Any issues with the AWD models?

I got my 2021 AWD in July so haven't had a chance to test her out in the winter, yet.

But there are a few YouTube videos from last winter where folks did some winter testing and she looks okay in the snow, not great, though. I guess those rear wheels only have 7 hp from that rear electric motor so it's not a true AWD car, which is disappointing. If you lift up the mat in the back you can see the little motor where the spare tire is supposed to go. (Mine didn't come with a spare so I bought one.)

My biggest concern will be with anything more than a few inches as the car is very low to the ground. So for any significant snowfalls here in Colorado I'll be taking my 4x4 Tundra to/from work.

Let me see if I can find that video...I think the guy was in Canada and had the Blizzak tires on them...those are awesome tires...

 

I wouldn’t have purchased an AWD but when we were leasing it had the best deal and Seattle area dealers seem to prefer it. I’ve driven it in one snowfall. Traction was fine. The low clearance did mean I kept hearing snow scraping when traversing where the plows pushed the snow.

 

I got the AWD because it was basically the only one available at the time. My wife drives that vehicle and I figured that if she gets caught in light snow it will help traction. If a snow storm is coming I take her to work in my 4WD Tacoma.

Have had no issues so far with it. We bought it in May of this year and have about 5600 miles on it so far. The wife doesn't like it as much as her 13 Prius V but unfortunately the brane trust at Toyota stopped producing it. We were having traction battery issues with it at about 175K. Didn't trust it anymore. The AWDe has a better battery warranty (10 years or 150k miles).

 

My main concern would be lack of spare tire. Also, I’ve seen a review, fairly exhaustive traction tests, and the AWD function was marginal benefit. It’s gotta help, just not that effective, and the ground clearance is abysmal, with any Prius.

 

I have a AWDe because I was picky on color and that was the only available. Obviously here in the SF bay area in California, it's not needed. Is there any benefits the Lithium (non AWDe) have over NiMH (AWDe)?

 

IIRC, the NiMH batteries were used in the AWD version because they're slightly better in extreme cold? Think that's the logic. The NiMH are also much easier to swap cells I think.

 

I cannot state the is enough - the AWD on the Prius is absolutely phenomenal. I drove it deliberately in the worst snowfall we had in Calgary last year and it absolutely wrecked every hill and icy slope I could find. I even drove it on completely un-cleared side roads to test it out and I didn’t get caught once.

It doesn’t have a lot of HP, but that actually was useful because you don’t need a lot to crawl up a small hill and get just enough momentum to get you up it. I literally just drove around stuck AWD SUVs on hills like it was a Sunday drive (after stopping and pushing them out).

Second, it’s an electronic based system that doesn’t use an LSD to be active, so it gives power to the tires that can use it. Unless you have a locking diff, an LSD-based AWD system will likely be ineffective if one wheel is on sheer ice.

I come from a 2014 STI, and an off-roading 2016 Jeep Wrangler - and I’d *easily* put the Prius in the same category for low-speed AWD capability, though the Jeep wins obviously for clearance while the STI has better stability at higher speeds.