While it sounds like a Transformer, with rebates and our driving patterns, this car might be good for us. Anyone here with experience and stories?
If you’re looking for a vehicle to squeeze every last subatomic molecule of power out of its fuel, go for it, The Prius line is an absolute home run on that count
If you’re looking for a car that’s fun to drive? Stay far, far away and avoid it like the plague, the Prius is utterly soulless and no fun to drive, it sacrifices everything to the Altar of Fuel Economy
It’s a transportation appliance, nothing more
I have driven a Prius V quite a bit and I do like the Prius line, but no experience with the Prime. But I wanted to ask if you have thought about a fully electric car. If you think a Prime is a good option because you drive less than 30 miles a day, you might totally fall in love with a fully electric car.
But it depends how you use the car, of course.
I don’t know. I drive a Prius+ at the moment at work (taxi). It’s fun to see how long you can drive per liter. In city traffic you can’t drive fast anyway and the fuel-saving programs love city traffic. It’s a bit slow on motorways, but press the PWR button and feel yourself be pressed back in the seat (and see the fuel consumption go through the ceiling). It’s fun enough and I drive it 11 hours every weekday.
The Mercedes E220 I drove before was fun too and had a lot more features, but the Prius is not that far behind in the fun compartment and is much more economic.
It seats six passengers or have a lot of room for four and luggage. I like it.
I don’t own a Prius Prime, but I do own a Hyundai Sonata Plug-in Hybrid. It’s my favorite card of anything I’ve ever owned. It gets the benefits of both worlds - I can drive it for about 80% of my driving on electricity (around here, right now, about 1/7 the cost per mile of gasoline). But there’s no range anxiety, no mandatory requirement for a second car, and if I have to drive it across the country, it still gets a decent gas mileage, though not as good as a standard hybrid (because of the much heavier battery packs).
Fully electrics are too fickle with range, and can’t drive long distances in reasonable times, even with fast-chargers available (and in many states, can’t drive long distances at all). Pure hybrids don’t really address the fossil fuel problem, they just use less of it. They’re an interim step to something better, and the PHEVs are a little farther down that line.
The Sonata PHEV (like most of them) can air condition off the battery, but has to bring the engine on for heating, so your results will vary depending on where you live. I live in Oregon: around 40F in the winter, up to around 95F in the summer, lots of wet roads in the winter. About 80% of my driving is in the electric range, and I charge every day with a Level 2 charger in the garage (2.5 hours for a full charge, this particular vehicle doesn’t support L3 charging).
All-gasoline mileage across varied terrain (vacations, etc) is almost precisely 40 MPG – fairly poor for a hybrid, but it still beats my wife’s last-decade gasoline car.
Summer gas mileage is about 185 MPG. Winter is only about 80 MPG, because there’s no such thing as an “all-electric” trip in cold weather – the engine comes on at least enough to heat the car on every trip.
Thanks, this is helpful. Currently driving a Prius V, and like it a lot. Lease is up, and they don’t make them any more. Handling, fun, car adventures not a concern. The Power setting is all the excitement I need, and I rarely use it. Gas prices are a bit of a concern: in recent weeks here in Vancouver, BC, it has been about US $4.50/gallon. Daily drive is about 60 km, or 37 miles, round trip, with plug-in at both ends, but have regular long distance trips that make all-electric a no-go. The weather is cooler than Corvallis in the summer, colder in the winter, too, I think. In the Prius V we get about 45 US mpg, which seems a little low, but I have to drive a lot of hills daily and on the regular trips. The hatchback on the Prime is important to partner.
We have a Prius Prime. It’s a very good electric car, and a very good hybrid. I think it’s a great value, as the price is reasonable for a car with such good equipment and economy. Primarily it’s my wife’s car, butI don’t mind driving it.
Sounds like the Prime would be ideal for you then 
I’m not in the Prius target market myself, but if it fits your needs, great
And no one has written in to say, “the wheels fell off the first time I cornered over 15 mph” or “batteries emit toxic gases that also fog up the windows,” or, worst of all, “the hatchback is actually fake” or less dire but troubling stories. This has been helpful; thanks!
I got regular 2016 Prius instead, but part of that is I didn’t want to wait (it was late June, prime wasn’t available until fall IIRC)
Note the it seats 4 – though I very rarely have had 5 in my car.
Sporty enough for me.
