More than just green

For the original Drive Magazine road test, click here.

The upgraded Toyota Prius is not a car normally associated with passion, at least not of the motoring kind. If you’re passionate about saving the ice shelf, polar bears or rain forests, then one would expect the environmentally friendly Prius to stir up emotions.

But I was surprised at the depth of feeling, purely on a motoring level, that the Prius provoked when I brought it home. It almost caused a fist-fight in the driveway.

As it happened we had a lot of relatives visiting at the time. One of them, admittedly a Toyota Hilux fan but otherwise almost completely uninterested in motoring matters, couldn’t get over the Prius. He was in ecstasy over what he saw as its long sleek  aerodynamic lines, the supernaturally silent engine, clever hybrid technology mating electric and petrol power, the spacious interior including the huge boot … what could be more perfect?

We saw before our eyes how the Prius touched a heart that, until then, had hardly seemed to notice cars except as a means of getting from one place to another.

An equally enthusiastic relative entered the discussion, but from the opposite direction. The car, she said, could not be more hideous, adding that it looked like a Ford Focus that had been dipped in the ugly bath, or words to that effect. The styling, she added, was just plain nasty, and the feel of the Prius – the thinly metalled doors, for instance – fell squarely into the cheap sector.

Someone else scoffed at the Prius’ fuel economy and green credentials, saying that small diesels could do as well in terms of litres per 100km while other alternate-energy vehicles were friendlier to the environment.

Factions were soon formed and comments flew thick and fast.  We had to calm matters by ushering people to separate sections of the backyard patio and offering them cups of tea “met eish” or other soothing substances.

There was one particularly interesting difference. Two of the people on opposite ends of the schism were young women, both intelligent and articulate. One could hardly bring herself to look at the Prius. The interesting thing is that she had previously been exposed to a lot of expensive, beautiful vehicles, through links to the motor industry.

The other specially asked to come along for a ride to the shops, so fascinated was she by Toyota’s green meanie. Her own exposure to fancy cars was more limited – by her own admission she had never sat in a new car before.

So maybe, just maybe, a lot of the anti-Prius sentiment comes simply from petrol-head aficionados of what we at Drive would call real cars. In other words, they simply don’t like even the idea of a vehicle so focused on saving fuel and the environment that it is prepared to give up the things that stir drivers’ souls – rip-roaring performance, sexy lines and raucous exhaust notes.

After all that, what do I think of the car? I must admit to liking the first Priuses when they came to South Africa a few years ago. At that time they were hampered by some odd conditions – they could only be leased, not bought, and they could not be driven on gravel roads.

It did not take too long before these restrictions were removed and South Africans were able to buy a Prius.  Sure, they show no signs of following the trend in California and becoming big sellers. Conditions here are not the same – there is not yet any tax incentive, or the sort of easier inner-city access for hybrids that one finds in Europe.

But the new Prius is a big advance on the ones we first saw in South Africa four years ago, quite apart from the fact that you no longer need to stick strictly to tarred roads.

Naturally for cars costing between R326 200 for the Advanced model and R370 000 for the Exclusive, the Prius comes with electric windows, power steering, air con, audio, and ABS. As they say on the TV ads, there’s much more.

You get a rather sexy heads-up display, where you can read useful info (such as your speed) on the windscreen in front of you, without having to move your eyes to the centrally situated instrument panel. You also get automatic rain-sensing windscreen wipers, seven airbags, heated front passenger seats, a park-assist system with a camera and screen showing what is behind you when you reverse,  pop-up headlight cleaners, satellite navigation … you’re getting a lot more than the approval of the environmentalists here.

Toyota have also upped the petrol engine, from a 1.5-litre to a 1.8-litre that puts out 100kW (24% more than before). The electric motor, too, has increased power by 20% to 60kW and when the electric and petrol motors work together under hard acceleration there is nothing wrong with the Prius’ get up and go. Top speed is a claimed 180km/h and  the 0-100km/h is between 10 and 11 seconds.

The Prius is at its best in stop-start traffic where the electric engine can work without calling on the petrol engine for help. There is even an electric-only mode (press a button on the dashboard)  but this will take you only 2km, at a maximum speed of 50km/h. Then the petrol motor will come in, both to charge the battery and to help move the car along.

You can also choose a power mode for maximum punch and an eco mode, said to improve fuel economy by 15%.

Apart from the petrol motor being used as a source of energy, the battery is also charged by energy from the brakes, the same principle being used in some of this year’s Formula One GP cars.

Contrary to what some people think, you don’t plug the Prius into the mains at night or between journeys. It is completely self-sufficient and that, in my mind, gives it an edge over a purely electric car which, in South Africa, will have to rely largely on getting its energy from coal-fired power stations.

Toyota claims fuel economy of 4.1litres/100km and while I did not do as well as that I did see figures below 5litres/100km, something I have, until now, achieved only in Nissan’s diesel Micra, a far smaller car.

The most striking thing about the Prius, still, is that if the battery is fully charged, there is no sound of the engine starting up. You get behind the wheel, press the Start button, and a “ready” sign comes up in the instrument binnacle. Slip the car into Drive or Reverse using the luminous green gear knob,  The feeling of driving away in complete silence is both eerie and awesome.

Conclusion: the Prius, for all its clever technological innovation, will remain an oddity and a rarity on South African roads for some time to come, as much for the unusualness of its motive power as for its price.

While it might not quite represent the future of motoring, it is a significant part of the journey along that road.

PS: The new Prius has been named as one of the eight finalists in the Car of the Year contest run by the SA Guild of Motoring Journalists and WesBank.

Bruce

Liked

Clever new hybrid system

Economy (duh!)

Striking exterior

Disliked

Clever new hybrid system

Striking exterior

For more information, visit the Toyota SA website.

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