A Prius Expert’s Review of the 2018 Prius Prime

Oh yeah, compared to the Gen 3, the Prime is miles ahead. You can almost hear the steel reverberate on the Gen 3 when you close the door. The Prime sounds more like a normal car (instead of a cheap car).

But not 8 lbs' worth? (the estimated savings of the CFRP hatch vs. the aluminium one on the Liftback). I suspect it's the strut pressure.

 

Road Trip update:

1,350km over freeway, mountains (Cascades) and slow traffic (construction on freeway or just volume) netted 3.5L/100km (69mpg). This included 3 charges (home, one of the dinners and overnight at the hotel). Never used CHG mode, just HV. I also experimented a little with EV Auto. Here are some notes....

• EV Auto seems to work if your entire trip will be longer than the EV range. It kicks the engine in at around 29-31% charge (as opposed to EV mode where it'll stay until the battery is at 0% then switch to HV mode). I believe it is more efficient to be in EV Auto if you're travelling beyond your EV range because the engine warm-up cycle will be done with enough charge left so that your mpg won't be impacted too much. If you left it until HV mode, then you'll be dipping into the HV portion of the battery, which might be ok if your power load is light (e.g. city streets or flat highway at 50-60mph) but if it's under heavier load (or you had to climb a hill/mountain), then you'll quickly deplete the HV portion (down to 2-3 bars for seasoned Prius drivers). So in this specific case, I can see why it's more efficient to start the engine up earlier. We were travelling at 70mph on the freeway when this happened (i don't know if the engine start will vary depending on speed). Once warm up was complete, it went back into EV mode until the charge was depleted. (It might've come on once in between but I'm not sure)
• If you know you'll exceed the EV range (e.g. road trip), it's best to keep some charge left in the EV portion. Even 10% is fine. If you want to micromanage your trip, then go into HV only on the freeway then back to EV when you get off the freeway and drive on surface streets. In that case, I stretched my EV charge for nearly the entire day (416km/260 miles). MPG stayed above 60mpg, 65mpg even (less than 3.9L/100km, even breaking 3.5L/100km). I kept 50% for the first day (used it for border waits, surface streets and construction) and then "burned" it up when I knew I had available charging at a dinner location. On the second day, I kept it at 30% since I knew 50% was a bit overkill.
• The Prime is quieter in HV mode. While some reviewers claim it's noisy (well duh, compared to EV mode), the actual engine noise appears to be more suppressed than I recall from regular Prius models (Gen 2, 3 and 4). Even climbing up the Cascades, I was expecting to hear the usual drone from the CVT as a seasoned Prius driver but was pleasantly surprised that it wasn't as noticeable as before.
• It's ridiculously efficient in HV mode, even without charging. I thought I remembered 47-49mpg when I last drove it on the highway in February but that was with a full load of people, cargo and on winter tyres with steelies (and colder temps) and thought to myself: well this isn't an improvement. Fast foward to warmer temperatures, 3 people and less cargo and OEM Bridgestone Ecopias, and mpg is well into the 60s. This compares favourably to the Gen 4 Touring that we have which managed 53mpg on the 17" rims on the same highway (but no mountain driving). Last year, our Gen 4 Touring did a trip down to the States and the total trip mpg was 4.3L/100km (55mpg) or 4.6L/100m/51mpg calculated. Prius4 vs. Prius3 (Gen 4 vs. Gen 3) | PriusChat
  
• Again, tire noise is obtrusive (worse on concrete, better on asphalt). Road/traffic noise is nearly non-existent and wind noise is minimal
• Embedded navigation worked well but again, I would like to have traffic information (Entune isn't available in Canada ergo no traffic info). Also, no charging station POI info because there's no Entune. Lastly, (and oddly enough) PED became available when I crossed the border. I turned it on. Let's see whether it works here (it's blanked out when I'm in Canada)

 

Went to WA... Leavenworth, among other places.

 

The restaurant I went to didn’t have a Kolsch style beer! So I made the logical substitution - Spezi.

Thanks!

 

A few more notes from the road trip....

• The centre console design is quite useful. The curved sides from the wireless phone pad to the USB/12V outlets means it can hold larger items such as take-out boxes or, in our case, a loaf of bread that we bought at the gate of the an open air, drive-through farm, which we used to feed the animals.
  
• The rear centre console is really useful. Sure you can't carry 5 people but for those in the back, the extra storage bin can be used to store sunglasses, spectacle cases, water bottles and other small items (yep all of the above fit in the console.. in fact I had two 500mL water bottles in addition to the spectacle case, napkins, small notebook and a pen)

 

I assume she’s a child? I would imagine kids would love it because they can store their toys, small books or crayons in that box. Older kids can store snacks like cookies or chips in there.

Unfortunately, it’s just a touch too small to hide a Switch. (well unless Nintendo releases a smaller one in the future).

 

Took another trip down to the US and experimented with Super Highway Mode (SHM). I believe it’s also called heretical mode on the TCH/HyCam.

With the extra gearing that allows for higher EV only speed, I’m guessing somehow that reduction gear also allows for higher SHM speeds too?

In the Gen 3, SHM was available around 70-80km/h. 90 is possible but you’ll be burning a bit more fuel (say 4.1-4.2L/100km instead of 3.5L/100km).

In the Prime, I was able to go into SHM as high as 112km/h. I was netting near 3.9L/100km (it was helpful that my average was 3.9L/100km so I had the arrow on the FE bar next to the speedo). That’s incredible!

Also, unlike the Gen 3 at 90km/h, I can mostly hold the speed with maybe a very slight slowdown but not enough to require a pulse and coast technique.

The Prime continues to amaze me.


More details:

Also, with the Gen 3, I can stay in the Hybrid Eco area (dark green) under 80km/h. Over that, I’ll be edging into the upper half of the Eco section of the Hybrid System Indicator.

In the Prime, I was able to hold 112km/h in SHM while staying within the Hybrid Eco area (lower half. The area bracketed by the EV leaf car light).

 

Forgot to update at the 1-year anniversary back in January.

Petrol cost: $110
Electricity cost: $150 (that'll go up this year since I only paid for 6-months - strata fee is $25/month for electricity)


Now that I'm back on all-seasons, elec. efficiency has gone up (i.e. consumption has dropped). It's a smoother, quieter ride compared to the winters (Nokian Hakkapeliita R3. I will say, those are much quieter than the 1st gen R that I had). I'm enjoying the much improved comfort and handling - that is the biggest thing for me compared to Gen 2/3 and even Gen 4 (because our Gen 4 is the Touring with the stiffer suspension). The better weight distribution is much appreciated in the higher speed corners. (By higher speed, I mean 60km/h or 40mph not highway speeds and by corners I mean around a question mark curve or an S curve).

Also, someone decided to put a backpack (the camping type) on the roof of the car then slide it down the rear window and off the rear spoiler when they lifted the backpack off (rather than lifting it straight off the roof), resulting in two long scratches on the rear spoiler and 3rd brake light where the dip is.

 

You want me to... Brexit?