2012 Toyota Prius PHV: One small step for hybrids... one giant leap for hybridkind.

Everyone remembers their first time. For a time, you anticipate it's arrival with an intoxicating blend of anxiety and enthrallment, yet after it's over you can't help but think "damn, that was quick." Sure, it's easy enough to figure out the mechanics of it getting everything all lined up and plugged in, but after years of consuming media of all sorts thoughtfully provided by the internet, magazines, and friends' stories, prepared isn't exactly how I'd define my virginal experience with an electric vehicle. What did you think I was talking about?

Meet PIP; the Plug-In Prius

It's not often that a press car arrives slathered, stem to stern, in vinyl graphics. Then again, the Prius PHV (Plug-in Hybrid Vehicle) isn't exactly a typical press car, it's a prototype of a car you can't buy. With just 150 Prius PHV's slated for North American consumption, and all of them earmarked for special fleet services, the Prius PHV is little more than a test bed for its real party piece: a 176 pound lithium-ion battery. 

To really understand the relevance and gravity of that last clause, you need to have a good grasp of just how impressive it is, and to do that you need a firm grasp on how we've gotten to this point. At the far end of the spectrum, you have the first large-scale rechargeable batteries: Lead-Acid. Yup, the same kind of battery that you'll find under the hood of nearly every car on the road. Incredibly nasty pieces of work that can kill both you and the environment in too many different ways, the earmark of the lead-acid battery is its ability to provide very high surge currents for short periods of time, with its downfall being its overall low energy density of just 0.1 megajoule per kilogram. This is precisely why a car battery can crank over a monstrous four-stroke engine, but struggles to keep the lights on for more than a few hours. The next step up from that would be Nickel-Cadmium. Short of lifespan and possessing an energy density that's only slightly better, NiCd batteries are similarly evil (cadmium being a lethal heavy metal) and incredible temperamental, suffering immensely in usage with the application of heat. After that, you arrive at the current Prius' battery technology: Nickel-Metal Hydride, or NiMH. They serve well in the world's best-selling hybrid due in large part to their low internal resistance, which in turn allows them to function well under large current draws. But, as good as they may be, they're nowhere near as good as their replacements: the lithium ion. Much more robust, and with an energy density that puts all others to shame, lithium ion batteries have served well within smaller devices like iPods and cell phones for some time, but their prohibitive cost has kept them out of the Prius' architecture for some time.  At least until now. 

Weighing in at a whopping 176 pounds, the lithium battery pack found within the Prius PHV provides the hybrid with a whopping 4.4 kilowatt hours' worth of juice, as opposed to the 80-pound NiMH's paltry 1.3 kWh. Having essentially the same effect as increasing the capacity of your fuel tank, the higher kilowatt hour rating of the Prius PHV's battery pack allows both extended battery range in electric vehicle mode, as well as greater assistance from the electric motor during acceleration and high-speed manoeuvring. Reportedly capable of traversing nearly 21 kilometres on electric power alone at speeds of up to 100 kilometres per hour, the lithium battery pack is also supposed to increase the engine cut-in threshold; allowing the driver to accelerate with a bit more verve before hearing the asthmatic 1.8L four-cylinder interject than in a standard Prius.

Does PIP Work?

Yes. 

Obviously.

But what's more important is how well the Prius PHV works. After plugging the supplied 110 volt charger into my garage, and sticking the opposing end into the car's fender-mounted charging port (a strange experience, I must say!), I was kind of surprised at how little the car responded... I mean, it does nothing to tell you that it's working. At least with a gas pump you have the numbers going round on the pump and the sound of dead dinosaurs galloping into your fuel tank to confirm that something's going on, but here, there's not so much as a friendly beep or blinking light. But, a few hours later (Toyota claims that you can reach a full charge in 2.5 to 3 hours), turning the car on did indeed show that the battery was fully charged. Motoring around the sleepy suburb of Tsawwassen that I call home, the Prius PHV managed to maintain a pretty healthy amount of pep without triggering the engine's intrusion, but turning onto Highway 99 and accelerating up to the speed limit of 90 kph definitely required the assistance of the 1.8 litre's 98 horsepower. As I continued along the highway at a steady and cruise-controlled 90 kilometres per hour, I was surprised to see the engine remain on until it came time to slow down for a light, but turning off onto an alternate road with a 60 kilometre per hour limit fulfilled my penchant for silent, electrically-powered running. However, even coddling the throttle pedal better than I would my own child, I was surprised to find the battery charge indicator hit rock bottom just 14 kilometres after I'd left my driveway. Having only covered five and a half kilometres of proper highway, I'd expected to see a bit more mileage out of the battery pack alone, but was satisfied with the reduction in engine effort required after it'd kicked into regular old hybrid mode, and ended up with an average of just 3.8 litres per 100 kilometres. 

Is that it?!

No. 

Again, obviously.

Although the battery pack does weigh almost twice as much as the previous car, and requires the installation of an entirely new charging system, the Prius PHV weighs just 123 pounds more than the standard Prius hatchback. To offset the increased battery and charging system weight, Toyota replaced the spare tire with a sealant kit, and used a reinforced honeycomb structure to create a lighter, stronger trunk floor to support the battery pack itself. And although some may choose to interpret the rest of the car's pure Prius platform as an indicator of laziness of Toyota's part, I believe that the decision to test their next generation of hybrid technology in an existing package has instead freed up their engineers and designers to come up with something entirely new, that I suspect will break the mold for efficient vehicles down the road. Consider, for example, the potential uses for, and impact of, the massive and hugely expensive carbon fibre weaving machine purchased to make parts for Lexus' profitless halo car upon the next-generation Prius' design. And although an optimistic range of just 20 kilometres might not be all that impressive in and of itself, considering the implications of this battery and charging technology when paired with Toyota's newfound commitment to flyweight construction techniques makes the Prius' future look all the more rosy.

A Sign of Things to Come

Of course, with just 25 vehicles in Canada and 125 in America, it doesn't look promising for the Prius PHV's widespread adoption by the green masses. No, instead, you can expect to see many of technologies showcased within to start appearing on Toyota's future hybrid, and electric, vehicles. A technological tour de force that indicates a huge commitment of time, space, and money to the Prius family's future within the Toyota lineup, the Prius PHV is a deceptively interesting vehicle dressed in an absurdly boring wrapper... even if that wrapper is covered in flashy vinyl. But, if I might make just one comment, might I suggest selecting a name that doesn't sound quite so much like an sexually transmitted infection for the next one? Thanks, Toyota!