Toyota Prius review – believe it or not, you can actually have fun in the latest Prius
The fifth-gen Toyota Prius looks smarter than before, and it’s miles better than its predecessors to drive – you could almost call it fun…
The latest Toyota Prius has taken us by surprise. While spending a week with it on everything from motorways to some of the most spectacular driving roads in the country, I actually had fun on more than one occasion, to the point where I couldn't help wondering what a hotted-up GR version would be like. This fifth-generation car is the first Prius that has some depth and satisfaction to be found in how it goes down a road, and doesn’t drain every ounce of enthusiasm from its driver. In the right spec, it even looks quite good. Where did that come from?
The internet went a bit mad for the current Prius when it first appeared in 2022. Its lower, sleeker low-drag design did very well to shake off the humdrum minicabbing image that has always surrounded it, but there was bad news – it would never come to the UK, said Toyota, citing customer preferences for taller SUV-type vehicles instead. As it turned out, we really did want a slice of the wedgier new Prius, and Toyota succumbed to demand to offer it here in 2023. Compared to its predecessor it’s been completely revamped from nose to tail, and remains hybrid-only to go up against the electrified Honda Civic and Volkswagen’s Golf eHybrid.
Central to the new Prius is a much more potent powertrain than before, with a bigger petrol engine and more advanced hybrid system. A new 2-litre four-cylinder under the bonnet generates 150bhp and is boosted by an electric motor for 220bhp in total, giving it around 100bhp more than the previous model. The battery pack is mounted below the rear seats, and despite a bump in capacity from 8.8 to 13.6kWh, it uses 30 per cent fewer cells and is more compact. It allows for 53 miles of electric-only running, and energy is fed back to the pack through a stronger regen system – around 80 per cent of deceleration can be achieved without the physical brakes.
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The power gains make the Prius hot hatch quick, ticking off 62mph in 6.8sec. That’s also helped by the fact it’s lighter than before at 1545kg. Its TNGA GA-C platform is partly responsible for the weight saving, using a lighter grade of steel to trim 24kg despite being more rigid. There’s a lower centre of gravity than the old Prius too, plus new suspension with MacPherson struts up front and trailing arm double wishbones at the rear, all in the aid of handling and dynamics – words that don’t usually come to mind when driving a Prius.
Things are a little different in this latest version, however. It’s a genuinely pleasant car to drive from the moment you get moving – not thrilling, obviously, but quietly competent and satisfying all the same. You notice the steering first, and how neatly you can place the nose with the small, thin-rimmed wheel. It feels delicate and gives a good sense of how the narrow Bridgestone eco tyres are loading up. On smooth roads there’s fluidity to the suspension too, the fixed-rate dampers allowing some vertical movement and absorbing long-wave bumps nicely. It doesn’t master trickier surfaces quite as well, lacking vertical control and feeling hollow as rough surfaces filter through, but by and large the Prius is cohesive and enjoyable to thread along. Surprisingly so.
The powertrain starts off in EV mode, and the silence in combination with the fluid dynamics is quite compelling. When the engine does come to life it spoils the illusion slightly. It’s not the smoothest or quietest four-pot, feeling and sounding coarse under load. This isn’t helped by the E-CVT transmission, which holds the engine at constant high revs to squeeze the most from it under acceleration. It does feel brisk and the electric motor gives helpful low-end support, but the strained delivery means you’re never inclined to use the performance on offer.
In fairness, unless overtaking or powering down a slip road you’re unlikely to dip into the Prius’s power reserves, and it’s much happier when cruising gently, cleaving the air with its low-drag body and keeping a constant speed. You can carry momentum under light throttle loads at lower revs, and then it’s much more refined, save for some tyre noise. You get the best efficiency that way, too – across hundreds of miles on a varied mix of roads we saw an average of 65mpg. Very impressive when you consider we didn’t plug it in once, and made no attempt to conserve fuel in our testing.
Some of that driving even included hustling the Prius along some of our favourite mountain passes in North Wales, where it acquitted itself far better than you’d expect from a narrow-tyred eco car. It doesn’t exactly cling on with the tenacity of a hot hatch, but it’s wieldy and easy to read as it rolls onto its outside tyres and cuts cleanly through corners. The front end gives up grip first, but it doesn’t restrict you from carrying decent pace along a road. There’s genuine depth here, and the Prius is a far, far more accomplished car to drive than a Corolla, and even has the Golf licked in terms of dynamics.
Aside from the strangled engine, the only other real dampener is the cabin. There’s nothing especially wrong with it, but the futuristic appeal of the exterior isn’t carried through inside, and it’s a sea of black and grey plastic. Some more design flair would be nice, but the fundamentals are solid. You get a large central touchscreen with a relatively simple interface, a bank of physical climate controls and Toyota’s version of Peugeot’s i-Cockpit layout, with a small steering wheel set below a digital instrument pack. It’s much more successful than Peugeot’s solution, and it’s nice to have the dials at the base of the windscreen like a head-up display, just a quick glance away.
Was the fifth-gen Prius worth the wait, and all the attention it gathered when it first appeared? We think so. It’s miles more desirable and better to drive than any of its predecessors, without sacrificing any of the functional aspects of its brief. It’s a Prius you might actually want, rather than need, to buy.
Price and rivals
At £36,395 the Prius goes directly into battle with Volkswagen’s Golf eHybrid – a plug-in hatch that’s similarly practical with more electric range, but a little less performance than the Prius. Dynamically the Toyota has the edge, but the Golf counters with a jazzier, more tech-packed cabin in its latest Mk8.5 guise.
Also from Japan, Honda’s hybrid Civic is available for around four grand less than the Prius and is also accomplished to drive, and comes with a more appealing and higher quality cabin. Further upmarket there’s the Audi A3 TFSI e and Mercedes’ A250 e, but these cost £3k and £5k more than the Toyota, respectively.
