Third time’s the charm
Every now and then you may question your own choices. The undersigned was surprised that he had not previously paid attention to the Toyota Prius in this section. The first car you should think of when it comes to fuel consumption! High time to put that right and that is why now in this theater: the third generation Prius is that economical.
We have known the name Prius since 1997, when the first generation appeared at the Toyota dealer. The model lived an existence to the left of the sidelines, while the second generation from 2004 onwards could count on slightly more enthusiasm. Real orders were placed from 2009 onwards, when a third generation appeared on the market around the summer. Pushed back by tax benefits, Toyota immediately sold 8,326 units that year, although there are probably still quite a few copies of the outgoing model.
Consumption Prius 1.8 HSD
Under the hood of this Prius we find a 1.8-liter four-cylinder petrol engine that runs according to the efficient Atkinson cycle. With its 99 hp it is not a powerhouse, but in combination with Toyota’s ingenious Hybrid Synergy Drive the Prius delivers a total of 136 hp.
Enough about the technology, we are mainly curious about the result. And there is. The no fewer than 54 Prius 3 drivers who kept track of their consumption achieved an average of 1 in 19.4 (5.15 l/100 km). Due to an obvious input error, we are removing the most favorable value from our list, but the second best value is also downright decent at 1 in 23.6 (4.24 l/100 km) over 46,944 kilometers. Another interesting fact: 22 of the 54 Prius drivers achieve a consumption of 1 in 20 (5 l/100 km) or better.
At the bottom of the list we see a Prius driver who did not get further than 1 in 16 (6.2 l/100 km). This value was achieved in two winter months and over a limited distance of 7,209 kilometers, while we prefer longer distances. Such as that of the driver who achieved 1 in 17.4 (5.74 l/100 km) over a distance of more than 90,000 kilometers. We will refer to this as ‘benevolent maximum consumption’.
Consumption Prius Plug-in
The Toyota Prius also appeared in 2012 as a plug-in hybrid, with a promised electric driving range of 25 kilometers. When charging daily, keeping track of power consumption is almost impossible, but fortunately fourteen drivers of such a car did keep track of their petrol consumption. The plug-in hybrid turns out to be considerably more economical than the ‘normal’ Prius, with an average of 1 per 26.5 (3.77 l/100 km), although we do not know how much and how often it has been charged in practice. The most interesting extremes? 1 in 30.2 (3.31 l/100 km) over 43,393 kilometers and 1 in 22.5 (4.44 l/100 km) over 153,400 kilometers.
Actually, this story ends as we expected. The third generation Toyota Prius is economical and the plug-in hybrid Prius is even more economical. Fortunately for Toyota, the ‘king hybrid’ does better than its own Auris Hybrid and easily leaves the cheaper, technically simpler Honda Insight behind. To drive significantly more economically, you really need a plug-in, as the Opel Ampera demonstrates.
– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl