Toyota Prius 2001 Review

Car-makers around the world have been making a concerted effort to develop power systems for the car of the 21st century for at least the past decade.

Fossil fuels, as we are only too well aware, just ain't going to last forever and increasing urban pollution, much of it coming from the tailpipes of our most treasured automotive possessions, is progressively warming up the planet towards boiling point.

Fuel cells, hydrogen-fuelled internal combustion engines and electric power have all been trialled and tested but the only ones to have made it into production have been limited to specific applications or inappropriate for volume production due to excessive costs.

While fuel cells probably offer the greatest potential for a cleaner, greener car of the future, they are still very much a blip on the horizon in terms of viable mass production, so many car-makers are heading down the hybrid road as a near-term solution to reducing fuel consumption and emissions.

In this realm, Australian buyers have a choice of two, Honda's two-door two-seater Insight and the new four-door five-seat Prius from Toyota.

For those after a traditional vehicle with the inherent environmental benefits of a hybrid drive system, the Prius is likely to be the more satisfying.

From the outside, the Prius doesn't look any more futuristic than its similar-sized Corolla sibling but slip behind the wheel and you begin to recognise that this is a very different car indeed.

Turn the key and you won't hear the car's 53 kiloWatt 1.5-litre four cylinder petrol engine fire up, but rather an eerie silence pervades as the electrics and displays on the centre mounted dash come to life.

Slip the column-mounted shift into D for drive, and as you head off down the road, the only noise to penetrate the cabin may be a slight tyre whirr as the Prius draws battery power through a 33kW electric motor to drive the front axle. It is not until the car reaches about 15kmh or you flatten the accelerator pedal that the petrol engine kicks in.

For this is what the "hybrid" is all about. At low speeds, the car runs on battery power, maximum acceleration is achieved through a combination of petrol and electric drives while the batteries get their recharge through regenerative braking and a little petrol power that drives a generator and keeps the charge topped up.

Drive under all forms of power is through a smooth stepless automatic continuously variable transmission (CVT) and of course, the whole process is monitored and controlled by computer so the driver is none the wiser.

Apart from the silence at low speeds, the automatic engine cut-out when stationary and a relatively sluggish acceleration off the line, driving the car feels little different to any small generic sedan. What you will notice is that your fuel bills can be cut in half and the planet might thank you for reducing toxic emissions by up to 80% and CO2 by 50%.

Ride and handling in the Prius are fairly ordinary with a soft suspension tune producing a degree of roll through corners and a tendency for the car to float over undulating surfaces.

Inside, there is plenty of space for four adults and the high attitude of the car and big glass areas mean visibility is good. Standard equipment levels run to dual airbags, ABS, a six-stack CD player, power windows and mirrors, remote central locking and climate control.

It sounds like the perfect solution to cheaper, greener urban motoring right, so what's the catch. Well, at launch, try a recommended retail price of 10 bucks under $40,000. In countries where urban pollution is a daily blight on the scenery like the US, UK, Japan and enviro-conscious Europe, governments are helping sales by offering tax reductions and subsidised prices.

Australian buyers are paying full whack for the technology and it will be quite some time before economies of scale bring the price down to a more affordable level. As always, a green conscience doesn't come cheap.