15 COOL FACTS ABOUT THE 2016 TOYOTA PRIUS

 A Closer Look at the Eco Movement’s Automotive Poster Child

When someone mentions the Toyota Prius, most automotive enthusiasts frown at its focus on fuel efficiency and the sacrifices it makes everywhere else. No other car in the U.S. market defines commuter car like the Prius, and for that reason, it’s one of the most unenthusiastic vehicles available. However, this doesn’t mean it lacks noteworthy tech or surprising features. The fourth-generation 2016 Prius offers an extensive array of new features and key upgrades to make it more fuel efficient, more comfortable, and more technologically advanced.


Rides on a New Platform

The 2016 Prius is the first vehicle to ride on Toyota’s New Generation Architecture (TNGA). Featuring a highly rigid body, a lower center of gravity, and a fully independent suspension setup, the TNGA platform should ensure future Toyota vehicles are more comfortable and have a better ride and improved driving dynamics.

Unequal-Length Control Arm Rear Suspension

For 2016, the fourth-generation Prius ditches the torsion beam rear suspension of the third generation for an unequal-length control arm setup. This gives the fourth-generation model independent suspension all around, which should make it better to drive than its predecessor, as well as more comfortable and buttoned-down on the road.

 Touring Models Get a Unique Suspension Setup

When you opt for the Prius Three or Four trim levels, you can select the Touring version, which comes with a unique suspension setup that improves the car’s handling. Touring models come with 17-inch alloy wheels that are 1.5 pounds lighter than the ones found in the outgoing model and have tires that offer better grip for improved agility.

Extensively Revised Hybrid Powertrain

Although the 1.8-liter I-4, CVT, and two electric motors remain, the entire system has been revised for better efficiency. Improvements made to the 1.8-liter I-4 enable an increase in thermal efficiency of 2 percent to 40 percent, due to reduced friction of internal parts and rotation assemblies and improved combustion. Exhaust gas recirculation has also been added for better air-to-fuel ratio across the powerband. An exhaust heat recirculation system lets the engine coolant warm up quicker than before and allows it to stop more often when it isn’t needed.

 Lithium-Ion Battery

On all but the base Two trim level, the 2016 Prius gains a lithium-ion battery pack that is lighter and smaller to give the car more interior space. The batteries have also been moved from their previous location—underneath the cargo area—to below the second row, right next to the gas tank. The smaller battery size also allows the new rear suspension to fit.

Now Available In Super-Frugal Trim
The 2016 Toyota Prius comes in an Eco variant that should be the most efficient model of the range for those who want nothing but the best fuel economy. With the addition of a lithium-ion battery from the Two Eco trim and higher, the 2016 Prius is estimated to achieve 58/53 mpg city/highway in its most fuel-efficient form. It’s the lightest and most aerodynamic member of the lineup.

 EV, Eco, Power, and Normal Modes

The 2016 Prius offers four driving modes: Normal Eco, EV, and Power. Normal mode balances fuel economy and acceleration, and Power mode prioritizes acceleration over fuel economy. If you want to get the best fuel economy, put the car in Eco mode, so you can hypermile the car on your daily commute. Should you want to use the electric motor when you’re cruising around town, the EV option remains, but keep in mind that unlike a plug-in hybrid, the Prius’ EV range is extremely limited.

Expanded Eco Menu
Like nearly every vehicle marketed as environmentally friendly, the 2016 Prius comes with an Eco menu that tells you how efficiently you’ve been driving and gives you tips on how to get even better gas mileage. The Eco features in the new car take things to another level, giving you an Eco Score that grades you on your driving efficiency, an Eco Diary to record your driving history, an Eco Accelerator Guidance to help you be a better efficient driver, and an Eco Wallet that displays your gasoline costs and savings on each trip.

Heat-Insulating Windshield

To ease the load on the climate control system, the 2016 Prius comes with a heat-insulating windshield in the Eco trim to ensure that infrared ray transmission is reduced and the cabin is comfortable in hot weather. A positive temperature coefficient ceramic heater warms the cabin quickly without relying on the engine coolant to get up to temperature.

 Smart Flow Climate Control

The 2016 Prius’ air-conditioning system comes with a Smart Flow (S-Flow) mode that allows it to blow air specifically into areas where occupants are seated instead of blowing air all over the cabin. The new climate control system’s S-Flow mode also helps improve the 2016 Prius’ fuel economy.

