2020 Toyota Prius Prime - A fuel-sipping supercar

The Prime isn’t just Toyota’s best Prius—it’s the best hybrid car, period.

When it comes to fuel economy, the 2020 Toyota Prius Prime is a supercar. Despite Cliff Atiyeh’s heavy foot, he wasn’t able to completely drain the Prime’s fuel tank, covering more than 600 miles in the course of a week. The EPA rates the Prius Prime at 55 mpg city, 53 highway, 54 combined once its battery pack has been depleted. Add in that 8.8-kilowatt-hour battery, and the Prius Prime returns 133 MPGe.

That efficiency comes at the price of power, as the Prius Prime’s 1.8-liter 4-cylinder engine and electric motors pair for 121 horsepower. Charging the battery takes 6 hours with a 120-volt household outlet or two hours with a 240-volt system.

Toyota aimed to impress with its 11.6-inch portrait-oriented touchscreen. Unfortunately, the graphics feel old, the controls are overly simplistic, and the maps are both crude and fussy. Luckily, Apple CarPlay is offered, as are multiple USB ports.

Pricing for the Prius Prime starts at $27,750. Cliff’s Limited-trim test model stickered for $35,425, and CarGurus recommends the midgrade XLE for $29,650.

Presenter: Clifford Atiyeh
Cinematography: Venn Creative Media

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Hybrids and EVs

[awesomelife]

“Looks are not why you buy a Prius.” Couldn’t agree more.

[Tinrs]

Finally a common sense review. Seen other reviews on this car bitching about the design and the acceleration cause it's not that fast.. Hmm ok!. Like he said its for fuel savings.duh!

[hermanalarcon]

I've had my 2020 Prius Prime for 7, 280 miles (yes, in 75 days!) and my average is 101.4 miles per gallon!!! As far as I'm concerned, the best car on the market. No stress over charging like Tesla owners. I charge every night just to get the initial electric drive. The initial electric drive is giving me at least 32 miles on electric. You can charge using any outlet. This is the best care ever!!!

[alij]

“90 miles an hour never looked so illegal”. 😂😂😂

[Whomikejones]

One thing to note is also the reliability. When most toyota models are now built in US, these are still 100% assembled in Japan with 100% Japanese manufactured parts. So you can be sure these will be reliable. Those guys over there work like their whole family lineage depends on it

[PackFan-tvpj]

I'm on my 3rd Prius, and this time a 2020 Prime. In-town driving is all EV mode, and the readout shows 100.1 MPGe. I have not yet used gas in the city over 2 weeks. In hybrid mode, averaged 62+ mpg on the interstate over 800 miles. Amazing tech inside and out. I don't miss stopping at gas stations. Added a 240v outlet and power unit - I just plug in at home and then good to go.

[mrcet]

Short summary, based upon our 2017 Prius Prime Advanced:

For people with a “chill” mindset. Not fast, but completely adequate (0-60 times are ho-hum, but 0-30 times are actually pretty decent, especially in EV mode).

Above all else, the ‘Prime is *amazingly efficient* ! Efficient, not only as a hybrid, but it’s also the second-most-efficient EV on the US market. 60MPG at 60MPH (or lower) is not at all rare. Now, MPG does tail off pretty rapidly at 75MPH, to around 48MPG or so, due to wind resistance. But even then, 48MPG is around twice that of a typical crossover.

Very safe car! Safe, both in terms of crash-protection, and perhaps even more importantly, collision-avoidance. It drives very steadily, confidently and comfortably.

Super-reliable! Between Toyota’s legendary reliability and the fact that I’m barely using the engine (>95% EV in town), it should easily last 250K miles. If I’m going to spend $34, 000 on a car, then doing so once every 20 years, instead of once every 12 years, *that’s some serious economy* !

I’m OK with the big touchscreen. Its design isn’t worthy of an iPad, say, but it works, and the big map is helpful!

Get the top trim level. The HUD, blindspot monitor, rear cross-traffic warning, automatic windshield wipers, XM radio, and robopark are well worth a couple thousand more!

[shupinglan]

I have a Prius prime 2017. I love the looks of the car. I have a silver exterior and marble white interior. It looks like a little space craft and looks cool. It turns heads and It stands out in the parking lot.

[JoseGomez-hhku]

It doesn't makes sense to have a 200 mph car on a 40mph speed limit road.

