Acceleration

I passed some schmuck going 40 in a 45 on a pretty steep hill on my commute this morning. It performed even better than I was accustomed to in my old '99 Jetta, which had a manual transmission and I always considerred fairly peppy. Couldn't have taken more than 10 seconds to get passed him.

I test drove a Matrix (1.8L 4Cyl) before buying the Prius and the lack of acceleration power was the major downfall of that vehicle IMO. It had no guts all. The Prius is more than adequate in this category.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(rfloyd7522 @ Mar 31 2007, 01:32 PM) [snapback]415601[/snapback]</div>

Not to belittle your question, but your concerns are addressed very simply with a test drive or two. There is more spunk in a prius than I anticipated.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(rfloyd7522 @ Mar 31 2007, 03:32 PM) [snapback]415601[/snapback]</div>

Small engine but big electric motors. It works fine. Also there is no shift lag, which makes a significant difference.

Let us know how your test drive works out.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(richard schumacher @ Apr 7 2007, 11:05 AM) [snapback]419438[/snapback]</div>

My husband has always driven a "fast" car, since his teenage days. He wondered about the power we'd have, when we bought the Prius. More than once, when he's had to really gun it, he has commented "This Prius will MOVE, won't she!!"

 

Just wanted to add my 2 cents. We picked up our new Prius on Saturday and already love it. Just last night I had a guy in a pickup truck trying to out accelerate me - he probably thought the Prius is slow. Believe me, he had a very big surprised look on his face when I left him. The electric motor (working in tandem with the gas engine) combined with the CVT and light weight gives incredible, almost effortless acceleration, particularly up to 30 mph. Don't be afraid to push down hard to tell the computer you want to accelerate fast. You will not be disappointed - quite the opposite.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(IAO @ Apr 1 2007, 09:21 AM) [snapback]415984[/snapback]</div>

Exactly my experience. It is quicker than my wife's Outback, and a few ticks behind my Impreza. No worries powerwise. Its fun to get the jump on more "powerful" cars. SUVs are no challenge anymore.

 

Hi Rfloyd...

People tend to equate accelleration with power, but most engineers know that there are more than one way to do things. And also that there are tremendous ineffiencies and mismatches in the traditional automatic transmission drive train. People want accelleration, whatever the power is. Accelleration is the goal, not power (unless your trying to pump water out of well with a stationary engine).

Toyota has said that the Prius has the accelleration performance of the same size car with a 2.0 liter Double Overhead Cam automatic transmission car. Toyota makes such an engine, and it has 145 hp. So, if you are looking for a point of reference, consider that the Prius can accellerate like a car with a standard automatic transmission, and 145 hp.

Why is this so?

No shift delay - good for about 1 to 2 seconds in a 0 to 60 time.

ECVT has wider effective gear ratio range. This allows the engine to reach full power
RPM at a slower car speed.

Lightwieght high strength steel body. Less steel, but of a stronger grade.
(this is also better in collisions, because there is less momentum per unit strength)

Electric motor has lots of torque at low speeds, and the second generation Prius has lots of
torque at midrange, too. This is because the motor magnetic field was changed
from a primarily permanent magnet generated , to hybrid (permanent and
induction fields combined). Induction fields are dependant on RPM. So, this stretches
the motor full torque range out a little higher.