Toyota has announced its new Prius Prime just months after putting Prius on roads, and was up for a closer look at the New York Auto show.
The new car is a plug-in hybrid, with many new features such as a jazzy front-end with quad-LED headlights, and new taillight design, foglights and bumper design, with its back giving a new sporty look.
"Visually, it would be hard to distinguish [from Prius], but the transaxle has changed," Prius Prime chief engineer Koji Toyoshima told The Christian Science Monitor.
The Modern Readers reported that it has an 8.8 KWh battery, which is double the 4.4 KWh capacity sported by the Prius lithium-ion battery. And new Toyota model will take one-and-a-half hour to recharge with a 240-volt source and three hours with 120 volt plug in.
Its mileage of 120+MPGe is also being touted as the best among the hybrid cars, which will have higher miles per gallon efficiency than any other gas-electric cars in market.
The new car will have a driving range of 22 miles, with maximum speed of 84 mph achievable on pure electric mode. The earlier Prius version drove only about less than a mile without gasoline. An 11.3 gallon tank and a fully charged car battery will allow a total driving range of over 600 miles.
The interiors of the car are something to be surprised about. The futuristic-looking interiors have an 11.6 inch HD full-color and touchscreen display, which has satellite navigation with built-in maps of ChargePoint stations, and an infotainment system with cabin climate controls, radio on/off and similar add-ons. It comes with Prius Prime Apps for smartphones to remote-manage the car's charging schedule, control cabin temperature, tracking eco-drive score and compare with others on social media, among a host of other smart utilities.
Toyota will launch this car in market by selling the first 20,000 units of the new gas-electric car in US by late fall this year. But pricing for this chic-car has not been announced yet. The Prius model it will be replacing starts at around $25,000.
Part hybrid, part electric vehicle, #Toyota's newly unveiled #Prius Prime is a work of mechanical genius. #NYIAS pic.twitter.com/fqPRcyT9QX
"” Toyota Motor Corp. (@ToyotaMotorCorp) March 24, 2016
