Toyota finally builds a hybrid for which, judged solely by its style, I wouldn't have to perform self-eunuchization in order to drive it.
Now if only divine intervention would see to it that every Prius-containing ship which set sail for America would take a nosedive into the Marianas Trench.
Although it uses a reasonably sized engine, featuring a 1.8-liter displacement, it only manages to put out 97 horsepower. This leads to a 0-100 km/h time of "around 10 seconds," which means that the car probably hits 100 in 10 to 10.5 seconds under lab conditions, and maybe a second slower in the real world.Given the number of non-hybrid cars that have lower emissions than 100g/km, this better beat that figure otherwise it'll be dead on arrival in Europe. And whats the point of a hybrid that can run in petrol only mode? Sure its unique, uniquely useless.
Still, the CO2 emissions level of under 100 grams per kilometer is very respectable. The electric motor runs on a nickel-metal hydride battery, and it runs for 1.25 miles unassisted, at speeds up to about 30 mph. Toyota did not release power figures for the motor. It also uses three, manually selectable driving modes, including ECO for maximum efficiency, Power for performance, and EV for very short all-electric sprints. Apparently, there is a fourth mode that is automatically selected by the car, but Toyota failed to mention what this mode is (Robocop's fourth directive, anyone?).
this looks great! it's going to be cheaper then prius and from the front, it looks really better then auris that is on the european market right now. this will be for sure the redesigned auris next year. can't wait to see the back and the interiour. great job toyota!
