A new start for the Prius - Toyota launch in the UK as a plug-in hybrid 2024 Review

Great video Tish👍 This car will be perfect for those who can charge their car at home but for those who can’t, either the Corolla Hybrid as you say, or the Civic e:HEV or the new Peugeot 308 Hybrid will make much more sense. I love the Lamborghini-looking wedge shape design that Toyota were going for in this new Prius though!

So in 27 years hybrids have barely evolved. Given better is available for less elsewhere eg. Golf e-hybrid with ~80 miles range or Tesla Model 3, Nissan Ariya, Hyundai Kona, Kia Niro and EV3 they're going to have to discount it massively to sell any. Also, only 7kW charging when A-Class has had 22kW since 2020? Too many resources ploughed in to dead-end of hydrogen engines and fuel cells. Also, new wave of smaller, cheaper EV's will kill Yaris. Really starting to think this could be the end of Toyota with major re-structuring and down-sizing.

Like the look, but lack boot space being so much less than other PHEVs is really poor…

Great news its keeping below that £40k trigger. Boring car , great review.

That steering wheel looks soo old school. Doesnt match modern exterior

1997 was 27 yrs ago

Yellow taxi 🎉👍🏻

Every one talking about a rear wiper 🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️

A great car, in the same way many coupe-styled cars are great. A bit modest on interior headroom, and you don’t have to be six-five to notice this…just hit a speed bump at night where the paint’s worn off, and you know why head clearance is important. UK roads also make themselves known, regards low-profile tyres/wheels. I have an earlier generation (3) of the Prius and it has unusually been fitted with wheels from a ‘lesser’ specced model. IE instead of 17-inch ones, it has 15-inch. The actual width of the tyre is very little different, but the ride quality with 2 inches more sidewall, is much improved.

If you needed proof of why Road Tax should be linked to road repairs, it’s traffic density. The fact is, city and urban roads ought to be the best in the country, the money coming in per square metre must be quadruple the general rate in the shires. The situation I’ve found empirically, is this: where there is significant tourism of one sort or another (the Lake District’s popular areas, Cheshire maybe, then up in sparser areas of Scotland, and so on), these are usually a decent level of road surface upkeep.

Yorkshire, our area, is a crock. West Yorkshire is the worst crock - yet with 2 million people in an area about 40 x 40 miles, the road tax income ought to be phenomenal ! But of course, this does not translate in any way to the road network of the area, money from motorists is simply not ring-fenced like that. Thus, essentially, posh areas have decent roads, and less affluent areas have lousy roads. ! Somebody somewhere knows exactly what they’re doing. Our West Yorkshire roads are not only damaging and destroying our vehicles’ suspension, but also casually dangerous. Avoiding potholes has become an ingrained habit, aiming for the best line over the different types of speed control bump, is reflex.

Thus, regularly, oncoming drivers aim to be in the centre line of the road, where the speed humps are three bumps in parallel for example. As these low-profile tyre/wheel combos also jar your skeleton, it’s uncomfortable too, and possibly injurious to some.

Quite literally, these vehicles like this lovely Prius, are designed for civilised roads like Japan has, well-kept networks. Bringing this track-ready suspension setup (!) to West Yorkshire means arranging chiropractor appointments in advance ! Our roads in our area of the UK, are brutal. Drop links are now an annual replaced item - ie they are consumables…as are some bottom ball-joints/knuckle joints. It’s a standing joke. And the danger is real - one blind corner near us, has an awesome hole developing, either you slow to 10 mph, OR you go wide chancing no oncoming vehicles, and this is a regular increased risk on that road, caused simply by poor upkeep.

This can legitimately be said to be an inheritance from the previous government. Circling back to the car, it’s great but irrelevant. I need a vehicle suited to semi-off-road driving, this is simply fact. If I move to Ayrshire in Scotland, or the Highlands, or somewhere like that, I could freely choose such cars as this Prius. I literally wouldn’t dare, purely because of those wheels and tyres. Councils here are on their uppers. So this isn’t going to be a quick fix. You want to drive with any degree of pleasure? Get the heck out of urban parts of Yorkshire. Good vid, superb car from Toyota. Take care all.

Cute, big wheels, expensive tires, but $33-40K USA, weak 44mi range, Still uses gas, I don't get it

Toyota have done a great job on the styling and have carried it over to the new camry and next year will also apply it to the Corolla, can't wait

Thx - I enjoyed this review; as someone who vilified the Prius, this is a welcome change that's come on leaps and bounds.

The lack of a rear wiper is Toyota acknowledging that all of these will be bought by Uber drivers. None of whom bother to use their rearview mirror or glance over their shoulders!

27 years ago for Spice Up Your Life.

37 grand! 😂

I'd say it's an incredibly retrograde move to omit the rear screen wiper. Let's hope the Company rethink this.

There are air vents for the back but under the front seats on both sides. I Haven't seen even one reviewer which noticed it.

My uninformed view is that wipers are removed from rear windscreens buy manufacturers if the rear silhouette has a certain drag coefficient, like a Mercedes coupe I used to drive did not have rear wipers and it didn't need them. Rein used to just fall off the rear windscreen, but I have had them in all other cars weather here wind speed was a bit straighter.

