Toyota Reveals All-New Prius

I really have come to like the styling of the new Prius. I am a little underwhelmed with the 50 mpg efficiency. I was expecting something like 70 mpg. Anyone else feel that way?

 

Thx for the info. Although not in the market, that does make me want to do a test drive whenever they are available.

 

Re: Gen III Prius

I just searched news.yahoo.com for '2010 Prius' and 1,530 news articles were found.
Searching for '2010 Prius' news articles posted "within the past week," 844 news articles were found.
Any idea why Euro got the iQ yet America did not? To address the author's allegation that the Prius does not receive the same mpg as claimed, the explanation is simple. The Prius has better city mpg than highway mpg. When I was in England in 1996, the only stop lights in the country were in urban London, and even then there were very few. Most intersections have round-abouts. With a round-about, you never have to accelerate from zero mpH; therefore the electric motor never operates. You might as well just be driving a Yaris. (that's my take on it. for those that live in England, PLEASE reply if your [more experienced] account disagrees).

 

Anyone know when the first road test review for this Prius will come out?

 

Re: Gen III Prius

Perhaps because it's a small fuel-efficient car? You don't have the Aygo either. The iQ will be a manual achieving 4.3L/100km (combined), or a CVT achieving 4.7L/100km. For comparison the current Prius gets 4.3L/100km. They haven't given a 0-100km/h time yet (0 - 62mph); the Aygo is 14.2 seconds with a manual transmission or 14.7 seconds with the multi-mode transmission. On this test the current Prius achieves 10.9 seconds.

Prius fuel consumption data, UK spec

"The combined figure presented is for the urban and the extra-urban cycle together. It is therefore an average of the two other parts of the fuel consumption test, Urban and Extra-urban cycles, weighted by the distance covered in each part."

"The urban test cycle is carried out in a laboratory at an ambient temperature of 20oC to 30oC on a rolling road from a cold start, i.e. the engine has not run for several hours. The cycle consists of a series of accelerations, steady speeds, decelerations and idling. Maximum speed is 31mph (50 km/h), average speed 12 mph (19 km/h) and the distance covered is 2.5 miles (4 km)."

"The extra-urban cycle is conducted immediately following the urban cycle and consists roughly half steady-speed driving and the remainder accelerations, decelerations and some idling. Maximum speed is 75mph (120 km/h), average speed is 39mph (63 km/h) and the distance covered is 4.3 miles (7 km)."

Test details (including graph of speeds versus time)

The Prius uses 5.0 L/100km (56.5mpg Imperial) in the 'urban' part of the test, and 4.2 L/100km (67.3mpg Imperial) on the 'extra-urban' part. This gives combined results of 4.3 L/100km (65.7mpg imperial).

There are a couple of explanations. Firstly the test is performed at warm temperatures, a warm summer in Britain. It's on a rolling road, so there's no wind resistance (unless this is emulated). That immediately puts all cars at a disadvantage in real-world conditions. This link says tyre pressures were set at 1.5 times standard pressure, which on a Prius would be 52.5psi at the front! Does anyone use pressures that high? (Alternatively the sidewall max pressure was used, but the OEM Bridgestone Turanza ER30s aren't marked, or the car manufacturer's recommended rolling road pressure.)

The main killer, though, is the steady-speed part of the extra-urban cycle. There's a period at 70km/h (44mph), one at about 55km/h (34mph), another at 70km/h, then a short burst up to 100km/h (60mph), a very short run of only a few seconds at 120km/h (75mph) and slow down to 0.

The Prius is pretty efficient between 45 and 55mph - on a straight flat piece of road with a warm car, it'll return over 60mpg as shown for a five-minute interval on the MFD (the trick is finding one). However, mine will not get more than about 50-55mpg sustained at 70mph on a motorway. That's where a lot of journalists do their testing, so the car gets a bad review. Or they might take it on a trip to Scotland on the motorway, and measure the distance they achieve from one tank (which hurts the Prius with its small 35-litre tank). It's actually better to drive at slower speeds on the 'A' roads than on motorways, which is different from most other cars (whose engines have just barely got going - got out of the partial-power-loss region - on the motorway).

Why? I think it's that the system can't manage a particularly large overdrive gear at this speed, so the engine revs are relatively high.

Now, your traffic light comment: I don't know where you were driving that you managed to avoid so many lights! Yes, we do generally prefer roundabouts at intersections, if there's space, but for busier routes you tend to get a 'lightabout', where they've stuck traffic signals on the roundabout to equalize the flow and it becomes a very stop-start junction. Anywhere that there are pedestrians crossing, there's a strong chance of a signalized crossing - zebra crossings are becoming a dying breed, since any time someone gets hit on one, there are invariably calls to 'upgrade' it. Also, signal junctions get built when new road connections are made and there isn't the budget, or space, for a full roundabout or grade-separated roundabout (e.g. Reading A33 connection onto Inner Distribution Road, which was built at-grade with signals, where previously the IDR was fully grade-separated).

Roundabouts might allow you to sustain speed if there wasn't any contention, but when it's busy, it's even more stop-start than a signal junction as each driver has to make their own decision of when it's safe to go.

