Best Value Motoring

Up until the first hybrid came onto the market, the Honda Insight, the car as you know it has largely remained unchanged. The internal combustion engine has developed over time, but the principles remain the same. Burning fuel to move a reciprocating piston that creates torque to turn a wheel. Sure engines have become more powerful and efficient over time, but there hasn’t been a revolutionary change. Most people think of electric cars when they thing green cars, but electric cars had been around before in the early 1900s, but due to the short range and the development of the internal combustion engine, people forgot about them. So over time, we have become dependent on fossil fuel for the convenience of jumping into your car and driving anywhere you want, knowing that you will find a station to top up your tank when you’ve run out. Therein lies the conundrum for manufacturers. How should they overcome the obstacle of the well established infrastructure that has been in place since the beginning of our generation? You cannot sell an electric car where a driver cannot get topped up, and you cannot build the charging stations without the cars to charge?

Many motoring journalist and environmentalist alike lambast the Prius and all hybrids for that matter for being a pointless car. The added complexity and weight of a hybrid drivetrain goes against what economy is about. The resources required to make the heavy Nickel Metal Hydride (NiMH) batteries would itself add more to global warming than the savings in carbon dioxide produced. Some even go to the lengths to compare a diesel Volkswagen Polo to the Prius claiming better fuel economy. I think to go down that line is to miss the point completely. The Prius, being the top selling hybrid vehicle has kick started the collective consciousness of the entire industry to think about the environment. BMW’s M3 has regenerative brakes and a glass mat battery (whatever that is but it must surely work). Even the mighty Porsche 911 has become almost 20% more fuel efficient in its latest iteration while at the same time being more powerful. GM in its dying moments have shown the world the Chevy Volt with claims of over 200mpg. What Toyota has done is to say look, while the world contemplates on global warming and how the car industry can decide on an alternative energy source, we will use what we have now and create a car that will start a revolution. Toyota is currently on its third generation Prius and other car makers are now only introducing Start/Stop technology.

The second generation Prius was always designed to be a family car, a replacement for an equivalent Accord or Camry. It was never meant to be sporty although the Prius is competent. It is however, spacious, practical, reliable and safe. The legroom in the back is comparable to the much longer Camry, and the boot with fold down rear seats provide a deep and usable cargo area. The Prius is not a luxury car, but it is a nice place to be in. At traffic lights or low speed stop start traffic, the Prius is completely silent. The engine is only started when it is needed and the Prius does that seamlessly. When slowing down and brakes are applied, the Prius is able to recapture some of the energy that would otherwise be lost to heat by recharging its batteries. It’s only when you’ve driven a Prius sitting in traffic with the engine off that you start to think, why should I have the engine running when I’m not using it? Why have the manufacturers not thought of shutting down the engine automatically when it’s not needed? Whether or not a vehicle should have both an engine and a motor is irrelevant. All vehicles should not consume any energy while stationary and it should recover as much kinetic energy as possible in deceleration.

Sure you get a similar 5l/100km economy in a diesel VW Polo, but the Prius is in a different size class altogether. It doesn’t provide a shove in your back like a V6 will, but then again, how often do we honestly get the chance to use even half of the available power most cars have? The Prius gets to 100km/h in a little over 10 seconds, but it’s the torque provided by the electric motor that makes the most difference. Electric motors produce the most torque from 0 revs and that suits the driving pattern of most in the city while the 1.5l petrol engine is also tuned for torque while burning very lean as well.

A second generation Prius can be had for about A$20,000. It would have done about 50,000kms and would likely be driven by a mature owner and have full log book maintenance done. The Toyota Prius has also been highly rated for its reliability and several taxi companies have run the Prius to more than 500,000kms without problems only having to change the battery at 400,000kms. They have also reported lower running cost over the life of the car due partly to the lower fuel consumption, but also due to the fact that there was nothing to repair. Servicing at Toyota main dealers have always been competitive and shouldn’t cost you much more than a Corolla. The newly released third generation Prius has added more features while being slightly more economical while also being more powerful. It is however largely a similar car and the changes are in the equipment level. It does have a solar panel on the roof to power the air conditioning and an auto park feature. However, if you don’t require those features, I can’t think of a better car than the second generation Prius to spend your money on.

What the Prius has done is to normalize what would otherwise be an electrified oddity. You don’t think about how it works, but it works just like a conventional car would. All this happens while the general motoring public is educated on the future of cars and the environment. The hybrid vehicle is not a long term solution. However, if we were to care for our children’s future and start thinking of our impact on the environment, let’s support the manufacturers who dare to take the risk in investing in that as well.