Toyota Safety Sense-P

The 2016 Prius will be one of the first Toyota vehicles available with the Toyota Safety Sense-P suite of active safety features. In addition to the blind-spot warning system that’s standard on the Three and Four Touring trims, Toyota Safety Sense-P adds lane departure warning with steering assist, automatic high-beams, full-speed dynamic radar cruise control, and the pre-collision automatic braking system with pedestrian detection.



LED Lights


Proof that features that were exclusive to luxury cars are trickling down to nearly every vehicle segment, the 2016 Prius now comes with LED headlights, taillights, and indicators on all trim levels. At night those angular headlights and taillights make the newest Prius even more distinctive (and polarizing) than ever.

Intelligent Parking Assist with Intelligent Clearance Sonar

Your Prius can squeeze itself into a parking spot thanks to the available intelligent parking assist feature. Once only available in Japan, it uses ultrasonic wave sensors to let the car either park parallel or perpendicular. The system also enables the car to exit a parallel parking space via an automatic steering system. Additional intelligent clearance sonar provides visual and audible warnings when the car gets too close to an obstacle.





Fully Connected with the Entune App Suite

On the Three and higher trim levels, the 2016 Prius comes with the Entune app suite as part of the Entune infotainment system. This gives owners access to smartphone apps such as Destination Search, iHeartRadio, Pandora, OpenTable, Yelp, Facebook Places, Slacker Radio, and MovieTickets.com. The Entune app suite also gives you real-time information regarding fuel prices, stocks, traffic, and weather without a subscription.



Tells Pedestrians When You’re Close

Let’s face it. EVs and hybrids operate silently and can surprise pedestrians. To help, the 2016 Prius comes with a vehicle proximity notification system that alerts pedestrians and cyclists when you’re nearby. Using a small speaker, the car emits a warning tone that changes based on how fast the car is moving.

2016 TOYOTA TACOMA V-6

Toyota trucks have a reputation for toughness. They’re cheap to operate, reliable and rugged, favored by frat boys and ISIS alike. Part of the reason Toyota trucks are so cheap to operate is because new ones don’t come along all that often—aside from a few nips and tucks, the Tacoma of 2015 hasn’t changed much from its equivalent in 2005. That makes the 2016 Toyota Tacoma all the more important. The follow-up to the best-selling second-gen Taco, the 2016 Tacoma is the first Toyota pickup to face some competition in a decade, and based on Toyota’s previous habits, we’re going to be living with this one for a long time.

The new Tacoma will be different yet immediately familiar to its legion of loyal buyers. Under the 2016 Tacoma’s handsome new sheetmetal sits a standard 2.7-liter I-4 or an optional 3.5-liter V-6. Although the V-6 is a half-liter smaller than the old V-6, the new one sports more power and 1 less lb-ft of torque and is capable of running on the Atkinson cycle, helping to improve fuel economy. Already proven in the Lexus RX and GS, the engine makes 278 hp and 265 lb-ft of torque in the Taco. A six-speed manual is standard, and the old five-speed automatic has mercifully been put out to pasture, replaced with a six-speed auto unit.

 Toyota sent us two V-6-powered Tacomas to sample. Although mechanically identical, the two Double Cab Short Bed (5-foot) trucks couldn’t have felt more different. The Tacoma SR5 4×2 represented the value-oriented portion of the Tacoma lineup, and the desert-ready Tacoma TRD Off-Road 4×4 quite tastefully balances the look truck bros want with the off-road capabilities enthusiasts desire.

The lighter Tacoma SR5 proved to be the quicker of the two at the test track. It ran from 0 to 60 mph in 6.8 seconds and completed the quarter mile in 15.2 seconds at 91.6 mph. The Tacoma TRD wasn’t too far behind; it hits 60 mph from a standstill in 7.1 seconds and will run the quarter mile on tarmac in 15.4 seconds at 91.2 mph. In 60-0-mph braking tests, the TRD came out ahead, needing 125 feet to come to a stop versus 132 feet for the near-base SR5. Both trucks put up near identical figure-eight numbers. The Tacoma SR5 was the slower of the two, lapping the figure eight in 29.4 seconds at 0.57 g average to the Tacoma TRD Off-Road’s 28.9 second at 0.58 g average performance.

