The long-awaited fourth-gen Toyota Prius is finally here, and AutoblogGreen editor Sebastian Blanco got to put it through some efficient paces.
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SEBASTIAN BLANCO: Hello everyone. Sebastian Blanco from Autoblog and Autoblog Green here coming to you today from behind the wheel of a 2016 Toyota Prius. This car is fuel efficient and way more fun than it should be.
This is, without a doubt, the most refined of the four. Shouldn't be a surprise. They've been working on it for, you know, almost two decades now, so it should be quite nice at this point.
The version that I'm in, the Prius 2, is the only one that still has the nickel-metal hydride battery. All the other ones, including the Eco, they use a lithium ion battery. So Toyota's realized you can save a few pounds in the battery, still get similar performance. Most of the new Prius models will get 54 miles per gallon in the city, 50 on the highway, and 52 combined.
Another thing [? you're ?] going to be surprised about? I'm sitting in the Prius 2, which is the base model of the new Prius, and this starts at $24,200. Now if that number sounds familiar to you, that's because that's the exact same cost as the current generation, third-generation Prius 2. So with absolutely no price increase you're going to get a different look, a lot more fun to drive, and better fuel economy.
Toyota says that this, the TNGA chassis, makes this a lot quieter. You know, it's not a silent car, but it definitely isn't loud, especially compared to the previous generation.
The total system power is 121. Doesn't sound like a lot. It is-- you know, it's not the quickest car by any means, you know, going from 0 to 60 or 70. It's a leisurely kind of pace. But again, it's different than the previous Prius.
But don't take the $24,200 as a, you know, what you're-- when you're going to get all of the high end features. This car doesn't have Nav, for example. It doesn't have the heads-up display. It doesn't have a lot of the safety systems that Toyota is touting on the other versions of this car-- you know, pre-collision assist, alert, and braking, as well as a sort of cruise control that senses the car in front of you and can stop if it needs to if that car ahead of you is stopped.
There are different driving modes in this car, similar to some of Toyota's other hybrids. You've got-- I've got Eco mode, got Normal, and we've got Power mode.
What's nice about this car and different to some of the other ones is that it'll remember what you like. So if you're the kind of driver who says you know what? Normal is the one for me. Just keep it there. I don't really need to get the little bit increase in efficiency or the little bit extra power that Power mode will give me. Just keep it in Normal. It will always start in Normal mode when you push the button. If you just step on it, the car will perform the same way no matter what mode it's in. It recognizes that you want to get somewhere fast as quick as possible, and it will perform to the best of its ability.
Would be very curious to see how the new Prius matches up with some of the competitors in the green car space in 2016. Certainly something we'll be looking at. I can certainly appreciate the design now, especially because it gives you such great aerodynamics and increased fuel efficiency. But even above and beyond that, it's just kind of a nice looking car.
Coming to you from the redesigned seats of the 2016 Toyota Prius, this is Sebastian Blanco from Autoblog and Autoblog Green signing off.
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