More buttons to push
Driving on electric power alone is a primary appeal for many hybrid buyers, so Toyota boosted Prius' ability to do that with an “EV” mode button. Pressing that button lets the driver hum through the neighborhood on battery power alone for about half a mile at speeds below 25 mph. This is cool, but falls short of the Ford Fusion hybrid’s ability to drive at up to 47 mph on electric power.
The new Prius' electric motor, power inverter and transaxle are slimmed by 20 percent in size compared to the previous package, but the motor spins twice as fast and operates at 650 volts rather than the previous 500 volts. These changes contributed to a 20 percent reduction in torque losses.
The driver can optimize fuel economy by pressing the “Eco Mode” button, which makes the throttle position lag the movement of the gas pedal to smooth out calls to the engine room for more power. This is especially helpful to those digital drivers — you know who you are — who treat the gas pedal as an on-off switch, alternately flooring it and coasting. The Eco Mode is not used for EPA fuel economy testing, in which the Prius scored a combined city/highway rating of 50 mpg, so using it should help drivers top that score.
The opposite of Eco Mode is Power Mode, another button which causes the throttle to snap open more abruptly than normal, in case it is the driver’s preference to annoy passengers with neck-snapping jerks when starting from a stop.
The button doesn’t actually deliver any additional power or improve maximum acceleration, it just delivers it more suddenly, making Power Mode a strong candidate for the “Technology for Technology’s Sake” award.
'Energy monitor' feature
Of course the driver wants to track the activities of this advanced electric drivetrain, reveling in the fuel saved through judicious use of the right (gas/electron?) pedal. In the previous Prius this meant having a costly LCD video screen which provided vehicle information to anxious drivers.
That screen is still available to those customers who choose to pay for a navigation system, but the efficiency information is now conveyed through a vacuum fluorescent display in the middle of the dashboard.
It contains an “energy monitor” which displays energy flow and battery state of charge, a hybrid system indicator, which encourages smooth acceleration and braking and demonstrates how driving style affects fuel economy, and real- time fuel consumption depicted in 1-minute or 5-minute increments. It also contains indictors for the radar cruise control system, pre-collision and lane- keeping assistance systems.
Additionally, the Prius has all of the trendy new technologies we’ve come to expect, with connections for a Bluetooth phone and iPod, letting drivers wirelessly stream audio from their mobile device to the car’s available 8-speaker JBL audio system. The optional nav system includes real-time traffic information.
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The Prius starts at $22,000 without a lot of equipment and tops out at nearly $32,000with all the techno-gadgets.
There is no doubt that Toyota’s new hybrid features an impressive array of emerging technologies. It just remains to be seen whether this Plurimus strategy will sustain the car’s popular appeal.
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