First Spin: 2023 Toyota Prius | The Daily Drive | Consumer Guide® The Daily Drive

It was once bizarre. After I rounded the nook, a man strolling down the road stopped abruptly, whipped out his telephone, and began appearing like a paparazzo, taking photos of my examine automotive adore it was once a perfect big name. Upload this incident to the to the collection of thumbs-up indicators my examine automotive scored, and also you’d suspect I used to be using one thing uncommon and unique.  However I wasn’t.  I used to be using a 2023 Toyota Prius…one thing decidedly un-exotic.

Sure, it’s all-new for the 2023 type 12 months. And, sure, it has a radically new svelte form. However it was once nonetheless a Prius. Simply is going to turn eco-chic can also be ultra-cool. However there’s greater than a brand new glance happening right here.

Past the clearly reimagined new design, probably the most vital adjustments to Toyota’s stalwart fuel-saver come beneath the hood. Changing a 1.8-liter 4-cylinder engine is a brand new 2.0-liter unit mated to a couple of electrical motors. The brand new arrange delivers a blended output of as much as 196 horsepower on all-wheel-drive fashions, and 194 horsepower on front-wheel-drive fashions. That’s a whopping 60-percent energy building up over the outgoing type, which delivered a blended 121 horsepower.

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Toyota had each the brand new and previous Prii (Prii, via the way in which, is the real, respectable, brand-approved plural of Prius) readily available for back-to-back checks, and as you may consider the ability improve is plain. The place the 2022 type would possibly have felt gradual and uninspired, the 2023 Prius was once clean and light-weight on its toes. The hybrid engine/motor interaction, which can also be balky, was once usually seamless. From a town lady’s viewpoint, this new Toyota hybrid shall be potent sufficient for freeway merges and passing maneuvers, however nonetheless subtle sufficient for clean city drives.

The wonderful thing about Prius hybrid gadget is that you just experience each energy and potency, partly as a result of each motor-generators are hired to price the lithium-ion battery right through braking and classes of sunshine engine call for. The Electronically Managed Brake (ECB) gadget, as Toyota calls it, is helping to make the 2023 Prius the most-efficient iteration of the type so far.

About that potency: Toyota is touting the automobile’s 57-mpg EPA blended estimate, which is spectacular, however that’s for the bottom front-drive LE type on same old 17-inch wheels. Go for a mid-level XLE, or top-trim Restricted supplied with AWD, and your mileage drops to simply 49 mpg—which continues to be lovely spectacular. A couple of extra numbers: a base LE with AWD is, in keeping with the EPA, is excellent for 54 mpg, and front-drive variations of the XLE and Restricted 52 mpg.

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My test-drive alternatives didn’t permit for any actual fuel-economy reviews, however each car I sampled reported mileage within the 45-48 mpg vary. Particularly spectacular given the calls for of a media examine power.

Whilst the automobile’s new design, clean energy, and gas financial system galvanize, no longer everyone seems to be curious about the gauge cluster. Very similar to the setup in Toyota’s new all-electric bZ4X compact crossover, the cluster within the Prius seems on a slim triangular panel that juts up over the sprint in entrance of the driving force. The online impact is much less like viewing a standard device cluster, and extra like looking at a head-up show.

This labored neatly sufficient for me, however taller drivers complained that the steerage wheel height bisected the cluster, obscuring the tools. That is certainly a type of “check out it before you purchase it” eventualities, and a reminder of the worth of a radical examine power.

The remainder of the inner is solely designed with minimalist horizontal strains. You’ve got buttons in your local weather controls, and a quantity knob (hurray!), however radio tuning comes by the use of the touchscreen.

The brand new Prius infotainment gadget is very similar to the only we’ve noticed within the Toyota Tundra, GR Corolla, and bZ4X, and it contains wi-fi Apple CarPlay/Android Auto integration, in addition to a cast base of voice activates for navigation and different hands-free controls.

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Whilst I really like just about the whole thing in regards to the inner, there may be one large pass over, and that’s the to be had wi-fi charger. Toyota did a pleasant process with the design and site, however the issue is that it overheats your telephone (to the purpose of sluggishness, however no longer shut-down failure) in lower than half-hour.

Ahead of you shrug your shoulders and say, that’s simply what wi-fi chargers do, I’ll indicate that I’ve pushed a number of Normal Motors examine automobiles that put a fab pad beneath the wi-fi charger, and that during those automobiles my telephone no longer best fees quicker, but in addition remains cooler.

For 2023, Prius drops the bottom L Eco trim and dives proper into the LE. Pricing, together with vacation spot, and key options for every trim are as follows:

LE ($28,545): 17-inch permit wheels, 8-inch infotainment display, 6-way adjustable cloth entrance seats in black or grey, blind-spot tracking with rear cross-traffic alert.

XLE ($31,990): 19-inch alloy wheels, auto-dimming rearview reflect, motive force and front-passenger heated seats, heated steerage wheel, 8-way energy motive force’s seat, leatherette seating surfaces, rain-sensing wipers, passive access, wi-fi telephone charger, front-and-rear parking lend a hand with computerized braking. Choices come with: 12.3-inch infotainment display, fastened glass roof, virtual key.

Restricted ($35,560): 12.3-inch infotainment display, JBL top class audio with 8 audio system, fastened glass roof, motive force and front-passenger ventilated seats, 8-way energy motive force’s seat with reminiscence, virtual key, energy again door. Choices come with 360-degree track, virtual rearview reflect, heated rear seats, complicated park lend a hand.

All-wheel power is a $1,400 upload on height of those costs.

Base type to base type, the 2023 Prius is $2375 dearer that the ’22.  However, LE to LE, the brand new automotive is up simply $1165. For a fully new type with extra energy, a number of new era, and attractive (yep, I’m announcing it) excellent appears, the 2023 Prius is easily well worth the asking worth.

Regardless that Toyota published the next-gen 2023 Prius on the LA Auto Display, it received’t be to be had in sellers till June.

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2023 Toyota Prius Gallery

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Toyota Priuses Head-to-Head: High vs AWD-e

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