[kellyfitzpatrick]

Also, they appear to be invisible to Officer Friendly.

[MrChevybaja]

I've used only 132.5 gallons of fuel in my 2013 Volt since new.

[mrcet]

Good review!

I’ve been driving our 2017 Prius Prime since... well, 2017, and it’s been a great ride — very frugal and very safe!

When it comes to the comparison between it and the Honda Clarity plug-in hybrid or the Chevy Volt (no longer being built), I perceive their underlying design goals to be a bit different:

The main goal of the Clarity and Volt is to drive on electric all the time except on long road trips, which is good.

In comparison, I interpret Toyota’s nominal use case for the Prius Prime to be to drive it like a regular Prius, “sipping” gas, buuuut, also allowing you to charge it overnight, thus making an already tiny, ~55MPG gas bill even smaller still — perhaps 1/3.

That being said though, having easy access to lots of level-2 chargers here in Austin TX, I *am* able to drive it almost entirely on electric, excluding road trips. Since my last road trip about a month ago, I’ve burned roughly a quart of gas!

That also has the huge benefit of putting very few miles on the engine. This car could easily last 300Kmiles!

The Prius Prime is, above all else, an *extremely efficient car*, both on gas and on electric. That, arguably, more fundamentally than the ideal plug-in hybrid. I’m getting a long-term average of 4.6 miles per KWh, which is among the highest EV efficiencies out there!

[brandonmckenzie]

Once you learn how to work Toyotas hybrid systems, you can destroy the EPA ratings. My 2019 XLE standard Prius I get 65MPG

[warrentrout]

At $23k the Corolla hybrid is hard to beat. You have to do almost all your driving short range for several hundred thousand miles to make the Prius Prime worth it.

[ildikobiro]

I owned a 2012 Prius C from new to 2020. I live in Canada where the winters are really cold. The car was sadly written off in an accident. I was able to get between 2.9L/100km (82mpg)and 4.8L/100km for the entire 8 years. And the 4.8 was on a bad day. And those numbers include highway trips of 700-1000km. The car was problem free for the entire 8yrs with only oil changes and 1 spark plug change. The car drove normally in city traffic and didnt seem slow at all. On the highway it does struggle a bit to get up to highway speed but cruises just fine. I wouldnt hesitate to recommend it to anyone. The next purchase will be the Prius Prime. With the increased EV range it should go very close to 117mpg or 2 l/100km. Pretty hard to beat that.

[dgbucko]

You can turn off the blinks on the clock. It took me 30 seconds to work it out.

[ElAnciano]

A VERY informative video. However, missed a couple of items.
1) The HSD in the Prime is slightly different in that it has a sprag clutch between the engine and MG1. This allows MG1 to assist MG2 in propelling the car in EV mode. This makes up for the extra weight of the Prime.

2) Toyota and most others tout the combined range of 640 miles. Well, if you are VERY brave and KNOW for certain you got a good fill at your last fuel stop. The actual range without sweating bullets is 500 miles. You still have ~140 miles of gas in the tank, but the DTE says 0 and all gauge segments are off. I was late to a luncheon in San Jose, so pressed on anyway. When I finally got gas the trip odo said 575 or so. My brain was fine driving an apparently empty tank. My stomach did not agree! I still had over 1 gallon left when I did get gas.

How many peeps are going to keep driving a car that says it is empty? 140-mile reserve tank is a bit over the top. I say either Toyota should get a better fuel gauge or quit touting the 640-mile range. BTW, the DTE doesn't track fuel consumed, but rather follows the terribly non-linear gauge (or fuel level sending unit, which is probably float-based like every car since they gave up sight glasses). During the last quarter of the tank, the gas gauge (and DTE) drop precipitously! It should be ODO + 1, DTE -1.

[vickvega]

Love the Prius looks good and last 500k miles if you take care of it.

[karanarora]

Idk why people make fun of this car.

It's the best car in the whole world.

[veronicathecow]

In 1989, a naturally aspirated diesel AX, using the 1360 cc all aluminium alloy TUD engine, managed a figure of 2.7 litres per 100 kilometres (100 mpg‑imp; 87 mpg‑US), totalling over 1, 000 miles (1, 609 km) from Dover to Barcelona. This was the longest ever distance travelled on 10 imp gal (45.5 L; 12.0 US gal) of fuel and earned it a place in the Guinness Book of Records as the most economical production car.