cars.com auto review
hi I'm Joe wiesenfelder with cars.com you probably think this is your average
everyday toyota prius and in some ways it is but then there's this the prius
plug-in is in effect the third approach to plug-in cars we've already seen the
regular old battery electric car like the Nissan Leaf for the Ford Focus
Electric and then there's the extended-range electric like the chevy
volt or even the fisker karma that goes a certain distance on electric power and
then a gas generator kicks in and keeps you going
this is very much like a regular prius but it has a larger battery pack that
you fill with good cheap and potentially clean energy before you even Drive
what this card does is it gives you a higher capacity battery and you can plug
it in
so what's happening is you're leaving your home with a full battery pack
now in this case the prius plug-in will allow you to drive an electric mode
alone for up to about 15 miles
not a lot of distance but it's not just about how far you go in easy mode now
the regular prius supposedly allows you to accelerate in electric mode but not
really
you've got to go really light on the accelerator up to you know maybe 25
miles an hour and if you give it too much pedal the engine turns on this is a
little different here it lets you accelerate at a reasonable clip without
really taking off the people behind you and you can go up to about 65 miles per
hour electric-only but if you go for full power or you're climbing a hill it
will turn the gas engine on
so it's not quite like what you're going to get in a range extended electric like
the Chevy Volt the interior of the plug-in prius is essentially the same
terms of spaciousness features etc as the regular hybrid
it even has the same very low Phi somewhat embarrassingly keep looking
graphics
there are a few different menus that actually help you maximize your EV
driving in this car
if you have the display button on the steering wheel
you get first the regular
energy flow monitor shows whether power is going to the battery from the battery
if the engine is running or not there's another one here that has charged on one
side power on the other and there's a range in the middle that if you stay
within a certain limit will keep you in EV range and that is where is much
better than the regular hybrid where there's really no indication and the
engines turning on all the time
there's also a readout aside from that that shows you the percentage of driving
you're doing in electric mode versus regular gas hybrid mode
it shows you both percentage and number of miles for each and the number of
kilowatt hours you spent versus the number of gallons
you burned the prius plug-in comes with a very simple charging cord 110 120 volt
plug you can plug in and virtually anywhere it is a very nice alarm cord
which I appreciated and on the other end
you've got a standardized connector that is the same one used on a lot of the
other v's i mentioned and it goes in very simply little light comes on when
it's dark out which is nice and you can charge an empty battery up to fall in
less than three hours at this level now because it has a compatible connector
you can also attach a level 2 charger the type that the other cars also used
and it'll fill in about an hour and a half the amount of juice at this thing
holds amounts to less than fifty cents if you charge overnight
generally speaking pretty cheap stuff about half the cost of running the same
distance on gasoline
even in a car as efficient as this one about 50 miles per gallon combined
city/highway driving now the larger battery pack is in the cargo area as it
is in the regular prius and it doesn't make much difference in the cargo space
it also add some weight more than a hundred pounds so the suspension is
revised slightly and I think the ride is rougher than the regular prius but I
guess decent enough
so what is the prius plug-in costs while the cheaper one is thirty-two thousand
dollars and that's about eight thousand dollars more than the most affordable
regular prius a lot of money
is it worth it you will have to determine that it seems like the type of
car you want that has a power cord depends on what you intend to do with it
this seems like a good car to have if you're driving a lot of short trips in
the city but occasionally want to take a very long trip where you can take
advantage of the 50 miles per gallon combined the electric range of less than
15 miles on the prius plug-in is sure to leave people thinking what's the point
i have to say i'm not convinced either but even though the car hasn't spread
across the country and it's only available in some areas at the end of
2012
it's selling very well already and I think that's because there's such a
loyal previous owner base already
for more car related news go to cars.com for our blog kicking tires . net