Toyota Prius test drive since 2009 hatchback

Guest from the future

Hybrid - the result of crossing genetically different individuals

Good afternoon, is this the editors driving? - The voice in the tube belonged to a young, obviously energetic person, - I would like to tell about my car, of course, if it is interesting to you. So we met Oleg, perhaps the only owner of the machine of the future in European Russia - Toyota -Prius with a hybrid power plant.
 
A few days after the telephone conversation, we already rushed along Kutuzovsky Prospekt on a silver-blue priest and listened to Oleg.
 
When he first learned about the existence of hybrids, he immediately wanted to ride. I love unusual cars! And the case soon introduced himself: actually I am a distiller, I specialize in the right-handed Japanese from Vladivostok. So I bought a priest. I will play enough and sell.
 
The car really resembles a large toy, although its appearance is quite ordinary, and the salon is, in principle, not outstanding. Unusual sensations arise, it is only worthwhile to let the motor.
 
Turn the key and ... in the cabin is still silence; We did not hear the usual sounds of a working starter and a revived engine. Everything is a little different here, ”Oleg smiled. He transferred the steering wheel to the transmission control selector to the drive position and drowned the accelerator pedal. The electric motor silently touched the prose and only when the speed exceeded 20 km/h, suddenly a gasoline engine woke up. Marvelous!
 
There is no transmission at the usual sense at all. The role of the box is played by the combination of the Elector Generator and the planetary transmission. But you can find out about this only by looking into the factory data, and the hybrid feels like cars with a wedge -repair variator: the motor collects compromise for the ecology, efficiency and thrust of 3,500 rpm, and acceleration continues to the accompaniment of the engine singing on the same note. If it is necessary to make a maneuver in reverse, then the shaft of the electric motor simply rotates in the opposite direction.
 
I remember that in the 80s the subject of dreams of the younger generation was portable computer games with simple graphics and a primitive plot. You remember them at the sight of a liquid crystal display in the middle of the front panel. At the start of the car, it is illuminated by the hospitable WelCome to Prius; You can display navigation information and control data to the screen for setting up an audio system, but it is much more interesting to watch a cartoon about the force power installation. Here, for example, we drop the gas and the scheme is transformed: the batteries have moved into charging mode. It is worth clicking on the pedal, like arrows imitating the flow of energy, rush from the battery to the electric motor and wheels.
 
Rolling to the traffic light, they did not notice how the priest stalled ... More precisely, it was turned off by electronics. Indeed, why burn gasoline during stops? Moreover, the climatic installation, feeding on batteries, continued to work as if nothing had happened.
 
... We managed to wind up more than a dozen kilometers in the capital, and the fuel level indicator on the TV screen did not move on the mark in half a tank! Still, the Prius spends, according to the company, only 3.5 liters of fuel per 100 km of path! Of course, a lot depends on the driving style. Oleg - a great lover with a breeze - admitted that in the city he burns about 4 liters of AI -95 gasoline. At the same time, the language does not dare to call Toyota slow: a 72-horsepower gasoline engine, with the support of 33 electric kilowatts (total capacity of 86 kW), accelerates the machine to 100 km/h in 14 seconds, and the maximum speed is limited by quite decent 160 km/h.
 
Of course, Toyota started work on the bonus not only for the sake of saving; Modern diesel engines consume not much more fuel, but at the same time much easier in design and cheaper in production. The main thing is environmental cleanliness: compared with the traditional gasoline car, the prose throws into the atmosphere 85% less than the unburned SNNM hydrocarbons and nitrogen oxides; He managed to reduce the content of CO2 carbon dioxide in the exhaust. However, these achievements, unfortunately, are still interested in few in Russia. The question is much more relevant for the owner, where and how to serve a hybrid!
 
The idea of \u200b\u200ba possible breakdown of such a complicated car design is better not to allow. And yet, if the Prius has broken? What model is your Toyota? - The manager of one of the technical centers of Toyota in Moscow, apparently, for the first time heard the name Prius. If your car has a left -handed analogue, we will repair. And so we can make diagnostics, well, we will change the pads. That's just spare parts in any case will have to be ordered.
 
Many pluses of the hybrid will most likely not be so obvious during winter operation. Remember what latitudes Russia is located - for twenty frost, it is not uncommon for us. The batteries that have eaten half of the trunk volume do not like cold. In the frost, they will be discharged faster, therefore, the gasoline engine will no longer be able to freely sheck during stops. Thinking about our snowdrifts is even scary - find the winter tires of the standard size 175/65R15!
 
And yet we love this unusual machine with all our hearts. She gave us the opportunity at least one eye, but to look at the automotive industry tomorrow. Let the guest from the future never become as massive as Corolla, he has already completed his task. I proved that the car safe for the environment may well be functional and quite affordable. So, there is nothing impossible for those who are passionate about the ideas of creating a car with a new philosophy.
 
P.S. The prose arrived in Vladivostok after three years of operation on the roads of the Land of the Rising Sun. Now he is in excellent technical condition and looks five with a plus. Today Oleg is selling his hybrid. The car of the future (release of 1998) can be purchased at the price of two new VAZ 2112 ...
Our certificate
The priest was the world's first serial car with a hybrid drive. Today in Japan, about 30,000 cars are produced annually, and the forecasts for 2005 are indicated by the tenfold growth of production. The promised reduction in the price should contribute to this: today the priest in Japan costs about $ 18,000. The magical date 2005 also sounds from the lips of representatives of competing companies. General Motors, Ford, Daimler-Coisler promise over the next three to four years to surprise the world with their serial hybrids. In the meantime, only Honda Insight, produced since last year, is seriously competing with the Prius.
 
Text / Mikhail Gzovsky
Photo / Anton Chuykin
 
 
 
 

Source: The magazine "Driving"