MARK TAKAHASHI: The Toyota Prius has been the hybrid poster
child for almost two decades.
When it comes to fuel economy, it's
really hard to beat the Prius.
But it's front-wheel drive-only layout
posed challenges for shoppers in weather-prone areas.
That's all changed with this, the 2019 Toyota Prius.
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Compared to the 2018 Prius, the 2019 models,
including the all-wheel drive, perform and behave much
like its predecessor.
They're not particularly sporty, but they get the job done,
and that job is fuel economy.
When it goes on sale in January of 2019,
prices are going to start right around $27,000
for the all-wheel drive, which is only about $1,400
more than the front-wheel drive.
Another big difference between the all-wheel drive
and front-wheel drive Prius is going to be the battery packs.
They've switched from the lithium ion for the front wheel
drive to a nickel metal hydride battery
pack for the all-wheel drive.
That's because Toyota says the nickel metal hydride battery
pack does a lot better with cold climates.
When it comes to styling differences,
they've actually gone simple.
They took out some of the more complex and awkward shapes
that were in the front right under the headlights,
and they even shaved off the headlights
to give it more of a conventional wrap-around look.
The same holds true for the tail lights.
There are a lot more simpler and horizontal.
Overall, you still get all of the character
that you've come to expect from a Prius,
for better or for worse.
Like the exterior, of the interior of the 2019
Prius sees some minor changes here and there.
The most obvious is the white, glossy trim
that kind of adorned everything inside, that's gone.
They've replaced it with black.
And, personally, I think it looks a lot better.
They've also moved the seat heater switches
from buried deep down under here to right
here in from the cup holders.
Another addition.
They've added two USB ports right
behind for the rear seats.
Otherwise, a lot of it remains unchanged,
and that's a good thing.
The addition of the all-wheel drive motor and the battery
pack doesn't affect cargo space or rear passenger space at all.
All right, so when it comes to driving the new Prius all-wheel
drive, there's not a big difference
between this and the regular front-wheel drive.
To be honest, I don't feel a difference at all.
They say that the power output and efficiency
is pretty much dead on.
This gets two miles per gallon less, so 50 miles per gallon
combined, versus 52 for the regular Prius,
and 56 miles per gallon for their L Eco.
The added electric motors on the rear axle, those
come into play under initial acceleration from 0
to 6 miles an hour.
And that's really just to help out on slippery surfaces.
The motor will kick in from time to time,
up to 43 miles an hour, when needed
when slippage is detected.
Unfortunately, they didn't get around
to adding Apple CarPlay for the 2019 model.
They are saying it will come eventually.
If you ask me, it'll probably be in the next model year.
And that's too bad, because the Toyota Entune
system, in my opinion, is one of the worst infotainment systems
to use.
It's just overcomplicated, and it's
lacking a lot of features that are made up
by the features on your smartphone.
So to give an indication of how different
or how much better the all-wheel drive might be,
they've set up this wonderful little snowy course for us.
This is the front-wheel drive version.
And we'll see how much of a handful it really is.
Let's go plowing and see what happens.
Oh, yeah.
So it's not a lot of steering response.
It's really just-- oh, it's kind of just struggling
to get through.
And there's a lot of work you can
hear with the anti-locks kicking in there.
But it made it through just fine.
It didn't need a whole lot of steering correction.
So we'll see how the all-wheel drive performs in comparison.
All right, so there's one important difference,
which is initial traction.
The rear motors, they come into play from 0 to 6 miles an hour
just to get you going.
So we're going to go up this gentle little incline here
to get a real good indication of if it really works or not.
Here we go.
OK, so a little bit of crabbing here and there,
but it left the line just fine.
And that was pretty deep snow, actually.
And the front-wheel drive Prius actually won't even
make it up that hill.
So we are lined up onto the chicane course.
Here we go.
Going in about the same speed and same aggression.
Oh, it's tracking way better.
Wow.
Yeah, it's not bogging down at all.
It's just kind of kicking in.
We had maybe 25 miles an hour there,
and that was a marked improvement.
Good on you, Toyota.
The 2019 Prius maintains its advantage for fuel economy
and keeps all of its character that we've come to expect.
The addition of the all-wheel drive model?
Well, that's a significant step forward.
It really opens up the Prius to shoppers
who normally wouldn't consider it because they
lived in snowy areas.
After driving it on this course, I
can say it makes a difference.
It makes a big difference, especially when you're just
starting out from a dead stop.
For more information on the Prius,
as well as its competition, head on over to edmunds.com.
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