Out on the road, the new Tacoma drives much like the old one, especially when it comes to steering. The Tacoma’s steering rack is artificially heavy, as if Toyota’s trying to trick you into thinking you’re driving a much larger truck, and it has poor on-center feel. Associate editor Benson Kong agreed. “There’s a sense of playfulness from the steering wheel,” he said, “but the truck becomes such a chore to drive that you don’t want to play too long.” Transmission tuning, too, feels much more old than new. Although we universally appreciate the six-speed automatic’s quicker shifts and the extra cog versus the old five-speed, the Tacoma’s transmission was too eager to hunt for our liking, frequently shifting between fourth, fifth, and sixth gears during typical highway driving in traffic and up steep hills. “The engine is powerful, but the transmission seems to have wider gaps between ratios than I’d like,” testing director Kim Reynolds wrote in the logbook. “Sometimes it feels caught in a situation where it doesn’t have a good-feeling ratio.” Putting the transmission into ECT PWR mode didn’t seem to help things much, though a couple staffers noted more favorable programming while driving around with the transmission in Sport mode. The ride on both trucks was pretty good, generally speaking, though the logbooks are filled with complaints of excessive brake dive on the TRD model. Given the preproduction status of our test trucks, there’s a chance Toyota will fix that issue for production models.

	2016 Toyota Tacoma SR5 V6	2016 Toyota Tacoma Double Cab V6 TRD 4×4
BASE PRICE	$28,885	$33,000
PRICE AS TESTED	$31,160	$38,315
VEHICLE LAYOUT	Front-engine, RWD, 5-pass, 4-door truck	Front-engine, 4WD, 5-pass, 4-door truck
ENGINE	3.5L/278-hp/265-lb-ft DOHC 24-valve V-6	3.5L/278-hp/265-lb-ftAtkinson cycle DOHC 24-valve V-6
TRANSMISSION	6-speed automatic	6-speed automatic
CURB WEIGHT (F/R DIST)	4,178 lb (54/46%)	4,525 lb (56/44%)
WHEELBASE	127.4 in	127.4 in
LENGTH x WIDTH x HEIGHT	212.3 x 74.4 x 70.6 in	212.3 x 74.4 x 70.6 in
0-60 MPH	6.8 sec	7.1 sec
QUARTER MILE	15.2 sec @ 91.6 mph	15.4 sec @ 91.2 mph
BRAKING, 60-0 MPH	132 ft	125 ft
LATERAL ACCELERATION	0.71 g (avg)	0.71 g (avg)
MT FIGURE EIGHT	29.4 sec @ 0.57 g (avg)	28.9 sec @ 0.58 g (avg)
EPA CITY/HWY/COMB FUEL ECON	19/24/21 mpg	18/23/20 mpg
ENERGY CONS., CITY/HWY	177/140 kW-hrs/100 miles	187/147 kW-hrs/100 miles
CO2 EMISSIONS, COMB	0.93 lb/mile	0.97 lb/mile

2016 TOYOTA PRIUS FOUR TOURING

Of course I saw it in the left lane — the carpool lane on Interstate 405 near Toyota’s soon-to-be ex-headquarters in Torrance, California, to boot. I was crawling along in a 2016 Toyota Prius of the lineup-topping Four Touring flavor when a flash of levity entered the frame: a sticker on another car’s rear glass.

“‘Cool Prius!’–Nobody,” it read in all its pithy glory. The car the sticker was plastered on? A Prius Plug-In.

If self-deprecation comes standard with all new Priuses, it doesn’t seem to translate to the realm of public perception. Hybrid vehicles only make up a sliver of the market, but the Prius might as well be the hybrid. Everyone knows it. It’s a taxi fleet favorite. A Google driverless technology platform. A poster child for left-lane squatters. We’ve certainly respected the Prius’ fuel economy and technical advancements for more than 15 years (2001 was the first U.S. model), and these virtues vaulted the second-generation car to a 2004 Motor Trend Car of the Year win.

However, aside from miles-per-gallon tales and cents-per-mile costs, the Prius traditionally has given us little to get excited about. What’s that saying about familiarity and contempt? The power-split planetary gearset is neat (details on what’s improved on a microscopic level will undoubtedly be laid bare in an SAE paper tell-all) but it’s hard to make a case that all aspects of the driving experience are cool. Luckily for us, Toyota wanted to make the new fourth-gen much cooler all around.

