How the Toyota Prius is the father of the LaFerrari
Respect the Prius. After all, it gave us the LaFerrari...
I’ll warn you now that this article talks about the Toyota Prius right from the start, but please keep reading. The Prius gets so much stick from Car People of the Internet, and I’d like to say that most of it is justified. However, behind the wantonly bonkers styling, green sandals stereotype and slushy driving experience, the Prius deserves a lot of admiration. When it was released in the late 1990s it was one of the only hybrid cars available and, while rivals came and went – namely two generations of Honda’s almost-forgotten Insight – the Prius stayed put, becoming popular with Hollywood elites and improving all the time.
Hybrids use both a small petrol engine and an electric motor for propulsion, and for most cars the idea is to try and run on electric power alone, with the old-school engine kicking in when range gets too low or you need some extra oomph. Performance and handling are manhandled into the back seats, because most hybrids have economy and green credentials as centre stage. For a time – and now, to a slightly lesser extent – hybrids were seen as the saviour and the only way forward, despite most of them polluting the world to the same level as petrol and diesel cars (that’s a story for another day, though).
Toyota’s stubbornness to continue with hybrids paid off, as it’s unlikely that any of the current crop of hybrids would be here today without the knowledge gained and improvements to technology and infrastructure. The last-generation Prius could manage about the same real-world economy as an eco-minded diesel, and prices were very high despite the £5,000 government grant. A new Prius can now achieve more than 80mpg on a combined journey, and prices are slowly becoming more inviting.
Conventional hybrids were then joined by plug-in hybrids, which aim to reduce the reliance on petrol power by using the electric motor more of the time. The other main difference is that the electricity is usually charged from a mains supply instead of employing the engine to run as a generator to top-up. This might seem like a bit of a backwards step, as we now have to factor in charging times and where you can plug it in. However, once electric infrastructure is sorted and charging times are made to be much faster, it’ll be no different to poking a hose into your fuel tank – we all got used to that idea pretty quickly.
Until electric cars are more widely available and usable, hybrids and PHEVs are a great stepping stone. They’re getting consumers ready for the so-called electric revolution and they’re necessary because the perception of electric cars isn’t great just yet. That’ll all change when cars have a real-world range of more than 300 miles.
Without the dreary hybrids like the Prius, Insight and Mitsubishi Outlander PHEV, we would never have had the cool hybrids. Cars like the BMW i3 range-extender, VW Golf GTE and Porsche Panamera Turbo S E-Hybrid would be merely pipedreams, and we wouldn’t have any of the Porsche 918, Ferrari LaFerrari or McLaren P1 hypercars.
So now that hybrids are more mainstream and accessible, should you buy one? There’s no doubt that hybrids are now more economical than ever, and the price is almost at a comparable level to petrol and diesel cars.
Hybrids are fantastic around town for many reasons. Many can glide along on electric power alone for a few miles, so you’ll have a quiet and peaceful journey. They’re generally quite comfortable and aren’t designed to be sporty, meaning potholes won’t be so jarring. The most economical ones are also Congestion Charge exempt, which must go some way towards justifying the extra initial cost, right?
If you do many urban miles, a hybrid is perfect then, and the car of choice for our Uber drivers. A fully electric car is even better if you predominantly stay in the city, provided you can stretch to one. However, dual-powered cars like the Prius aren’t so good out of town. A lot of hybrids use a CVT gearbox, and it’s almost universally agreed that CVTs are horrid. They are so much noisier than a conventional auto or manual, and strangle some of the power from the engine. And down a twisty road, the eco-minded driving style means that you’re better off elsewhere if you like steering feel.
But that’s for most hybrids. If cars such as the ones listed above are anywhere near as good to drive as their petrol- and diesel-powered counterparts, then the stigma around slushy hybrids will disappear in no time.
Soon, hybrids will be great to drive, affordable and planet-friendly in equal measures. Are you excited?
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Comments (3)
Technically the Prius has an electronic CVT. Instead of the noisy belt you are probably referring to it has an automatic transmission with the connected electric motors acting as additional resistance thus changing the effective gear ratio continuously.
In fact it's better than a conventional automatic because you don't lose power when the car switches gears for you.
Also the regular Prius doesn't qualify for a grant in the UK.
I love a controversial headline. Great piece.