The “gearlever” is a short stub beside the steering wheel with only three positions: Reverse, Neutral and Drive. The lever controls a continuously-variable transmission. A pull to the left and down engages Drive. With a tap on the “gas” pedal, we roll away from the parking lot. The only sound we hear is the faint crunch of gravel under the tires.

The gasoline engine fires up once we’ve rolled out of the driveway. It’s nearly as inaudible as the electric motor. The clearest indication of its operation is the orange animation on the vehicle monitor screen. Acceleration from standstill is satisfyingly brisk; you won’t lose many stoplight duels in this car. The dashboard indicator shows that the electric motor kicks in to provide greater acceleration. A 1.5 liter gasoline engine alone would not have the same grunt. Driving up to about 60 km/h, we see the fuel efficiency stay above 10 km/liter the whole time. The factory clocks 0-100 km/h in about 10 seconds.

That 180-cm video screen on the center console functions mainly as a drivetrain monitor. Observing the energy transfer from engine, motor, and batteries to the drive wheels and back, and keeping an eye on the fuel efficiency can provide as much entertainment as most video games. It also acts as a touch screen panel that controls different functions. Aircon and radio settings are adjusted with a push on the screen. It can also display the image from a back-up camera.

Speed and fuel are shown on a digital display strip tucked high up in the dashboard. Novel instrumentation aside, there’s little to differentiate the Prius from a modern, well-designed sedan. There are plenty of cubbyholes in the dashboard and center console, and the leather seats are comfortable. The steering wheel looks like it was mounted upside down, but the rim feels pleasant enough to grip. The steering effort is very light when parking but it remains stable at near-highway speeds. Its tight turning circle allows easy maneuvering and parking in tight spaces. These characteristics make the Prius an excellent city car.

When braking, the Prius’ motor acts as a generator to recharge the batteries. Gradual pressure on the brake pedal allows the regenerative-braking system to recapture most of the energy that in a conventional braking system would have been dissipated as heat.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency rates the Prius at 25.5 km/liter city, 21.7 km/liter highway (23.4 km/liter combined). The seemingly reversed city/highway rating confirms that the Prius is most efficient in stop-and-go city driving, when it makes the most of use of the electric motor alone.

So what’s so great about 25.5 km/liter? Subcompacts equipped with small diesels can provide similar fuel efficiency. A Philippine fuel company demonstrated that a gasoline-powered 1.3-liter hatchback can travel about 31 km/liter. The differences are these: the Prius has much more passenger and luggage space that those cars. Its interior space is only slightly less that of a Camry, which would probably get about a third of the mileage. Five people in a subcompact will be tight, but the Prius’ large interior allows all passengers to stretch out and relax. As for those record-breaking attempts with a single tank of fuel, those tests were run mostly on highways and at night, when traffic is light. A Prius produces its best mileage driving to the corner supermarket. In rush-hour traffic.

The Prius other main benefit is to the environment: it produces over 70 percent fewer smog-forming emissions than the average new vehicle. (It’s probably a billion times cleaner than a smoke-belching bus.) California rates it as a Super Ultra Low Emissions Vehicle.

One factor going against the Prius is initial cost. An unofficial estimate pegs the local price at about P2.2 million. That’s significantly higher than even the most lavishly-specified Camry. In the U.S., a well-equipped Prius retails for the equivalent of P1.16 million. That sum sounds reasonable, indeed, and that’s before government tax credits are figured in. With the credits, the price drops to P1 million. Toyota is lobbying for similar tax incentives for our market. In addition to a three-year vehicle warranty, the hybrid components are covered by an 8-year/160,000-km warranty.

The innovative engineering is only half of the Prius story. The other significant aspect of this car is its mainstream success. Critics contend that Toyota is losing money on each Prius it sells, but the company is undoubtedly taking the long view of the road. From a niche car, the Prius has, remarkably, become Toyota’s third best-selling vehicle in the USA, after the Camry and the Corolla. The first-generation Prius, introduced in 1997 sold about 12,000 units per year. The larger current-generation Prius debuted in 2004. By 2005, the Prius was selling 100,000 units per year. Toyota is considering building the Prius in the U.S., its primary market.

It’s best to think of the Prius as the ENIAC of the hyper-efficient, non-polluting automobile. Without that large room-sized computer and its hand-sized vacuum tubes, we would not be lugging around an iMac today. The long-term future is in electric power from a non-polluting power source, most likely a hydrogen fuel cell. Today, the Prius embodies some of the technologies that will be needed on fuel-cell cars, at a price that is not much higher than its conventional counterparts. That is amazing, considering that nearly everything about this car’s drivetrain is pushing the boundaries of technology. Someday, when your grandkids are off driving a motorized hairdryer, they’ll probably laugh at the idea of a Prius being futuristic. But their future began taking shape now, within the pyramid-like profile of the Prius. We hope this car will find its way to Toyota’s Philippine showrooms.

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