Associate editor Christian Seabaugh attended the 2016 Prius press launch at one of the car’s new natural environments: an autocross course. “Prius autocross? Really?” Seabaugh said. “My skepticism was further enhanced by a quick refresher lap of the course in a 2015 Prius. It was everything I remembered: slow, heavy steering, poor body control, bad brake pedal feel. Not fun.”

 And this press event was put on by Toyota. But what did Seabaugh think of the 2016 car? “There’s a night and day difference dynamically between the new car and the last one,” he said. “The new chassis feels so much livelier than the old car’s. It can take the power — what little there is — and really put it down well. Steering is relatively precise, brake pedal feel is very good for a hybrid, and while flat-out acceleration will never be described as fast, it’s certainly good enough. Dare I say it: The new Prius really borders on fun.”

Those familiar with three generations of Priuses might be feeling a pang of the vapors. Testing director Kim Reynolds noticed the same change after putting down a blistering-for-a-Prius 27.8-second figure-eight time. It’s the first time a Prius has dipped into the 27-second range. “Much better,” Reynolds said. “Turns in almost too well, as it reacted more quickly than I expected. Basically a lot of understeer and not much feel. But the steering has more gain and quickness.” Toyota’s investment in the Toyota New Global Architecture with front strut and multilink rear suspension appears to have paid off. The ride is firmer and feels substantially more connected to the road. The TNGA chassis targets a low center of gravity, and you won’t miss it from the driver’s seat. I found myself tiptoeing up curbside lips in fear of scraping the front end, but the Prius never made any characteristic scuffing sounds.

There are all kinds of surprises inside. The floating center console with its handy, mostly hidden storage area underneath has been dismissed from duty, yet the new cabin doesn’t seem as open and roomy as in the last Prius. That’s partly due to the greenhouse size and shape. The 2016’s daylight opening is tighter and more raked, and outward visibility suffers in the over-the-shoulder-peekaboo department. (Passenger volume is in essence a wash at 93.1 cubic feet to last year’s 93.7.) The driving position and front and rear seats are supportive enough in our SofTex-trimmed confines and you can adjust the climate control to concentrate only on the front row. New color and design elements stand out and are pretty out there for the brand. There’s less dour light gray and more piano black and bathtub porcelain white (trims Three and higher feature the white). Some sharp edges (top of the center stack, front-most edge of the center console) dot the interior. But this is safety-focused Toyota, so the situation hasn’t gotten completely out of control. Because the front passenger seat heater switch is obfuscated from the driver’s view, Japan’s biggest automaker believed it necessary to put a clearly labeled status indicator for that side right next to the driver’s seat warmer switch. It’s no surprise the cruise control continues to be managed by a separate stalk, not by steering wheel buttons that could be unintentionally activated.

At 9.7 seconds to 60 mph and 17.4 seconds through the quarter mile at 77.6 mph, the gen-fours are about as quick as the gen-threes. The 2016 car has a lower hybrid system power rating — 121 hp to 2015’s 134 — but I didn’t detect a negative impact. The highlight of the new powertrain — the re-engineered 1.8-liter engine with 40-percent peak thermal efficiency and a new (yet familiar) planetary-type continuously variable automatic, 71-hp/120-lb-ft electric drive motor, and 0.7-kilowatt-hour lithium-ion battery that’s 6 percent smaller by size and 31 percent lighter by weight than the third-gen nickel-metal hydride piece — is how it substantiates itself in everyday driving conditions. The car stays in full-electric driving more often and more easily than the last model while employing normal gas pedal usage. And when the engine does need to turn on, it isn’t as noisy. The whole car is quieter than before, though road and tire noise is irrefutably present. The brakes exhibit some hybrid grabbiness deeper in the pedal stroke.

But there’s always the fuel economy payoff. An Eco-Diary instrument cluster display stores 32 days’ worth of onboard mpg readouts, letting us gaze into our test car’s semi-checkered past. It’s kind of like perusing the crowd-spurred fuelly.com, except without the user-submitted photos and city/highway driving split guesstimations, and the Eco-Diary entries aren’t segregated by fuel fill-ups. A scatter plot emerges. Motor Trend can account for 15 of the 31 data points; the remaining 16 days were sourced from before we took delivery and with no preceding knowledge of who was at the wheel, what the circumstances were, or how the car was driven. Only drives of meaningful distance are posted (records from 2.2 to 6.2 miles were omitted). The Eco-Diary includes at least three days’ worth of belligerent driving: one to procure handling and acceleration test numbers and two to entertain members of the media during Seabaugh’s autocross adventures.

