2024 Toyota Prius Prime

Pros

• A car that uses less gas might be appealing.
• It’s strong enough to keep up with traffic and uses very little gas.
• Totally powered by energy, it can move more than 40 kilometres.
• Infotainment device that is easy to use.

Cons

• Smooth lines make cuts space for people and goods.
• The instrument panel is hard to see because the steering wheel blocks it.
• When it starts, the gas engine makes a lot of noise.

How does the Prius Prime get its power? Thanks to its quick speed, the Prius Prime feels more agile and quick than a regular hybrid when driving in the city. It could drive on the road without a gasoline engine. You can press all the way down on the gas pedal while the car is in EV mode, and the gas engine will not start.

The Prius Prime works a lot faster when both the engine and the electric motor are going. On the Invoice Pricing test track, our test car went from 0 to 60 mph in 6.9 seconds. When speeding up to sixty miles per hour, a Prius can achieve that speed in 7.7 seconds. The Prius Prime is also easier to drive now that it has new suspension parts and internal changes. It doesn’t feel like you can steer, but it goes straight down the highway with little effort and feels accurate when you turn in quickly.

How does it feel to ride in the Prius Prime? The front seats of the Prius Prime are comfortable for longer trips because they give you enough support. Also, the back seats are comfortable. The car handles uneven and broken pavement well, which we like. Still, wind, too much tire noise, and engine noise are to blame for Prius Prime’s inability to relax fully during acceleration. The new Prius Prime only has one temperature zone, and it doesn’t have some of the more advanced climate settings that were available in older models. For example, you can’t turn off fans in any seats but the driver’s to save gas.

How is the state of the inside? The panel of the Prius Prime is standard, and the buttons are placed in a way that makes it easy to use. The digital instrument panel could look better. It looks busy because it has so much information on it. It’s also different from anything else in terms of shape or location. Most of our drivers noticed that the top of the steering wheel blocked their view of the screen after they had moved the seat and steering wheel to their chosen positions.

Compared to older models, the Prius Prime’s latest design makes it much harder to see out the back seat and has less space for people. You have to squat a bit to get into the back. If you are bigger than six feet, there is only a little headroom once you get inside. The high rear roof pillars and short, angled rear window make it hard to see out the back.

What’s wrong with the tech? We looked at a Prius Prime XSE that had a bigger 12.3-inch tablet in the middle. We like how easy it is to use, how quickly it responds, and how Google-powered the mapping is on Toyota’s newest entertainment system. Android Auto and Apple CarPlay both come with wireless connectivity, and better trim levels come with wireless charging as well. But be careful: your phone will feel warm when you take it out after about an hour because it hasn’t been cooled. However, if you’d rather charge the old-fashioned way, there are several USB-C ports in the cabin.

When adaptive cruise control is turned on, the lane-keeping assist system keeps the hybrid car focused in its lane, and it’s easy to speed up or slow down. Another feature that helps drivers in everyday situations is Proactive Driving Assist, which gives them small cues. You can tell the Prius to slow down if traffic ahead of you slows down by a soft tap on the brakes when you let go of the gas pedal. A strip of LED lights on the dashboard will also blink if the car in front of you moves away. People could easily be annoyed by this system to the point where they turn it off, but we never thought it was intrusive when we tested it.

Meanwhile, the Traffic Jam Assist method is different. When adaptive cruise is turned on, you can drive without using your hands at speeds of 25 mph or less. An infrared camera in the technology checks the driver’s face to see if they’re paying attention. But the camera is always watching, even when Traffic Jam Assist is turned off, and it is very responsive. If you take your eyes off the instrument panel for a moment, you’ll see that it’s full of alerts. For example, to change climate control, if you put your hand on the steering wheel, the car will tell you to “Sit up” because it can’t see your face.

What’s going on with storage? Like the regular Prius, the Prius Prime hatchback can hold 20.3 cubic feet of stuff behind the back seats. There is less space for luggage in this trunk than in a previous Prius model, but it is still bigger than the trunk of a car of the same size. We couldn’t fit a set of golf clubs across the back of the car because it’s now shorter and smaller than it was before. Even though the bigger cargo floor might make it look like there is, there is no storage under the floor.

The Prius Prime has a big and slim bin in the centre panel and a useful rubberized area behind the dashboard for small things. The wireless charging pad is easy to reach and is placed next to the gear shifter. The cup holders are bigger than most, but they should be able to hold most water bottles.

How much fuel does it use? The EPA says that the SE version of the Prius Prime can go 44 miles, while the XSE version can only go 39 miles. This plug-in combination is pretty good. On Invoice Pricing’ normal test route, however, the Prius Prime needed help meeting those goals. The gas engine started in our XSE test car after it had only gone 33.7 miles because the battery had died. In any case, the Prius Prime is a very fuel-efficient car. During our trip, our XSE test car got an average of 50.9 mpg.

Toyota says that a 240-volt charger will take about four hours to charge the Prius Prime’s 13.6-kWh battery pack fully.

How much is the Prius Prime? Toyota offers a standard warranty that lasts for three years or 36,000 miles, in addition to a powertrain guarantee that lasts for five years or 60,000 miles. The battery in a hybrid like the Prius Prime is covered for up to 10 years or 150,000 miles, and the electrical parts are covered for eight years or 100,000 miles. Toyota also offers free servicing for two years, which is not common outside of the luxury market.

The price of the Prius has gone up, but the Prime’s better EV features have at least partly made up for it. You can save even more gas by extending the range, which can add up quickly. The quality of the inside of the newest Prius has gotten better, but there are still some obvious hard plastic parts. The doors move around and make a tinny sound when you close them.

Now that it has a longer electric range and better performance, the Prius Prime continues its amazing rise from the “ugliest car” to sleek and well-suited. Instead of being a fake hybrid, it feels like an EV, and you can still get more than 50 mpg even when the battery dies. The Prime is more appealing than the regular Prius because it is more fuel-efficient, more fun, and worth more.

We suggest upgrading to the middle XSE trim for people who feel that the base SE trim needs to be more complex. The Prius Prime has some improvements to the inside and comfort features that make it more appealing. It can also now work with a wider range of options.

Different kinds of Toyota Prius Prime

There are three different types of 2024 Toyota Prius Prime: SE, XSE, and XSE Premium. All of them have the same hybrid engine, which makes 220 horsepower. All-wheel drive is standard on the non-plug-in Prius, but it’s only standard on the Prime cars.