 

We can HOPE Toyota puts some decent tires on the car when it ships though the tires mentioned by people at the show suggest otherwise.

It isn't like was all want top performance summer tires standard but there are many All Season tires that score VERY WELL, Toyota just doesn't put them on the car. Geez, at LEAST give people an option to replace the lousy OEMs with a decent tire of the CUSTOMER'S CHOICE for the price difference between them.

 

Also, the ICE can only deliver a portion of its power mechanically, the rest goes through MG1 to MG2, which means part of the electrical power is used to transport part of the engine power.

Tom

 

Is this HH specific? Certainly it does NOT reflect the EV in the current Prius.

• The battery does not have to be full, in fact it is pretty difficult to get it full. The computers keep it below 8 green (full) unless there is significant downhill travel using regen braking (coasting or CC). It will go into EV, I believe, at any SOC over 2 bars. I only force mine if the battery is at least 4 blue ('half' full) so I'm not sure on that.
• The ICE will stay off until you hit 32 MPH.
  • Or until you ask for a bit too much power, though it is a LOT less sensitive than when the car goes into EV on it's own accord.
  • Or until the SOC drops to 2 bars
  • Or until the engine temp drops too low (don't know a specific number)
• Range is VERY dependent on speed and terrain
• EV will NOT engage no matter what the SOC is if the ambient Temp is low. I don't know if there is a specific cut off but it definately wouldn't kick in the other day at 21F even though the engine had been running for hours.

 

No reason to shift into Neutral, just let off on the accelerator until you have VERY slight pressure. There will be no energy flow either direction and the car will feel like it is in neutral. Slowing is due only to wind drag and tire rolling resistance. If the engine was running (it doesn't HAVE to be running over 42 MPH, just TURNING) and you glide for a long enough period of time, I believe the ICE will shut down. There is no indication of when the ICE is actually firing. I've seen power from the electric motor only yet the current MPG is less than the max display value (99.9) indicating the engine is idling. As the MPH go down, so does the MPG. If you connect a ScanGuage, you can have an RPM reading.

 

This is a question for any of the guys that went to Detroit. I was wondering if the display panel is easily readable. It looks pretty small to me in the pictures. I am 60 years old and I use reading glasses. Will I have trouble?????

 

It was clear and crisp even from the back seat. Granted, we were indoors so there was no glare, but I don't think there will be any visibility problems with it even in full sun.

 

Thanks! I feel a little better now.

 

Re: Gen III Prius

It's NOT roundabouts. My suggestions:

* Temperature - the Prius gets its best MPG in warmer weather.
* Frequently needing to use the brakes.
* Your personal driving style.

My Prius gets better MPG in southern CA than northern CA. It does better on long stretches of green lights below 40mph than long stretches of red lights above 40mph. And it does better on a highway at 65mph than it does hitting multiple red lights at 30mph.

But let's get back to the new Prius. New Prius!! It's definitely sportier and seems to be a lot more powerful. The 50mph combined number is fairly surprising - that's a MUCH smaller number than a lot of people and rumors were anticipating. That's unfortunate but it's still an improvement and the look is a dramatic improvement... I'm personally tired of driving an egg. I will really, really miss that toggle peg for the shifter though - I really like the way that shifts, it's so hands-free.

 

Re: Gen III Prius

I love the new Gen 3 Prius. Will definitely try and obtain the moonroof option with all the bells and whistles. My only gripe is that the A/C looks like it's no longer MFD controlled.

 

Also, it appeared to me that the new dash configuration will eliminate that annoying green glare on the windshield at night.
Of course, we didn't get to test that. Should have thought of it, I bet they would have turned off all the lights so we could turn on the headlights and see!

 

Neutral won't do it unfortunately. Force charge, by stepping on the brake and gas at the same time while stopped will at least get the ICE pre-started, and the battery charged, both of which potentially get you off the line quicker. Even so, you can't rev the rpms, based on pedal input in this mode. For that you need to be in diagnostic mode, in which case you're ready for some warranty voiding good times! As long as you don't spin the wheels and burn out the electric motor you should have some get up and go

Rob

PS please don't try this

 

Re: Gen III Prius

Thank you for all the info.
Also, I'm sure the quantity of traffic and number of stoplights has increased considerably from 1996 to 2008. What you type about a roundabout during heavy traffic makes perfect sense. Sounds like a liability and/or gridlock.

The temperature factor makes perfect sense. I've seen graphs of how battery capacity is affected by temp, and most-commonly I've seen about a 30% drop in going from room temp (25/77) to freezing (0/32).
Your experience results make perfect sense, but it's not "apples to apples," because you have two variables. (red vs green) and (above40mph/below40mph). As a result, I'm not learning anything from your observations. Feel free to explain. The last sentence about "65mph highway vs 30mph red lights" does make sense; it's a comparison of highway versus city. I certainly believe you, but I'm curious as to why this differs from the EPA results which observe the converse; better city than highway.

 

It has the SRU to multiply the torque of the high speed electric motor. If the ratio is the same as the Camry hybrid (2.48), the final torque will be 352 lbs-ft. Better than 295 lbs-ft for the iconic Prius.