Brian
Toyota also appears to hire techs and designers from Galifrey (as does VW…), how else would you explain how the Prius (and Golf and SportWagen) are clearly Bigger on the Inside…
Honda also used Galifreyan designers when they made the Element, as it’s not only BotI, but was also shaped closest to a stretched Police Box
As someone who enjoys driving, and respects the hybrid fuel efficiency, as well as the electric motor’s performance potential, Toyota really NEEDS to release a Sports Prius (or put their Hybrid Synergy Drive system in a performance chassis), perhaps an 86 with the HSD tweaked for performance
A rear wheel drive performance hybrid at an affordable price? Yes Please!
heck, modify the Prius AWD chassis, have the drive wheels at the rear, and modify the assist electric motor to work in generator mode only, connected to the front wheels, whenever the wheels are rotating, the generator will be sending power back to the battery
take the 86, drop in the HSD driving the rear wheels, and have the assist motor connected to the front wheels to act as a recharge generator, bingo, a sporty hybrid that’s fun to drive and affordable as it’s already using existing hardware that has already had the R&D costs recovered many times over
of course, it goes without saying that the 86 HSD (Prius-86?) should be offered in MANUAL transmission ONLY!, no sludgebox, no CVT, no DSG
By means of comparison, I own the OTHER alternative fuel vehicle, a '12 VW Golf TDI, it has the emissions fix installed, and as a '12 it doesn’t have the Diesel Exhaust Fluid system, it DOES have the Diesel Particulate Filter scrubber system.
first off, it does not and has not emitted any of the stereotypical black soot diesels are notorious for, it does not “roll coal”, which is good as that’s just a waste of perfectly good diesel anyway, why waste fuel belching smoke just to annoy other drivers when it could be put to better use in powering the vehicle?
the DPF works by capturing soot particles and every so often will go through a “regeneration**” phase, where the DPF enters “furnace” mode, and internal temps rise to around 1200 degrees and the captured soot particles are burned off and the filter is cleared, it’s like a self-cleaning oven, kinda. after over 50,000 miles, the tailpipe exhaust tips are completely free of soot particles, absolutely no visible particulates.
I typically get 32 MPG in the city, 42-44 on secondary backroads (hilly 2 lane roads with speeds from 35-55 MPH), and 45-46 MPG on the highway, id’ imagine longer trips at highway speed would push me closer to low 50’s
yes, the Prius utterly decimates me in City, no arguments there, but we’re pretty close on secondary roads, and i’m not sure on highway, doesn’t the electric motor cut out at speeds above 50 MPH?, at highway speeds, aren’t you lugging around a battery pack that’s not helping in any way at highway speeds?
The Gof however, handles like a sportscar on the twisty back roads, very tight, precie handling, carves corners like it’s on rails, and with the tires on it now (45 series Z-rated summer tires) has amazing grip!, the Golf punches far above it’s weight class in terms of handling, tossability, and driving dynamics, all things I value, and am wiling to sacrifice a little bit of fuel economy for driving enjoyment.
while I admit to being curious about the prius, I don’t think i’d be happy with the sacrifices it makes to fuel economy, but that’s the reason why there are so many different vehicles out there in the first place, everyone values something different in their driving.
** No, the Golf does not suddenly change it’s paint job colour, or transform into another VW model when it enters Regeneration Mode, that’d be cool if it did though 
I had a 2006 Prius for 12 years, then last year I sold it to a friend (it’s still running great) and got a 2018 Prius Three. I looked carefully at the Prime but didn’t like the fact that it gets worse mileage than the regular Prius after you get past the first 20 miles on battery. I do drive a lot of short trips but I decided overall I’d be better off without the plug-in feature. The navigation system sucks and the interior trim is kind of ugly but otherwise I’m very happy with the car.
Reviving this thread because Toyota recently introduced the 2021 RAV4 Prime, which is a PHEV version of the RAV4. My brother’s car (that he has been driving for about 28 years) finally died last week so I suggested this to him. He doesn’t seem interested but I am. Its 42 mile electric only range is plenty for my daily commute and even most of my weekend driving, while the range in hybrid mode is in the hundreds of miles. Right now, you can get a $7,500 tax credit from the federal government which may make this cheaper than a conventional hybrid RAV4. (And, BTW, Car and Driver praised the car for its performance.)
But my current car is still running fine and there’s no practical reason to replace it. So I probably won’t get it; even with the federal credit, we’re talking upwards of $40-50,000 depending on trim level. (I just bought an expensive, fancy new HDTV and to be honest, I watch TV for a lot more hours of the day than I spend in the car.)
That sounds really good. I had a Volt for seven years with about 35 miles of electric range. I bought gas about 3 to 4 times per year, 8 or 9 gallons at a time.
Toyota does the plug in hybrid thing better than Chevy, in my opinion. I hated driving in gas mode in the Volt (you could really feel the gas engine kick in, and not in a good way), but with the Prius Prime it was good.
We’ve since gone all electric, but I would not hesitate to recommend the Prius Prime or the RAV4 Prime for anyone with “range anxiety.”