Prius c Concept

If Toyota wants to show that it is serious about hybrids as an alternative to the clean diesels, the C has to be competitive against the likes of:

Volkswagen Polo 1,2 TDI BlueMotion: 71mpg
Seat Ibiza 1,2 TDI ecomotive: 69mpg
Skoda Fabia 1,2 TDI GreenLine: 69mpg
Fiat Punto 1,3 MJT: 67mpg
The current best hybrid is Auris with 62mpg.
(Euro cycle FE)

The price of these cars varries from country to country, but the purchase price and fuel economy are two major financial factors when the average car buyer decides on a new car.


I'm crossing fingers for 72mpg+

 

I wonder if, with less weight, the c will be easier on tires than the current version. That's my biggest complaint since buying one in late 09. The stock Yokahamas were bald by 20k with religious rotation. The Michelin's I replaced them with show substantial wear after 7k. My balance and alignment are good. I just live up a windy road and this car is VERY hard on tires - to the point where much of the fuel savings vs. say a Yaris is lost on tires. I've owned a Civic and a Tercel and neither went through tires like the Prius does driving the same roads.

 

Just what I have been saying all along. The new C will be about 14" shorter than my Gen 1 Prius (2001).

I can hardly wait!!!

 

What's your tire pressure?
The gen2 had uneven wear when following Toyota's recommended pressure. It improves when you pump it up higher.

 

Oh I don't know ... are those combined mileage figures?

Is the dirtiest Prius cleaner than the cleanest clean diesel?

 

Yes. Those are the combined Euro cycle figures.
All Prius hybrids (Prius, Auris, CT200h) beat the diesels in tailpipe emissions (Search PC for TDI tailpipe emission comparison threads)

But. People see the mileage and choose with their valets.

Which is why we need a cheap and high mileage Prius C, even though Toyota sees mileage as secondary to emission concerns.

 

Note that the $20k is expected on the base model. But if that's the base L stripper indicated by that brochure then it'll be like the Insight, which charges $1800 for cruise control (oh other stuff as well, but you know that's how they're forcing people into the LX).

 

Some people do and some people don't.
Anyway, many people refer to following user's real report site.
Fuel Economy ranking
The current Gen3 Prius number is 21.83km/L(51.35MPG) which is close to the US EPA combined.

Ken@Japan

 

High tech without feature bloat? Niiiiice

 

Were you converting to US gallons? The Prius achieves 72.4mpg measuring with imperial gallons (well, measuring with litres and converting to gallons) and the Auris Hybrid 74.3mpg.

I feel it's important to just state the metric figure from European tests so that no-one gets confused about what sort of gallon we're talking about, and doesn't try to compare results of different test procedures.

(In metric it's 3.9L/100km for the Prius and 3.8 L/100km for the Auris, both with 15" wheels - the rounding is to nearest 0.1 L so in fact it could be closer than that.)

Direct comparison of petrol and diesel cars is also flawed as diesel has a greater energy content per unit volume, and a greater proportion of carbon, so produces relatively more CO2 than a petrol car. Of course for most consumers what matters is the relative cost per unit volume of the fuel. Still, I think comparing diesels with similar size and acceleration performance to petrol hybrids does (just) give the edge to the hybrid when the extra cost of diesel (in the UK) is taken into account.

 

Huh? Polo TDI BlueMotion (manual only) in UK is rated 80.7 MPG. That's 67.2 US MPG.

The Polo 1.6-liter version with 90hp is rated 65.7 UK MPG. That's 54.7 US MPG.

Auris HSD in UK is rated 74.3 MPG. That's 61.9 US MPG.

Prius c with 100hp should be able to get higher MPG than BlueMotion despite less energy being in gasoline than diesel.

 

Interesting, off topic but CT200h is getting better fuel economy than Gen3 Prius.

Prius v is getting 20.49 km/L (48.2 MPG)! Can't tell if it is the 5 or 7 seater version.

 

It is 5 seater (ZVW41).
The 7 seater (ZVW40) is getting 19.80km/L(46.6MPG).

Ken@Japan

 

Mine's Gen III and I inflate to whatever the maximum recommended pressure is on the tires (I think 44 psi on the Michelin's). I don't like to overinflate due to black ice and other road hazard issues in winter. My first set of tires wore evenly and so is my second set, which after 7k I'm guessing might last 25k or so. I'm used to getting only 35-40k out of a 60k rated tire but not something like this. I did get a treadwear warranty though so as long as I rotate on schedule and don't have alignment issues I should get something back when I have to do a replacement.
Still it would be nice if a lighter Prius (and the c is 20% lighter, right?) didn't burn through tires as quickly.

 

Must be nice to have so much money that it's not about the money.

 

This is why I prefer metrics. I did a simple l/100km to mpg using google from the original l/100km source.
Google might have used imperical gallons and nautical miles for what I know. It didn't say.
The ratios remain correct, though.

 

In Europe diesel will be more taxed sooner or later...

Fuel tax proposal to push up diesel prices across Europe | Environment | guardian.co.uk

Even with a recession coming in, and diesel price is detrimental, I see this taxation of much aplicability, because gives extra cash-in for EU members.

After energy equity in taxes happen, we can say Prius and HSD are in the lead for every point-of-view of a customer.

 

I sure hope so, but let's see how much additional diesel tax we end up with first.
As it stands, I would still like to see hybrids beat the diesels on raw numbers alone (ignoring the higher energy density of diesel)

 

another point is that under EU cycle, start/stop systems are a lot more useful than in real life

 

Another site that can be used to check (real life) fuel ratings is Spritmonitor (available in German, French and English).

It provides interesting information such as:
The most economic models
Power vs. MPG
The most CO2 efficient cars
Fuel price trajectories

Unfortunately in the "bucket" Prius, are all generations.... but you can do a search by power and year to differentiate between the different generations of Prius.
I have just sent a message to the site admins to see if they can split the "Prius" into the 3 different generations.