I have a plug in Prius. They were introduced in about 2019. An excellent car.

Don't understand why new cars have large rims. What if you hit potholes or even rough parts of a road?

I have a Jaguar XK with a similar roof, and I don’t miss a rear wiper.

I don't agree with your point about the private market. TfL has a new rule where only plug-in hybrids can get a PCO license, and Toyota knows that most of its cars are bought by private hire drivers, so there's no point in launching a normal hybrid as taxi drivers won't be buying them. Hence, they only launched a plug-in hybrid.

Did you forget to mention the plug only charges at 3kW as opposed to the C-HR 7 kW

Lovely looking car on the outside, especilly in that colour, but the inside is a little under whelming. It has TOO much grey & black - it's everywhere!!!

Rear wash wipe is a must in the Uk...especially in our winters.

The question is does the UK marker car get the Solar power battery top-up function? I believe it can add 20 miles to the battery range if left for a week in hot sunny weather?

Rear wiper & Bigger boot space (such as Prius Plus) would be needed to join a shortlist for consideration.

Does it have a rear camera??

Wow that's amazing 😍🤩 Love From Nepal 🇳🇵🇳🇵🇳🇵🇳🇵🇳🇵🇳🇵🇳🇵🇳🇵🇳🇵🇳🇵🇳🇵🇳🇵🇳🇵🇳🇵🇳🇵🇳🇵

It pisses me off we don't get yellow in the US. I would have bought one already if it was available. Now what? I'm expected to buy a car and then spend thousands to paint it? F Toyota.

Very ugly, I prefer BYD seal.

Surveys show Toyota are very good at acting on customer feedback. If that's the case, please, please , please Toyota, add the self charging unit and a rear wiper for the UK.

Let me clarify why only plug-in hybrid in uk, because most prius sold in London are minicab driver. And TFL made the regulation that only Plug-in Hybrid and electric car can be licensed as a PCO car.

Therefore, toyota decided to bring only Plug-in hybrid in uk.

I'll probably get one. We had the 2 previous plug in variants in 2012 and 2018. Sadly only boring old black interiors, no lighter cooler option. I am an engineer so despise SUVs so this may just be the thing.

A rear wiper is essential if the airflow is detached, like SUV or estate car but our 2018 plug in Prius doesn't have one, has attached airflow so doesn't deposit rain or dirt like a SUV. I would prefer it but low drag is best for me.

I ordered a Prius Prime 11 months ago in Canada. Annoyed as hell that Toyota is now selling them in the UK because there are lots of us who already ordered one and are being told that there aren't any. I've been told that my late 2023 ordered may be fulfilled in 2025 now. If ever.

A good-looking vehicle for those who prefer a plug-in hybrid, it's certainly a strong proposition, perhaps the best on the market. The lack of a rear wiper isn't a problem, until you find yourself driving through slushy snow that is.

I'd rather a Tesla any day. Why doea anyone buy a hybrid when electric is better in every way.

look shit

Our first Toyota was a 2004 Prius. We drove it for 10 years until it looked like the big battery was on its way out. We traded it in for a new 2014 Prius. We drove that one for yet another 10 years. During that time the only costs we had were 2 sets of tires and regular maintenance. We had no mechanical issues whatsoever. In 2022 we got interested in plugin Prius, given that we had installed solar panels. It was not possible until 2024 to obtain one. Yes, we had to step up to a Prime. It was impossible to find one in Utah, given that the state is not a CARB state. In the fall of 2023, we tracked a 2024 Prius Prime XSE down “next door” in Colorado while it was still being built. At that time we were quoted a price. In January we purchased the Prius Prime for exactly the same price to the penny. We sold our 2014 for 40% of what we payed for it. The Prime was sort of expensive. But it was a plugin Prius. In addition (with our advancing age) it has many newer safety features that the 2014 lacked. Do we need all of the gadgets it has? No, but we are pleased with many of them. This may well be the last new vehicle we ever need to purchase. If we had to do it all again, would we do it? The answer is absolutely yes 👍. The basic drive train is a descendant of the one in our 2004. It has been a very dependable long lasting system. That’s why we had no concerns about the hybrid system.

Its dead on arrival lease wise as with all plug in hybrids.

For a realistic milage of 10k a year on 24 month contract and 1 month upfront its over £500 a month

You see places them stating oh its 290 a month...thats with a unrealistic 5k miles a year and over 3k upfront!

Too expensive and too limited. If they wanted to shift serious metal then self-charging model at no more than £30k would have done it.

Toyota must be crazy….think how many previous gen Prius are on the road as taxis etc …..seems like they just binned that market.

Let me think predict the following - as a plug-in version this model will be a disaster for Toyota in the UK.

Fantastic motor cars. Better than any German crap.. Look abroad, States, there's a reason whole most taxis are Toyota Hybrid cars. Bullet proof. Unlike p1ss weak European cars.

1997 wasn't 25 years ago...😆

I stopped at the "I'm an SUV girl" 🥱

Very nice video and lots of details ,this women is beautiful too