet the actual mileage she is getting, but she hasn't filled the tank in 3 weeks.
A diesel might match a hybrid on the hwy but it's not even close around town. Which is better depends on what type of driving you do. A plug in hybrid is perfect for those who do a lot of short trips but it's advantage disappears on a hwy cruise.
There will never be one solution that is perfect for everyone.
The diesel hybrids they are starting to build might come close to your 'perfect' solution! :-)
Again I don't see anything about the cost of electricity. 3.5 to 15 cents per KWH across the country, penalites if off-peak is used which limits when you can recharge the car.
Progress, yes.
Cost effective yet? Doesn't seem so.
sbukowsky and others interested: According to the U.S. Energy Information Agency, the average cost of residential electricity in the U.S. in December - the last month for which the info. is publicly available - was 11 cents a kilowatt-hour, ranging from a high of 26.26-cents/kWh in Hawaii to a low of 7-cents/kWh in North Dakota. California's average was 15 cents/kWh and along the Eastern seaboard costs ranged from 15.2 cents to 19.9 cents per kWh - a regional average of 15.4 cents. If we double that average to 30.4-cents/kWh to account for potential top tier bills for charging at peak periods only and for line-loss during charging, and figure we'd deplete the Prius PHEV's 5.2 kWh battery by 60 percent and then fully recharge it on a daily basis, the cost to the consumer of recharging in that extreme case would be about 91-cents per day. The overall value and impact on payback would depend entirely on how many miles were driven each day and how many of them were driven in all-electric mode.
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