2016 Prius:
The Fourth Generation
The little car that could still can. And this time as a car
that not only gets great fuel economy, but which
has ride and handling that makes it more
than an econo-box (and its styling is
anything but boxy).
BY
GARY
S.
VASILASH
/
Editor-In-Chief
There probably isn't a single car in the world that has the
same ownership or identifcation with a category as the
Prius does.
Arguably, the word hybrid is as closely associated with
Prius as tissue is with Kleenex or Styrofoam is with a closed-cell
extruded polystyrene foam from Dow Chemical.
Sports car. . .?
Muscle car. . . ?
Sedan. . .?
Coupe. . .?
Crossover. . .?
In any of these cases there are numerous vehicles that could
be cited. But "hybrid car" pretty much goes straight to Prius,
and with good reason.
That is, the frst generation vehicle went on sale in Japan
in 1997. Remember that one of the fundamentals of a hybrid
powertrain is that it is really good in stop-and-go trafc (the
regenerative braking recharges the battery), but not as good
on highway rides. Trafc in Tokyo was congested in 1997, and
that hasn't changed.
That's one key reason behind the development of what has
become known as Toyota's "Hybrid Synergy Drive."
The Prius went on sale elsewhere in the world in 2000.
The frst-generation car had a somewhat poky design, so it
was probably a good thing that in 2003 the second generation
Prius was launched with the hatchback fowing roofine that
is now characteristic of the car. Or was characteristic of the
car, but more on that shortly.
Generation three came out in 2009, and while changed
inside and out, the interior design was changed far more
substantially, with the exterior still being unmistakably Prius.
Through July 2015 from the initial launch, Toyota sold
3,527,200 Prius models (not including the v and c variants)
globally.
The thing about the Prius has always been fuel economy.
The third generation car in the U.S. was to achieve EPA-esti-
18