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First drive: Toyota Prius. Image by Toyota.

First drive: Toyota Prius
Toyota promises a lot from its fourth generation Prius hybrid. Does it deliver?

   



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Toyota Prius

4 4 4 4 4

With its all-new fourth-generation Prius Toyota has made big improvements in the key areas of efficiency and refinement. It now has a car capable of appealing to a far wider audience than those concerned about their own environmental credentials.

Test Car Specifications

Model tested: Toyota Prius Excel
Price: £27,450 (as tested), range starts at £23,295
Engine: 1.8-litre four-cylinder petrol with permanent magnet synchronous motor
Transmission: front-wheel drive, continuously variable transmission automatic
Body style: five-door hatchback
CO2 emissions: 70g/km (Band A, free)
Combined economy: 94.1mpg
Top speed: 112mph
0-62mph: 10.6 seconds
Power: 122hp at 5,200rpm (combined system)
Torque 163Nm (combined system)

What's this?

The Prius is the new hybrid flagship model for Toyota. It's built on the entirely new GA-C platform that is part of the company's New Toyota Global Architecture (TNGA). It uses a new approach to packaging key components and is claimed to reduce development resources by a fifth to the benefit of vehicle design and layout. The salient elements of the Prius remain; up front there is a 1.8-litre four-cylinder petrol engine that works in tandem with an electric motor and a battery pack in the rear. Combined, these now deliver a smoother drive with noticeably better interplay between petrol and electric propulsion.

How does it drive?

Pull the door shut and flick the stubby centre console-mounted gear selector into Drive and as the Prius silently creeps away you get a sense that Toyota has upped its game. Being a hybrid it is naturally almost silent when driving at slow speeds under electrical power but the refinement is better this time around. Forward visibility has been improved too thanks to slimmer A-pillars and a bonnet that is 90mm lower. So low in fact is the new bonnet that the Toyota badge sits lower on the Prius than on the sporty GT86 - one of the packaging benefits of that new platform and a fact that is great table quiz fodder. Despite lowering the hip point by 59mm the driver still sits 3mm higher relative to the base of the windscreen than in the last Prius.

You can choose from either an Eco or Power mode though there really is little to distinguish either aside from a slight change in the display. Toyota has given the car a new battery pack and though it is still nickel-metal hydride in its construction, it is 110mm thinner and has a 28 per cent improvement in charging. Its relocation to under the rear passenger seats also boosts boot space by 56 litres to 501 litres. Additionally, it is possible to select an EV Mode that exclusively powers the car electrically, although this only offers a very short range of about two miles at most and once speed is kept below 30mph.

Prod the throttle pedal a little more and the 1.8-litre four-cylinder petrol engine spools into life quite seamlessly. It won't deliver big chunks of power, but will pull the Prius along at a respectable pace. On open roads there is enough performance on hand for it to keep up with traffic. Toyota's engineers have made the chassis much stiffer than before and even though the Prius won't tempt you to fling it into corners on your favourite B-road the car does feel well sorted.

One of the major improvements has been Toyota's reworking of the transmission to make it perform more quietly. It had been very easy to criticise Toyota's use of a CVT in the past due to noise levels that simply never matched the car's true performance. This time around, although it hasn't been entirely solved, the CVT does lend itself to a less frustrating and intrusive driving experience. If you are the kind of driver that is lighter with your throttle inputs you will enjoy the serenity that can be achieved by driving the Prius.

Press on harder in the Prius and the CVT will rear its noisy head, but even when it does the performance from the car is an improvement over its predecessor. Road noise levels have also been improved, with better sound insulation helping to drown out much of the din at cruising speeds, though rear passengers will notice it more than those sitting up front.

Verdict

Toyota has done much more than simply create an all-new Prius. The hybrid hatch now has significantly more driving appeal than its predecessor, enabling it to potentially gain a far greater number of conquest sales. The styling is, and will remain, divisive, though it continues to be easily identifiable as a Prius. Greater levels of refinement make it a far nicer car to drive than before and thanks to the improvements on the mechanical side of things it comes with improved frugality when driven less spiritedly. The fact that it can now deliver the same kind of fuel economy as some of the better diesels on the market won't be missed by many prospective buyers either.

3.5 3.5 3.5 3.5 3.5 Exterior Design

4 4 4 4 4 Interior Ambience

3.5 3.5 3.5 3.5 3.5 Passenger Space

4 4 4 4 4 Luggage Space

4 4 4 4 4 Safety

3.5 3.5 3.5 3.5 3.5 Comfort

3.5 3.5 3.5 3.5 3.5 Driving Dynamics

3.5 3.5 3.5 3.5 3.5 Powertrain


Dave Humphreys - 16 Feb 2016



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2016 Toyota Prius. Image by Paddy McGrath.2016 Toyota Prius. Image by Toyota.2016 Toyota Prius. Image by Toyota.2016 Toyota Prius. Image by Toyota.2016 Toyota Prius. Image by Toyota.



2016 Toyota Prius. Image by Toyota.
 

2016 Toyota Prius. Image by Toyota.
 

2016 Toyota Prius. Image by Toyota.
 

2016 Toyota Prius. Image by Toyota.
 

2016 Toyota Prius. Image by Toyota.
 

2016 Toyota Prius. Image by Toyota.
 






 

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