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I borrowed (actually traded; swapping with my truck) a ~2016 Prius for a month and hated driving it. Merging is slow; I ended up flooring it and only reaching

I borrowed (actually traded; swapping with my truck) a ~2016 Prius for a month and hated driving it. Merging is slow; I ended up flooring it and only reaching ~50 mph by the end of the onramp. Bay area ramps are, however, very short. Try the SB 101 Rengstorff ramp in Mountain View, it's horrible. In fact, that very ramp is why I replaced my 2002 Saturn LW200 with a 2010 BMW 135i in 2012. The Prius also can't maintain speed up hills. I would engage cruise control and find myself dramatically slowing down on any uphill segment. By contrast none of my cars have this problem - the 2010 BMW 135i, the 2022 Chevrolet Bolt, and the 2000 Chevrolet Silverado all do just fine. Of the three, the Bolt is my favorite to drive. That is, of course, not an indictment of PHEVs in general, just the Prius in particular. It's under-powered for unremarkable basic driving. Hopefully the Prime and other models newer than what I drove are better.

mattlondon 5y ago
Sounds like the car you drove was defective. I have an auris which is mechanically identical to a Prius. I have not driven those exact roads but I have never struggled going up hills and it will hit 60mph from a standstill in just under 10s, so with a rolling start of say 20-30 getting onto the onramp you are at 60 or so in 6 or 7 seconds. If your onramps are so short that you can't drive for 6 or 7 seconds before merging, then I guess that is a different problem.
- zbrozek 5y ago
  Maybe, but I doubt it. It wasn't throwing any codes and I notice other Priuses also sagging by 5-8 mph on uphill sections of 280. Nowadays I habitually change lanes if I see a Prius in front of me just prior to an incline.
numpad0 5y ago
The official spec sheet says ZVW30 Prius has a 73kW(99PS) engine and a 60kW(82PS) motor, so combined it's a 130kW(180PS) system if it was possible to do so. 130kW is about as much as a Caterham Seven and slightly less than fast motorcycles. Take a Porsche 918 and it does 0-60 in 3.2 and goes around the ring in 7 minutes... with a 450kW(600hp) + 210kW(280hp) hybrid drivetrain. There is nothing in hybrid configuration that makes a car slow, if not faster, not just Tesla quickening but actually overall faster. It's definitely Prius product design problem that is creating an impression that hybrids are slow ugly cars.

mattlondon 5y ago

Sounds like the car you drove was defective. I have an auris which is mechanically identical to a Prius. I have not driven those exact roads but I have never struggled going up hills and it will hit 60mph from a standstill in just under 10s, so with a rolling start of say 20-30 getting onto the onramp you are at 60 or so in 6 or 7 seconds. If your onramps are so short that you can't drive for 6 or 7 seconds before merging, then I guess that is a different problem.

zbrozek 5y ago
Maybe, but I doubt it. It wasn't throwing any codes and I notice other Priuses also sagging by 5-8 mph on uphill sections of 280. Nowadays I habitually change lanes if I see a Prius in front of me just prior to an incline.

numpad0 5y ago

The official spec sheet says ZVW30 Prius has a 73kW(99PS) engine and a 60kW(82PS) motor, so combined it's a 130kW(180PS) system if it was possible to do so. 130kW is about as much as a Caterham Seven and slightly less than fast motorcycles. Take a Porsche 918 and it does 0-60 in 3.2 and goes around the ring in 7 minutes... with a 450kW(600hp) + 210kW(280hp) hybrid drivetrain. There is nothing in hybrid configuration that makes a car slow, if not faster, not just Tesla quickening but actually overall faster. It's definitely Prius product design problem that is creating an impression that hybrids are slow ugly cars.