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Road Test: Hyper-miling the 2010 Toyota Prius, our mpg is...
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Seventy-three point nine. That’s 73.9 mpg. That’s what we got driving the 2010 Toyota Prius over real roads in and around Orlando, Florida, in traffic and even for a short stretch of Interstate 4. We didn’t over-inflate the tires, draft semis or otherwise endanger ourselves or the general populace.
OK, we did start with a fully charged battery, balloon-footed the throttle pedal, pushed the EV button—for pure electric operation—as much as possible, and there are probably a lot of Orlando-area drivers who wonder if a Toyota Prius can go much faster than 35 miles per hour and just how slowly does one of those things accelerate?
In other words, we practiced a mild form of hyper-miling, or driving to maximize fuel mileage over just about everything else. It’s not something most Prius owners will do on a day-to-day basis, but it shows what the 2010 Toyota Prius can do for anyone willing to endure the wrath of fellow drivers.On the other hand, driving the 2010 Prius gently and in “ECO mode,” we were able to record impressive mileage numbers without becoming a rolling traffic impediment. Were we impressed? Durn tootin’. And we still are.
The 2010 Toyota Prius is the third generation of Toyota’s groundbreaking full hybrid, the first debuting in 2000 and the second in 2003. Today, Toyota has sold more than one million hybrid vehicles in the U.S., including 700,000 Priuses out of 1.2 million worldwide.
The third generation Prius is not just an incremental improvement of its predecessors but a significant leap forward. The hybrid system of the 2010 model is 90 percent “newly developed,” with lighter and more compact components as well as new fuel saving technologies such as beltless accessory drives and exhaust heat recovery to reduce energy waste and lower emissions.
Toyota even made the Prius’ engine bigger for better fuel economy, and if that’s counter-intuitive, it works because the new 1.8-liter Atkinson-cycle engine has more torque, the grunt that accelerates a vehicle and pulls it up hill, than its 1.6-liter predecessor. It also runs at lower rpm at highway speed, thereby using less fuel.
The 2010 Prius has three operating modes, normal, power and ECO. The primary differences in the modes is the sensitivity of the throttle pedal. In power, the Prius is snappy. Push the ECO button and the Prius’ power delivery feels mushy. On the other hand, there’s an EV button that allows the Prius to operate as a full electric vehicle, running on the electric motor alone until the Prius reaches 25 mph or runs out of juice.
See more pictures in our photo gallery of the 2010 Toyota Prius
Toyota’s engineers also got fuel savings from making mechanical changes around the Prius, notably to the transmission, and the engine’s water pump is driven by an electric motor. Traditionally the water pump, which pushes coolant past the hot parts of the engine and out to the radiator to cool, has been turned by the engine via a rubber belt, providing continuous fuel-wasting drag on the engine. An electric motor-driven pump, however, runs only when the engine needs to be cooled and takes energy out of the system only when it runs.
The 2010 Prius gets up to operating temperature sooner—which means less drag from thick oil and catalytic converts coming up to effective temperatures more quickly—thanks to an innovative exhaust heat recovery system that heats engine coolant with the temperature of the exhaust. Toyota says the car’s climate control system will be blowing heat three minutes earlier because of it, too.
Toyota also has honed the aerodynamics of the Prius giving it, along with the 2010 Mercedes-Benz E-Class, a drag coefficient of 0.25. The changes to the Prius’ profile include a recontoured roofline that peaks further back than the second generation’s that not only provides greater rear headroom but also make the Prius more aerodynamically slippery.
Aerodynamics also account for the smaller upper and larger lower grilles, and the squared-off corners of the front and rear bumpers. Toyota also decreases undercar turbulence and drag by installing flat panels over the bumpy parts, even putting small fins on the panel behind the rear axle to better direct airflow. (If little fins under the car help a Prius in 2010, then maybe Cadillac’s big tailfins were really onto something in 1959…).Toyota made the 2010 Prius larger. The second generation grew from an EPA compact to mid-size, and now the third generation, though with the same wheelbase as its predecessor, is longer and wider outside with every measurement increasing inside, including headroom. It’s an even more car-like hybrid—though Toyota does have a hybrid version of the already car-like Camry hybrid…
Speaking of car-like, the hatchback Prius has rear seatbacks that fold for a almost just-about flat cargo floor. Why don’t interior designers understand that many things owners want to carry have flat bottoms, and those go a lot better on flat floors. Change the pivot point, whatever. Just give us a flat floor. At least there's a little cubby underneath the cargo floor for hiding small object out of view.
