We head to Toyota's North American headquarters in Torrance, Calif. to test the full Prius lineup. Everyone knows the original Prius, but we drive the family-sized Prius V, pint-sized Prius C, and mid-sized Plug-In Prius. Are these new variations on the hybrid that started it all worthy of the Prius name?
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Welcome to TRANSLOGIC-- I'm Bradley Hasemeyer. One car springs to mind when thinking of the green auto movement-- the Toyota Prius. It's hard to ignore this juggernaut, and now it's even harder as they've added two new hybrids and a plug-in to their lineup. I give you-- the Prius family.
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All right. So we're here with Ed Larocque, the national brand manager for advanced technology vehicles. Thanks so much for being with us.
ED LAROCQUE: Great. Thanks for having me.
BRADLEY HASEMEYER: Let me start off by asking this. What is multiple Prius called? [? Priuseses? ?] or prii?
ED LAROCQUE: Prii.
BRADLEY HASEMEYER: Prii.
ED LAROCQUE: Yes.
BRADLEY HASEMEYER: OK. You had the Prius, it was wildly successful, and then you guys decided-- this is a great thing, let's do more of them. And you introduced a whole line.
ED LAROCQUE: As much as our customers love their Prius, some of them said they'd like to have options.
We made the decision and launched the first of the new Prius family members, the Prius V. Prius V appeals to young families-- it's a great alternative to a small SUV. It's six inches longer than a Prius Liftback.
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BRADLEY HASEMEYER: All right, here we go. The Prius V. V is for versatility, not victory. You also might think V is for van because this is longer, bigger, a lot more cargo room in this thing. We look in the back, it's like-- hello! [ECHOES]. It is the same engine-- the 1.8 liter-- still producing 134 horsepower. Just now in a bigger package so, of course, that affects the performance.
On the inside, you've got all kinds of cool bells and whistles. You can pair your phone's Bluetooth. You download this app-- using my data through my phone, I can get weather, Pandora, Map, Bing, iHeart Radio, fuel prices, all kinds of crazy stuff like that. So that's all right here. There are a couple modes that are located right here. I have EV, Eco and PWR. PWR mode gives me a little more umph.
This isn't-- yo, what's up, girl? How you doing? That's not this car. This is after you talk to that girl, then you guys had kids, you made babies, and you filled your car with them. That's what you're doing with this car.
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ED LAROCQUE: We came out with the Prius C. It was great for first time hybrid buyers-- a little bit less expensive. A great mpg, great urban car-- and that appeals to young singles and couples.
BRADLEY HASEMEYER: C stands for city, so it's smaller. It's more urban, more hip, more cool, that kind of thing. The interior is certainly different than the Prius. This looks more like a regular car. Inside here has the shifter on the floor. That center stack that's so traditionally Prius is gone.
I've got the ability, on the steering wheel here, to move through my displays. An eco score, eco savings. Unfortunately, it's very small, though, and it doesn't seem very safe. It's just hard to see-- it's not it's not a nice, big LCD display screen like you would have in other vehicles. So that's worth noting. You have so many little nooks, and crannies, and storage spots. There's not tons of room in the back.
99 horses-- that's not very fast. But it has the best fuel economy in the whole Prius family-- getting almost 53 miles per gallon. You know, something that you might like.
ED LAROCQUE: And then, finally, the Prius Plug-In.
BRADLEY HASEMEYER: Here we go. Plug-In Prius. So this Prius fully charges in three hours out of the wall at a level one charge. You're only getting 11 miles of EV range, and it's not super torque-y and super peppy like we're used to out of a pure electric. That's because it's such a small battery, it seems like they kind of feather it.
A great example of that would be here at the light. I'm stopped, I'm going to race this guy-- might be close.
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Now, you get a little bit of extra sound there because the engine has kicked in. It's realized that I'm asking for more than just battery power. So they've added a lithium ion battery. So right now, EV, mash on the gas, the engine kicks in. So even in EV mode, it's not going to let you just use the battery, the lithium ion.
With the Plug-In, is this kind of a test bed car? Because it's got roughly 11 miles of range or so, pure EV-- there's some other competitors out there that do it a little bit higher. What's the thought there with 11?
ED LAROCQUE: Yes. Ours is more of a small battery strategy. So with the Plug-In, the cargo space capacity is the same on a Plug-In as it is on the Liftback. And, frankly, it helps us keep the cost down a little bit so we don't have to charge our customers as much for that vehicle.
For my commute, for example, I commute about 16 miles, and I'm getting between 65 and 70 miles per gallon overall with the small battery application.
BRADLEY HASEMEYER: Sure. Because, essentially, your first 11 miles are free. Right?
ED LAROCQUE: Right. It's got some benefits in the area of cost and cargo space as well.
BRADLEY HASEMEYER: Yeah. Is there a thought that you would then kind of scrap the nickel metal hydride, even in just your regular Prius, and C, and V?
ED LAROCQUE: For us, nickel mine hydride has been bulletproof. Great power output and very efficient for us. I think downstream we'll see how lithium ion performs. Obviously, more power output, lighter weight-- it's got great potential. We'll continue that way in the short term and we'll make some decisions later on on lithium ion.
BRADLEY HASEMEYER: So there you go-- a Prius for everyone. Unless you want a twin turbo or a pure EV-- can't have that for now. But, hopefully, Toyota will be groundbreaking again in the Prius family and provide something for both of those. All right. For TRANSLOGIC, I'm Bradley Hasemeyer. See you next time.
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