The Prius is the second ‘real’ hybrid to make it to our shores after Honda’s Civic Hybrid. The Prius has also been possibly the one real success story in the world of Hybrids and has adorned many a Hollywood celebrity’s driveway. But just how good is it in the Indian context and will it have any takers? To settle this question in our minds and to tell you a little more about this popular ‘green’ automobile, we took the Prius for a short drive so we could bring you this first-hand driving impression of the Prius right here in India.
This third-generation Toyota Prius was launched in India during the Auto Expo’10 held earlier this year - in January 2010. The new generation Prius has undergone some minor aerodynamic changes to further enhance the efficiency of the car. It is about four inches longer than the outgoing car and Toyota’s chief designer Wahei Hirai penned in the so-called ‘Aero-corners’ at the front and rear – which in common man’s speak is sharp corners. These help make the airflow cleaner and reduces turbulence. Add to this more aerodynamically friendly lines and you’ve achieved a co-efficient of drag to 0.25 from 0.26. This makes it one of the most aerodynamic sedans currently being sold across the globe (the other one that’s on sale in India is the Mercedes Benz E350). This might not sound much, but when we consider the fact that it’s a hybrid with its sole purpose being fuel efficiency, every small step towards this ‘green’ goal counts. However with our chaotic traffic and much lower cruising speeds than on most freeways abroad, one will really have to see whether there are any real benefits of all the aerodynamic wizardry that have gone into the new Prius.
The Toyota Prius is quite futuristic looking, and can be spotted amongst a crowd of regular cars. It has a small front grille and the current generation Prius wears a bolder Toyota badge on its hood when compared to the outgoing variant. The front now wears a very family-face and is unmistakably a Toyota. However, there’s an uncanny resemblance to the Honda Insight (See Pics) and we’re not getting into the who-copied-whom debate. (Who knows, the Japs may actually be churning both cars out of the same factory to reduce development and production costs!) The Toyota Prius looks like a compact sedan, but when you step into the car, your opinion changes immediately. There’s just so much of space! The engineers at Toyota have truly utilized space as effectively as possible and it shows. The huge dash, the flowing centre console theme and the blue on black information display gives it a spaceship-like feel and the Heads-Up display just adds to the overall tech-character of the car. It’s isn’t nearly as clear in bright sunlight (which we seem to have no shortage of!) and works really well in lower light conditions. We also loved the touch sensitive (Touch Tracer in Toyota speak) steering mounted controls which detect touch and immediately project an image of the controls on the display so you can keep your eyes on the road and yet know exactly what button you are pushing – a brownie point in the safety book. Also adding to the safety quotient of the Prius is its excellent structural integrity that helps it absorb impacts fairly well. And to reinforce this fact, the Prius made it to third spot for the safest cars of 2009 in the EuroNCAP tests.
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