REFORMED Only the base Toyota Prius Two retains a nickel-metal hydride battery. (This high-voltage component is 10 percent smaller and 2 percent lighter than the 2015 version.) All others convert to lithium-ion. A lithium-ion-fitted Two Eco lightweight special earns 58/53/56 EPA mpg.

2016 Toyota Prius
BASE PRICE	$25,035
PRICE AS TESTED	$30,835
VEHICLE LAYOUT	Front-engine, FWD, 5-pass, 4-door hatchback
ENGINE	1.8L/95-hp/105-lb-ft Atkinson-cycle DOHC 16-valve I-4 plus 71-hp/120-lb-ft electric motor; 121 hp comb
TRANSMISSION	Cont. variable auto
CURB WEIGHT (F/R DIST)	3,087 lb (61/39%)
WHEELBASE	106.3 in
LENGTH x WIDTH x HEIGHT	178.7 x 69.3 x 58.1 in
0-60 MPH	9.7 sec
QUARTER MILE	17.4 sec @ 77.6 mph
BRAKING, 60-0 MPH	115 ft
LATERAL ACCELERATION	0.82 g (avg)
MT FIGURE EIGHT	27.8 sec @ 0.61 g (avg)
EPA CITY/HWY/COMB FUEL ECON	54/50/52 mpg
ENERGY CONS, CITY/HWY	62/67 kW-hrs/100 miles
CO2 EMISSIONS, COMB	0.37 lb/mile

Toyota I-Road Ev City Car

Following November’s Tokyo Motor Show, which, by the way, seemed headed back to the prominent international status it once held—heck, the Europeans had some noteworthy unveilings after a couple shows of near nothing—Toyota bused a group of media out to Fuji Speedway to sample the full electric three-wheel i-Road city car. I know what you’re thinking: An electric trike thingy with a closed cockpit at a … racetrack? I had the same thought. They’re not actually going to have us lap this car, are they?

On a clear day, Mount Fuji overlooks the track like a regal king wearing a giant white fur coat, but on this morning the thick fall clouds left it completely concealed. Ready for a wake-up jolt of energy, I was eager to hit the track. Even if it was in a slow battery-powered vehicle, I needed to get my body moving and heart pounding. Alas, our first stop was not at the track but rather to an expansive meeting room with 100 tables and 500 chairs—the kind of space that resembles a college 101 class. And if you’ve been in a college 101 class, you know that in half of those lectures you, well, slept. Miraculously, I stayed awake (I thought for sure that the Japanese-to-English translation would do me in), my reward being real, actual time behind the wheel.

That wheel looks like a normal Toyota steering wheel, but the wheel—not wheels—it turns is absolutely abnormal. Rather than steer the two front wheels, like virtually every other car on the planet, the i-Road steers its single rear wheel. Moving and turning took plenty of acclimation, as the rear steering mimics the kind of oversteer usually reserved for high-speed maneuvers at the racetrack, not slow clips through a tiny cone course set up in a side parking lot. Further, the front wheels actively articulate up and down, resembling someone doing offset one-arm pushups, enabling the i-Road to lean up to 26 degrees in a turn and thus go 30-plus mph through a corner on three wheels.

Want to know what it’s like to pilot a “Star Wars” X-wing starfighter?

After my first stint, I went for another. And another. I still didn’t feel comfortable. But my adrenalin was flowing. Who knew 30 mph could do that? The odd feelings from the oversteer with the lean created sensations of flying. Want to know what it’s like to pilot a “Star Wars” X-wing starfighter? Take an i-Road for a spin.

 The i-Road is 92.3 inches long, 57.3 inches tall, and 34.3 inches wide, or slightly fatter than a scooter and a smidge slimmer than a large motorcycle. It weighs 660 pounds, and within its closed canopy are two seats arranged fore and aft, the rear seat suitable for a small child or shopping bags. It has a center-mounted display showing necessary vehicle info, left-mounted push-button transmission controls, and manually operated side windows. Toyota predicts users will be urban commuters, moms, young adults, and active seniors—the same people who bought the first-gen Scion xB.

Toyota is well into conducting sharing projects with the i-Road in Tokyo and Toyota City, Japan, and Grenoble, France, with more to follow in the future. The i-Road is designed for congested stop-and-go city life, not high-speed long-distance motoring on the open road, and it makes all the sense—and fun—in the real world.

Toyota I-Road Ev City Car