Toyota Prius review: 'Sexy-looking' hybrid option proves electric

To the casual observer, the last five years looked to many like the beginning of a new electric era for car makers as they shuffled into line astern behind Nissan, oddly, and then Tesla in the race to win over the expected new breed of car driver/owner – the all-electric one.

But car manufacturing is a high-stakes, high tech industry where fortunes can change pretty quickly and there is no better example of that right now than Toyota.

Not so long ago it seemed the Japanese behemoth was falling dangerously behind its rivals as Tesla became the most valuable manufacturer in the known world and, seeing the company’s success, such as Ford, Volkswagen, General Motors and many others started investing billions in their EV programmes and technology.

It appeared that Toyota was being lethargic at best in diving into this particular pool – there has thus far only been one BEV from them here, the bZ4X, although there are more in the pipeline – and was being even more cautious than its legendarily circumspect reputation warranted.

To many, it appeared that Toyota simply had not embraced fully the electric era and that, as a result, it would fall behind and lose its hard-earned status as the #1 carmaker in the world. But the nay-sayers were wrong.

Sales of EVs have plateaued globally as buyers recognised the limitations of the format and also become dismayed by the sudden price war sparked by serious reductions announced by such as VW and Tesla. After all, taking a bath up to the tune of 25% on what you paid for your EV as against what it was now worth after the list prices were slashed, is not pleasant.

All this has led to a situation where motorists – responsibly and anxiously looking to do their bit to save the planet – have largely turned to hybrid and plug-in hybrids to assuage their conscience. And guess who was in pole position to make the most of such a situation? Why, Toyota, of course.

It is not so long ago since I had a Toyota dealer principal wailing to me: “Jesus, Deccie, what are we going to do with all these electric cars? They’re killing the business stone dead,” he moaned.

Now with pity for car dealers and their financial woes normally kept severely in check in this quarter, I did actually feel a pang of sympathy for the man: after all, what was supposed to be the saviour of the car business was actually slaughtering it.

But for Toyota dealers, the only real worry they had was the difficulty of telling EV owners that the trade-in value of their cars was next to nada and that their desire to switch to a hybrid or PHEV was going to cost – a lot.

As far as sales were going, the numbers of these cars moving off their forecourts was growing rather than shrinking and, consequently, they were quite buoyant – much more so than many others in the trade.

It is actually 21 years ago since Toyota introduced the first version of this week’s tester, the Prius, a small car with a small-ish petrol engine and an electric motor powered by a battery. Among a certain set, the Prius – which was originally a pretty awful thing to drive – became a statement vehicle.

So, for Hollywood A-listers and other influential cliques, the Prius became a statement of ‘green’ credentials. That in this country it became a favourite of taxi-drivers and other career drivers, was a bonus but down more to the fact it was a pretty economic thing, if driven properly.

That for anyone for whom the actual enjoyment of driving a car was a big thing, the Prius was about as exciting to drive as a side-by-side fridge, but that did not affect sales one bit – nor Toyota’s profitability. Nor did the fact that it was about as sexy as halitosis.

Well, now we have a new one and it is the fastest, funkiest and most feverish Prius we have ever seen. And, as someone who has pooh-poohed hybrids for years now for their lack of driving enjoyment (amongst other things), it turned out that Toyota has actually instilled a little bit of that this time around.

One of our other long-standing complaints about hybrids – and the Prius in particular – was that as most of them use CVT automatic gearboxes, they tend to go to the highest gear when any accelerative forces are unleashed and, consequently, they screech alarmingly. Once again, this has been improved, if not fully addressed.

There will be those who will complain that Toyota missed a trick here by not making the Prius a full EV, but as we have seen, there’s plenty of life in the hybrid format still and that’s reflected in the sales figures. The new one comes only as a PHEV here in Ireland, but in its new guise, that will not be a drawback.

It’s sexy-looking too and, in line with Toyota’s new ‘no more boring cars’ mantra, stands out from the crowd, what with its C-shaped LED lights, low slung front end and coupe styling. Gloss black trimmings for the door mirrors and wheel arch surrounds, add to the visual slickness, as do the 19” alloys.

Admittedly, we did have issues with the ‘Tokyo Gold’ (bile yellow might be a better description) colour scheme which made the tester hard to miss, but other than that it was hard to find any holes in the design or the styling of the car and difficult to have many quibbles about interior space or overall practicality. Boot space is tight though.

A new dashboard layout mirrors that of the bZ4X, which was particularly good, apart from the very scratchy and ugly plastics that adorn the right-hand side of the instrument binnacle. The central touchscreen was easy to use with clear menus and the presence of actual buttons for much of the heating systems was a boon.

On the road we expected pretty much more of the same screechiness from the hybrid system as had been the case heretofore, but Toyota has acted on this and no longer does the acceleration lag behind engine speed. That means much of the unearthly racket is no longer a factor here, although it is still present to some degree.

The hybrid system gives you 71 km of electric-only driving and for most urbanites that’s more than enough for casual around-town driving without causing the petrol motor to kick in. Of course, the claimed consumption figure is ridiculous – 0-7 l/100 km (403.4 mpg) – and even the most prosaic driver will find it difficult to achieve.

Even so, a figure of 3.8 l/100 km (73.6 mpg) should not be that difficult to attain, provided you take the lead (Pb – that’s a chemistry gag) sole from your right shoe. The 0-100 km/h time of 6.8 seconds is a reasonable gauge of the progress Toyota has made with this powerplant, even if the 177 km/h top speed indicates its limitations.

On the road, it is an impressive handler once you’re not doing your Elfyn Evans impressions and the comfort of the ride reflects the car’s impressive interior sophistication.

What you get here then is an electric car experience without being hidebound by any range issues – and all in an attractive package. It is no wonder the canny Japanese kept their hybrid light burning. It will pay considerable sales dividends right now and further down the line.