Toyota Prius proves a gas guzzler in a race with the BMW 520d

eCVT amazement does not end there. Prius can climb ~20% incline at ~1,500 ICE RPM while charging HV battery.

 

do you now for a fact that the top speed is not reached in the 6e gear or do you think that because the power/rpm is to low at that gear.
because when you don't have any head wind you will alway go faster in a higher gear as long that the engine is middle rpm range

don't think a corvette Will have any problems with the max speed out of that 6e gear
maybe not max torc.
if that corvette go's 1700 in 6 gear at 60mph i guess that it Will go 70mph on 2300rom and a lot faster after that
if you go back to the 5e gear it Will reach its highest rpm faster so wy do you think it Will go faster in 5e gear.. still not convinced

 

Hate to tell you, but priusenvy is right.

A good number of high end sports cars have a lower top speed in 6th than they do in 5th gear. Corvette is a good example. I think the Viper is the same way. You have to remember that aerodynamic drag is quadratic at high speeds and the highest gear can keep the RPMs out of the peak horsepower range.

Please consider running your posts through MS Word spell/grammar check, they will be a lot easier to read in the future.

 

It's worse than the square. The drag force goes as the square of the speed, but the power required goes as the cube of the speed. (Energy is force times distance, and power is energy over time, so you get force times distance over time, or force times speed.)

 

is this that tes drive?
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ldPguephYc&feature=related"]YouTube - Are hybrids really more fuel efficient?[/ame]

really...... one 1 tank of gas and then compare a diesel to a hybrid petrol... prius only got 45liters of fuel... the bmw.. a lot more

 

No the BMW took 49.26 litres of Diesel and Prius took 10 litres plus a fill up of 41.55 litres in at the end however the guy that was driving the Prius said it all, "If we had been driving through towns all the way I think this (Prius) would still be the cleanest, I think it would have won."

Where do most people do most of their driving? I know for me it's metropolitan driving.

 

and what amount of energy is there in that 49.26 liters of diesel? compared to the 51,55 liters of petrol.
the price of diesel here is cheaper then in the us but if you take a higher diesel price into account a diesel BMW like this one is not a good one to buy if you want to drive cheaper!

 

If a person drove 545 miles a week in a BMW they would, according to this test use 45 pence less worth of fuel.

The BMW premium is 6513 pounds, that is the BMW on test cost 6513 pounds more than the Prius on test.

It will take 14,473.33 weeks to recover the BMW premium, that is 278.33 years to recover the BMW premium in fuel savings over a Prius. This assumes that like in the test you driving is mainly on highways (80%) and a little (20%) urban driving. If you mainly drive in urban areas then it will be likely you will go backward.

I should point out, 545 miles a week is 28,340 miles a year, or 45.344 km per year!! If you drive less than that you will need to keep the BMW even longer than 278 1/3 years to recover the BMW premium.

When you finally recover the BMW premium you will have done over 7,388,000 miles in the BMW.

 

Why are we still trying to compare a 177 bhp, 140 mph car with a 76 bhp, 104 mph car?

These two vehicles are not aimed at the same type of customer. You can't draw any conclusions from a test like this.

 

But I did draw a conclusion from this test so call me a magic man if you want.

In case anyone has been living under a rock I refer you to the "hybrid premium" Prius owners apparently paid.

 

Bingo.

I got the figures out:
(sorry, it's metric)
The BMW burned 48.8 litres of diesel, The Prius 50.7 litres of petrol. (+1.9 litres)
In energy, that comes to 2162 megajoules for the BMW and 1915 MJ for the Prius. (-1500 MJ)
In Co2 emissions that comes to 139.30 Kg for the BMW compared to 127.07 kg fir the Prius (-12)
Moneywise BMW burned € 67.34 compared to €66.92.

Now tell me, who is the winner?

 

In Europe, there only two countries where diesel is more expensive than petrol. UK and Switzerland. They went to geneva (for the motorshow) and filled up at BP in Geneva with privces at 2.08 CHF for diesel and 1.85 CHF for petrol.

Yes, it's one of the cheapest countries in Europe.

 

As mentioned earlier, if you compare the Prius to the 3 series automatic diesel, it actually tips things further in the Prius's favor. That would seem a fairer comparison. Here's how they stack up based on the UKs VCA numbers:

2008 BMW 320d Auto UK vs. 2007 Toyota Prius UK
CO2 (g/km): 144 vs. 104 (38% higher) Greenhouse/Global Warming Gas
CO (g/km): 0.379 vs. 0.18 (111% or 2.1X higher) Poison / Toxic
NOx (g/km): 0.169 vs. 0.01 (1590% or 16.9X higher) Smog / Acid Rain, breathing problems
HC+NOx (g/km): 0.202 vs. 0.03 (573% or 6.7X higher) Hydrocarbons + NOx, main ingredients of smog
PM (g/km): 0.0 vs. 0 (even) asthma, lung development problems in children

I think its been pretty well established that this test was devised by someone with a clear bias, trying to make the diesel look as good as possible against the Prius. Prius bashing seems to be something of a national hobby in the UK, so I guess we shouldn't be that surprised when another publication jumps on that particular bandwagon.

Rob

 

Oh, you mean Diesel premium on top of the hybrid premium on top of BMW premium?

 

TOP GEAR

 

miscrms, part of the point of the piece shown is that in real-life driving, it is quite easy for diesel vehicles to meet or exceed their rated (official)mpgs, but often harder for other vehicles.

The concern of the UK press with the Prius is that (in their hands at least) in real life driving the Prius very rarely meets its official rated mpg (55 mpg US), while they can readily do so in a diesel vehicle.

For example, the Astra ECO4 was rated at 53 mpg (US), but on a 838 mile touring route it managed 75 mpg (US) at normal highway speeds (averaging 54 mph).

By contrast, to meet the official mpg of a 2004 Prius over the same route, the journalists had to take it very easy indeed (averaging 38 mph). The car magazines that keep a Prius as a long term fleet car also typically report around 45 mpg (US) on average.

The point is that, here in the UK at least, the real-life mpg figures that people get are quite different from the quoted 'official' figures.

There is no Prius bashing in the article, just pointing out the differences between real-life and official mpgs between diesel etc. Also, please remember I am not a "hybrid-basher", I'm just about the strongest PHEV proponent on PriusChat!

 

Sorry I don't agree. They went to some length to explain the BMW was different to the Prius because it used several different economy measures to improve fuel consumption, things like improved aero, engine management, transmission ratios and gear change indicator to ensure you are in the best gear, consumption gauge, and regenerative braking. It was a sales video for BMW. Also no mention that the BMW was over 6000 UK pounds more expensive.
Funny enough no mention that the Prius uses not just Hybrid Synergy Drive but an Atkinson Cycle engine, superior engine management including variable valve timing, better aero (best in any 4 door car), regenerative braking, always in the best gear ratio, and a fuel consumption display or that is was 6000 UK pounds cheaper. The only redeeming fact was the guy who was driving the Prius (who was on early editions of Top Gear) said the Prius would have won if the test was in towns.

 

You see, the BMW is new, just out of production or not even, the Prius is on since 2004.

The Prius IS the point of reference to beat.

The say BMW won? I replied the didn't.