There was once a time when the mere mention of the Toyota Prius elicited laughter and prompted remarks like “A Prius? Seriously?” from people who didn’t know any better. Not any longer. The fifth-generation Prius is the best looking and most powerful the hybrid has been in its 23-year history, and after driving one around for over a week, I get why owners are so loyal to the Prius. I also understand why Toyota seems to be taking its sweet time getting in on fully electric cars. When your hybrids are this good, why rush into a market that isn’t fully ready yet?
Full Disclosure: Toyota lent me a 2024 Prius for a week to get around in. Aside from driving it over 400 miles round trip to and from SEMA in Las Vegas, I drove it though dust storms and ate way too much food inside of it. (Don’t worry, I didn’t leave a mess.)
The Prius received a shocking redesign for the 2023 model year. I’m not exaggerating when I say shocking, either. I attended the model’s debut in Los Angeles in late 2022, and there were audible gasps when the car was revealed. The fifth-gen Prius rides on Toyota’s TNGA-C platform that’s shared with other models like the Corolla and Lexus UX, and it’s two inches lower, an inch longer and an inch wider than the previous generation.
You can tell detailed care was taken with the Prius redesign by looking at the front fascia. Thin LED lights have upper ends that run into the front fenders, where they get intersected by a small, blade-like lip I’m assuming is for aerodynamics. A unique lower bumper design with integrated lights and a lower front grille complete the front fascia.
The front of the Prius looks great, but the rear is its best angle. A red led light bar runs the width of the trunk. Below that are small backup lights. No matter what color you choose, the majority of the rear window is black, which may or may not be a good thing depending on who you are. The lower bumper gets more black trim and small reflector lamps.
Viewing the Prius from the side really puts into perspective how swoopy this new model is. One of the most extreme parts of the Prius’ design is its windshield, which is raked at a wild supercar-like 21.6 degrees. To put that into perspective, Green Car Reports says that’s just half a degree off the Lexus LFA’s windshield angle.
The best part of all of this attention to design and detail is that it won’t break the bank. The Prius is available in three trim levels (LE, XLE, Limited) with the option of all-wheel drive on each one. I was sent a front-wheel-drive Prius XLE. Including $1,095 destination charge, the XLE starts at $32,190. The biggest options on my tester were the Supersonic Red paint for $425, the 12.3-inch infotainment touchscreen for $735, and the fixed glass roof for $1,000, which brought the total to a still-not-bad $35,532.
Another shocker with the Prius redesign was in the powertrain department. The Prius has never been known for speed or power, despite its owners somehow always speeding down the freeway, but Toyota finally gave us a Prius that could keep up with traffic. Toyota dropped in a 2.0-liter inline-4 and paired it with a new lithium-ion battery pack. The result is 194 horsepower, and you get two extra horses if you go with all-wheel drive. While that might not sound like a lot, it’s a big deal in the Prius given the previous generation had just 121 hp.
The new Prius is the quickest it’s ever been, too. You can now hit 60 mph in 7 seconds, or 7.2 seconds with all-wheel drive. That’s a huge improvement over the last generation. Independent testing shows the previous Prius could hit 60 mph in 10.8 seconds, which is pretty much “eventually.” This makes for a driving experience that can be surprisingly fun, in an unexpected, “Oh wow I can safely merge onto the freeway” kind of way.
Inside the Prius you’re greeted with a cabin that’s a nice place to spend time in. Gone is the old car’s vertically oriented touchscreen, center gauge cluster display that also showed things like climate control, and weird bottom-of-the-dash gear shifter. Now the Prius has a horizontally oriented 12.3-inch touchscreen (an eight-inch unit is standard), a digital gauge cluster in front of the driver, a more traditional shifter in the center console and actual physical controls for climate and seat heating.
One of the greatest parts of the interior is the wireless phone charger, which is likely the best wireless charger any automaker has ever designed. Situated right alongside the gearshifter, Toyota designers made a wireless phone charger that your phone drops into. It’s like putting a Pop-Tart into a toaster. Once in, your phone snaps in place. And it’s not always on; at the front of the slot on the leading edge is a small power button along with a green indicator light. Only if you press that button will the charger be on. When off, the slot is simply a great place to hold your phone.
Starting the Prius is easy enough. When you press the starter button on the dash, aside from the beeps and chimes of system checks, you’re greeted with silence as the car starts in EV mode. The engine only cranks on startup if you immediately use the heater or air conditioning. Toyota has been building hybrids for so long now that it has them basically perfected, and you hardly notice the transition between electric and gas operation. There’s no thump or clunkiness when the systems change, you just hear the engine start up. The extra power from the hybrid drive system gives it a bit of a pep when you get on the throttle for passing or stoplight races.
Something that threw me for a loop when driving the Prius was just how good its handling was. I’m pretty sure if it had the right wheel and tire combination and about 35 more horsepower, this thing would be an economical hot hatch. Luckily Toyota actually gives us that in the 220-hp Prius Prime plug-in hybrid, you’ll just have to put some aftermarket wheels on it.
Speaking of economical, gas mileage was stellar, of course. Driving to Las Vegas from Southern California I averaged slightly better than Toyota’s estimates at 54 mpg overall. Even with a bit of faster driving after stopping for some food and realizing I was on a time crunch, I still managed 41 mpg.
The Prius’ hybrid brilliance wasn’t enough to keep more than a few downsides from souring the experience a bit. The new design definitely makes the Prius a looker, but that fast roofline costs you in the interior headroom and rear visibility departments. Headroom front and rear is down just over an inch compared to the previous Prius, and it’s probably worse if you’re taller or you opt for the glass roof. Rear visibility is not great, and because of the C-pillars and rear window design, you only have a narrow view out the back. A live feed rear camera would work well here. Unfortunately you have to spend a bit more to get it as it’s only available on the top-of-the-line Prius Limited.
Shared with the bZ4X, the steering wheel design is one of the worst I’ve seen in any car. Its hub is weirdly shaped and the wheel itself is strangely small, even more so if you’re someone who has huge hands like me. The speedometer, while no longer located in the center of the dash, is now properly in front of the driver. However, it’s pushed away from the driver and still up near the windshield for reasons I’m not sure of.
The gear shifter also might take a learning curve for some despite being in a better location. Like in the old Prius, it’s electronic and not a normal in-line PRNDL setup. Park is its own separate button, reverse is to the left and up, neutral is to the left and requires a few seconds held in that position before it engages, and drive is to the left and down. B, Toyota’s position for lower gears, is just straight back.
The four-cylinder engine is not smooth or refined at all, either. Under full throttle or in Sport mode, it’s coarse and loud, and the CVT transmission just emphasizes the engine’s drone even more. There’s a button for the dedicated EV mode, but it’s largely pointless. The Prius already defaults to EV mode at low speeds, under certain conditions when cruising at highway speeds, or as I mentioned before, upon initial startup. Having a separate EV mode toggle makes no sense because the threshold for the mode is so low. As long as the battery has enough charge, you can engage EV mode, but hit 25 mph or give it too much throttle and the mode deactivates. Lastly, I don’t know if this is a Prius thing in general or something that was weirdly unique to my test car, but the B-pillar had a ton of static electricity. There was so much of it that the hairs on the upper part of my arm were constantly standing anytime I was behind the wheel of the car.
Even with those faults, this is the best Prius yet. You no longer have to be embarrassed or shy away from saying that you own one or drive one. I’d certainly buy one. Given that Toyota has sold nearly 30,000 of these things so far this year, thousands of other buyers seem to agree with me.
