TOYOTA PRIUS

The Toyota Prius is the most well-known and best selling hybrid in the world. The Prius was first launched in Japan in 1997 and introduced to North America in 2000. Toyota has made a commitment to rolling out hybrid technologies across its product line including SUVs and minivans.

Toyota released an updated model of the Prius for the 2004 model year that has been very successful in the Canadian market. View a detailed presentation on the 2004 Toyota Prius (11MB).

The hybrid features of the Prius include idle stop, regenerative braking, electric drive assist, and engine-off drive. In addition, the Prius further improves its fuel efficiency by using advanced aerodynamics (14% less drag than a regular sedan) and low rolling resistance tires. The Prius contains many innovative technologies such as the Intelligent Parking Assist (not currently available in Canada) that allows the vehicle to parallel park itself.

Technology Description

Performance
The Hybrid Synergy Drive combines a 1.5 litre 4-cylinder engine that produces 76 horsepower with an electric motor that generates the equivalent of 67 horsepower. This is significantly more than the 2001 Prius that had a total of 70 horsepower. The Prius has shown an acceleration of 0-60 mph in 10.7 seconds which is considerably better than the 12.7 seconds needed by the 2001 Prius.

Toyota Prius Hybrid Synergy Drive. Source: Toyota

Fuel Consumption
The 2004 Prius was Natural Resources Canada most fuel-efficient midsize vehicle  for the 2004 model year. The new Prius hybrid synergy drive has improved the fuel efficiency of the Prius.

Under real world operating conditions the Energuide fuel performance numbers may be difficult to achieve especially given different driving styles in addition to the Canadian topography and weather. A detailed analysis was prepared of the largest known Prius fleet in Canada owned by the Government of British Columbia. It has 64 Prius’ in its fleet operating all year under different conditions and has accurate fuel and maintenance records for each vehicle. The average fuel performance for their fleet was 5.6 l/100km.

View the Fuel Performance of 80 Toyota Prius which have travelled more than 2.8 million kilometers.

Emissions Rating
CARB certified the Prius as an AT-PZEV category vehicle or "Advanced Technology-Partial Zero Emissions Vehicle". This means that the vehicle meets the SULEV exhaust standard, a zero fuel evaporative standard and has an extended emissions components warranty.

Tests of 126 Prius’ on the road in British Columbia indicate that all Prius tested in the last three years have passed their AirCare emissions test.

View the Test Data.

Warranty
The hybrid components of the Toyota Prius have an 8-year/160,000 km warranty while the non-hybrid components have a 3 year/ 60,000 km warranty.

North America's Highest Mileage Hybrid Taxis
Consumers often have concerns about new vehicle technologies, especially about features that may be costly to repair, such as a hybrid system. Canada’s highest mileage Prius, a 2001 model, has operated for over 410,000 kilometres with only a few maintenance repair issues. Jatinder Parhar, owner of a Empress Taxi in Victoria, British Columbia, operates this vehicle.

North America's first hybrid taxi was a 2001 Toyota Prius operated by Andrew Grant in Vancouver, British Columbia. Grant's 2001 Yellow Taxi Prius travelled over 332,000 km before it was replaced with a 2003 Prius.  Grant now operates a 2004 Prius Taxi.  View the 2001 and 2004 Yellow Taxi Prius’ detailed service and maintenance records.

View a video about the Yellow Taxi Prius. Windows Media Player (12 MB) QuickTime (25MB).

Availability
The Prius is available at all Toyota dealerships in Canada. However, due to high consumer demand and limited availability delivery delays from two to four months have been reported.