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The average German driver drives a daily distance of less than 25 km. With this average value, the use of an electric vehicle as a daily means of transport makes sense immediately. No local CO² emissions and currently also comparatively cheap to “maintain”. And if the electricity didn't just come from the socket, but was produced by renewable energy sources - many problems would be solved.
Too bad that “the average car driver” unfortunately doesn't exist. Or not as often - as you would need it so that electric vehicles can generate profitable sales in the foreseeable future.
Some drive less, the others more and especially where more is driven, there begin the problems for the electric vehicle. With the current infrastructure, the complete abandonment of vehicles with gasoline or diesel engines is simply not feasible.
And so hybrid vehicles have steadily gained market share in recent years - but one often had the feeling that the hybrid model itself is not yet really useful. How about if you had a hybrid car with which you can drive the “average” 25km fully electrically and then use the efficient variant of the comfortable gasoline hybrid for the “greater distance”?
The Toyota engineers must have thought so or something similar and now imagine:
The Toyota Prius Plug-in Hybrid
On October 16, the time has come when the successful hybrid pioneer Prius will be available at dealers in a “plug-in” version. You can already buy or order it now.
What makes the difference to the normal hybrid Prius and what are the advantages of the “plug-in”?
In principle, it is a larger battery in the same place where the “normal” Prius has its battery and an option to charge the vehicle externally via a 220V socket. Sounds simple, but in the end it was a solution that required development time. Toyota had also looked at competitors such as the Opel Ampera and Chevrolet Volt - but then decided not to build a pure “range extender” solution, but to focus on a hybrid gasoline engine that is capable of traveling longer distances to put back the pure power of his battery charge and then to choose the more efficient route of direct drive from the gasoline engine to the wheels and avoid the detour via a “power generator”.
And at Toyota you are now sure that with the plug-in Prius you won't be offering anything less than “the best of two worlds”. As part of the European presentation, the Prius “with the charging cable” was available to me for a first short trip.
A first look at the Prius plug-in
What does he want to be?
A milestone in the history of the development of efficient and ecological automobiles. A nerd and model student in the steadily growing class of hybrid and electric vehicles (with and without range extenders). The logical evolutionary stage of the hybrid pioneer and do-gooded automobile from the first 2 Prius generations.
What can he do?
On the first exit, the fully loaded Prius managed a distance of almost 18km before its petrol engine started and took over the further propulsion. 18km - less than 25km? I can comment on this - I was not aware of the “theoretical” range on the descent and the first tour wasn't really optimized in terms of driving style. A hybrid mobile, with or without a plug-in solution, requires a forward-looking and gentle driving style. Preferably with very gentle braking maneuvers so as not to convert too much of the precious kinetic energy into waste heat and thus to give it away, but to recuperate range by extending it.
The Prius plug-in also does this with great power for hybrid newbies at first. In many situations, “taking off the gas” is already enough. If you look ahead to traffic jam situations and feed the maximum amount of kinetic energy back into the batteries through the process of recuperation without using the brake pedal, you will achieve remarkable consumption values in everyday city life. If the lithium-ion battery pack was fully charged at home via a plug-in, the Toyota managers promise purely electric locomotion at speeds of up to 85 km / h.
In everyday life, the 136 HP Prius plug-in does not drive any differently than its siblings without a charging cable. Just much longer without engine noise. And indeed - it is also the fascination of complete silence with the Prius - that exerts special stimuli on the driver and ensures a relaxed driving situation. An electrically driven air-conditioning compressor ensures that the passengers do not get sweaty on the up to 25km long route in E mode.
Whether you will tend to transpire the purchase price?
€ 36.200 are due for the Prius in the “Life version”. That is an extra charge of almost € 9.000 compared to the “normal” Prius. For this, the buyer gets a decidedly uncompromising hybrid drive that works convincingly in E-mode as well as in mixed operation with the gasoline engine. Despite the larger battery, the plug-in hybrid has only lost 2 liters of trunk volume and only gained 60kg in weight and now weighs 1.425kg - which is still an impressive 235kg lighter than the Opel Ampera, the only vehicle with the Prius plug-in is currently “roughly” comparable.
What can not he do?
With Tempo 200 on the highway speed (like the Opel Ampera) and also no 80km pure electric range (like the Ampera) achieve.
And finally ...
With 36.200 € for the Life, or 42.500 € for the TEC variant, Toyota has hung a self-confident price tag on the plug-in version. In view of the still rather brittle charm and detail love lack of interior space is quickly clear where you have set the focus at Toyota. Personally, this enormous difference between the technical perfection in drive technology and the superficial impression of the interior is particularly negative.
The Prius Plug-in Hybrid will find its buyers in Germany, even if the question of the solvent buyer of an “eco-limousine” has to be expressed first and then answered. With the 5 seats and a usable trunk, the plug-in satisfies the usual wishes for a full-fledged sedan and at the same time offers an extremely exciting drive concept - unfortunately with a clear focus on the technology.
But we will probably soon find a slightly more valuable variant in the showrooms. Since the technology that turns a hybrid into a plug-in is not particularly cheap - the models CT200h and GS450h from the sister brand Lexus are particularly suitable as a plug-in basis.
And those who can live with the somewhat brittle charm behind the steering wheel of the Prius will be happy to know that Toyota also expects the plug-in hybrids and their batteries to have a service life of at least 10 years.
Until then, the remaining questions on e-mobility and commuter traffic should hopefully be resolved and our government has also expressed a purchase incentive for particularly ecologically sensible vehicles.