Besides being better looking to most eyes than its predecessor, Prius 2 is significantly bigger, too. At 4450mm long it has been stretched 135mm over the original car and the wheelbase is 150mm longer at 2700mm, but judicious use of weight-saving techniques and materials has kept weight down to 1300kg, up 50kg over the old car.
Underneath that squashed MPV silhouette, the Toyota uses essentially the same technology as before. Which means there’s a 76bhp four-cylinder petrol engine and a 67bhp electric motor and generator up front, plus a large battery under the rear floor. An epicyclic gearbox, working in a similar manner to a CVT (continuously variable transmission), chooses the most suitable operating mode for the conditions, so that from rest, the Prius moves away almost silently using electric power, switching seamlessly to petrol power once rolling, and then apportioning the correct amount of each power source’s product as needed. Under normal conditions this means the two power sources work together, but an EV button allows the Prius to travel for short distances at low speed on electric power alone.
There’s no need to worry about the batteries going flat, either: they recharge as you drive using the kinetic energy normally wasted when braking or lifting off the throttle in a conventional car.