By now it’s no secret that Toyota scored a big win with the introduction of the latest generation Prius and the Prius Prime plug-in hybrid. The Prius finally ditches its dorky styling for a sleeker look that grabs your attention – basically its the first Prius that you won’t be embarrassed to drive. When we first drove the 2023 Prius we feel in love with it due to not only its styling, but its more fun to drive character and efficient powertrains.
We loved it so much, that we decided to buy a 2024 Toyota Prius Prime to see if we will still love it after driving it around for a year. While electric cars have grabbed all the headlines lately, it’s still widely known that many buyers are turned off by fully electric vehicles, due to the lack of charging infrastructure. This is where the Prius Prime shines, since it has up to 44 miles of electric range and then transitions to a hybrid once the battery is depleted.
So basically if your daily commute is less than 44 miles, you can drive the Prius Prime in EV mode. If you go beyond that range you don’t have to worry about finding a charger, since the efficient 2.0-liter gas engine powers on to keep you moving down the road.
Over the next year we’re going to compare living with the Prius Prime to a Tesla Model Y. The more natural comparison would have been the Prius Prime to the Model 3, but given the fact that the Model Y is so popular, we wanted to see what all the fuss is about. Which will be easier to live with a plug-in hybrid or a fully electric vehicle. The big question here is if you have access to a charger or if you have to rely on public charging. Or if you plan on taking road trips in excess of 300 miles, which would mean that you would need to find a charger along the way in the Tesla, while you can simply find a gas station in the Prius Prime.
We’ve had the Prius Prime in our fleet for about a month and we don’t have much to complain about, other than the slow on-board charger. It takes approximately 4 hours to fully recharge the battery using a 240-volt charger. We wish the Prius Prime had the same onboard charger as the RAV4 Prime, which would make it even easier to never have to rely on the gas engine.
We bought the top spec Prius Prime XSE Premium with the Advanced Technology Package, a Digital rearview mirror and heated seats. It lists for $42,400. The base Prius Prime SE starts at $34,070.
Stay tuned…
