In theory, the 2016 Prius with its basic Nickel battery pack is a crude, old-fashioned car dressed like a clown. But this real-world test will prove that Toyota is still the king of being green.
Many manufacturers, especially the German ones, will lead you to believe that plug-in hybrids are much more efficient than regular hybrids. But this test carried out by the Australians shows it's not always the case.
Around town, the electric energy stored by the Audi A3 e-tron and the BMW X5 plug-in means there's almost no need to burn fuel. But once you're on a motorway, the battery becomes a pointless dead weight.
We're going to let you watch the video and draw your own conclusion. Ours is very simple, though: because the Toyota Prius came very close to matching its official numbers, it's the winner.
Weight is always going to be the enemy of efficiency. That puts the 2.2-ton BMW X5 xDrive40e at a disadvantage. While its open-road fuel consumption is about twice that of the Prius, it does have one advantage: it can run in EV mode at nearly any speed, while the Toyota doesn't have the electric guts to do that. The tradeoff is that the combustion engine struggles with the weight of SUV.
It's worth noting that the Japanese automaker just revealed the Prius Prime, which will have extensive EV capabilities.
In the end, being green means making a few compromises. The simple Prius achieves similar fuel consumption levels to a 1.6-liter diesel engine, but with the added piece of mind of not giving people cancer. The 1.8-liter petrol motor has become remarkably efficient, and we didn't expect it to outclass Audi's 1.4 TFSI so badly. Then again, turbocharging was originally designed to be a power-increasing tool, not a fuel saving device.
Mihnea's favorite cars have already been built, the so-called modern classics from the '80s and '90s. He also loves local car culture from all over the world, so don't be surprised to see him getting excited about weird Japanese imports, low-rider VWs out of Germany, replicas from Russia or LS swaps down in Florida. Full profile
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