The overall interior of the 2010 Toyota Prius has a more sophisticated look, with two-tone and leather optional (what would PETA say?). The shifter has been moved to a more conventional location, down from the dash to the center console. Toyota says it’s sportier. We’ll interpret that as “less weird.” A tray under—literally—the center stack is just the right size, those who know told us, for a purse.
The 2010 Prius’ instrument panel is new, with all the performance data moved up closer to the windshield to make it easier for drivers to monitor performance without taking their eyes as far off the road. One particularly useful graphic is a bar graph with a bar that slides back and forth between charging and “power”. Keeping the bar to the left means better mileage. Or one can select the energy flow graphic. It’s smaller than previous versions so not as easy to see, and it still doesn’t indicate when the gas engine is running or not. We also watched a vertical graph next to the digital speedometer. Any time that was up around 100 mpg we were happy.
Our test 2010 Prius had mostly basic equipment, though that includes among other items cruise control, though intelligent (radar) cruise control is optional, as are “lane keep assist,” which nudges a drifting driver back into the lane of travel (see also Infiniti), an advanced self-parking system (improved over the Lexus system), remote pre-air conditioning system (made possible by beltless accessory drives), and a solar-powered ventilation system.
This last has solar cells in the sunroof which power a fan that blows ambient air into the car while it’s parked in the hot sun, lowering the internal temperature from, say, 180 to 100 degrees Fahrenheit, reducing the time it takes the a/c to make the interior livable. Nothing’s new, of course. Mazda offered that feature in the Mazda 929 in 1991. The Prius will also condition your air with a pollen filter and an ion generator. How new age is that?
And because gas mileage isn’t the only way to be green—and even Toyotas’ lifecycles eventually come to an end—Toyota claims “world-first, plant-derived resin ‘Ecological Plastic’” used in the Prius is more easily recycled and has lifecycle emissions of CO2 of 20 percent less that petroleum-derived plastic.The braking system has had a huge improvement in feel and smoothness of operation. The herky-jerky of the previous generation coming to a stop is gone.
Of course, fuel mileage is the big question everyone asks about the Toyota Prius or other hybrids. It’s the ecologically correct version of “whatleshedo? The EPA rates the 2010 Toyota Prius’ fuel mileage at 50 city/49 highway. Without the extreme methods we used to record the 73.9 mpg, by using the ECO mode and driving gently but not obnoxiously so, we were able to achieve around 60 mpg.
Toyota hasn’t announced pricing yet, and availability is given as “late spring”. As soon as we hear either, we’ll pass it along.
By the way, for that 73.9 mpg was during a competition among journalists. We were driving, paired with freelance auto writer Sue Mead as navigator/spotter, and among the non-coached-by-Toyota scribes, we recorded the highest mpg, besting a 71.9 mpg and other fuel mileages in the 60 to 70 mpg range.
And that of course is why you get your Toyota Prius information here.
Illustrations: 2010 Toyota Prius. All photos by John Matras.
| Powertrain | |
| Engine | 1.8-L DOHC I-4 |
| Engine horsepower, hp @ rpm | 98 @ 5200 |
| Engine torque, lb-ft @ rpm | 105 @ 4000 |
| Electric motor power output, hp | 80 |
| Hybrid system net horsepower | 134 |
| Emission rating | SULEV (with AT-PZEV) |
| Transmission | Electronically-controlled CVT |
| Layout | Front engine, front wheel drive |
| Hybrid battery type | Nickel-metal hydride |
| Estimated fuel economy | 50 mpg |
| Dimensions | |
| Seats | 5 |
| Length, in. | 175.6 |
| Width, in. | 68.7 |
| Height, in. | 58.7 |
| Wheelbase, in. | 106.3 |
| Ground clearance, in. | 5.5 |
| Coefficient of drag (Cd) | 0.25 |
| Wheels | 15 in alloy / 17-in alloy opt. |
| Tire size | 195/65R15 / 215/45R17 opt |
| EPA class rating | Midsize |
Have a question about cars, trucks or SUVs? Ask Uncle Spinout at AskUncleSpinout<at>gmail.com. If he can't answer it, well, there you go.
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