so some of you probably saw the sponsored social posts or better yet
tuned into to the awesome Periscope stream from the Prius Prime announcement
at the New York International Auto Show where I ran around opening up hoods and
honking horns and stealing the touch-up paint from the Prototype Prime you guys
know how I do which really raises an interesting
question why did Toyota want to partner with me again well thanks guys and we're
even doing it better this time not only do I have my very own fully fun Prius
Prime to unbox one of the first off the
production line but while in the interest of protecting Trade Secrets
they couldn't tell me absolutely everything I've also got a handful of
interesting answers to my questions about what really went into this
fascinating marriage of technology and automotive engineering hey guys where
the hell is lonus sorry am I up now has anyone seen lonus so uh oh let's go have a look
shall we so it starts on on the outside this
is what car people do right they admire the 15in lit aerodynamic covers over
your dope 15in Alloy rims this is so
hard you got your aggressively angled
headlights lines stuff and this is
really cool there's like a a robot man face styling to the back that what you
guys don't see it here look you got your your sunglasses right there you got your
like mustache and like nose
well we can agree to disagree that's fine but what pretty much everyone does
agree on is that Prius Prime features noticeably sportier styling than
previous Priuses why I mean in the past Toyota
was perfectly content to build Priuses that look like well Priuses so it turns
out the answer has to do with drag using
a combination of simulations run on their own supercomputers did you know
Toyota has supercomputers I sure didn't but apparently they kick
ass because only a single prototype needed to be built to test the airflow
separation suppression characteristics of the upper body and the airflow
rectifying effects of the enlarged underfloor covers in a wind tunnel to
achieve Prime's .25 drag coefficient only marginally higher than a 787
airliner and there are lots of other things that might seem like premium or
sporty or enthus I design choices that really come right back down to
efficiency a slick AF front grilled
design nope right there flap to control
engine Cooling and air resistance LED lights these are for cool
Factor right wrong LEDs are smaller
lighter and more power efficient than traditional lights Toyota safety sense P
features like their pre-collision system with pedestrian detection leane
departure alert with steering assist full speed range Dynamic radar cruise
control safety okay yes safety but also
efficiency I mean a car that doesn't go anymore it's not efficient
right carbon fiber reinforced polymer trunk track day right wrong weight
reduction and redistribution
efficiency let's get inside shall
we no one's going to move the car while I'm in here
right okay good so this is the point then where I think
I'm supposed to mention the best inclass 19.8 cubic feet of cargo
capacity I mean I'm Canadian what cubic foot anyway
besides I'm more interested in the how
so they upgraded the battery from 56 cells to 95 cells over the last
gen and to make room for it they moved it down and forward this has the obvious
benefit of getting the weight close to the center of the vehicle and then they
actually adjusted the suspension in the rear as well making it more vertical
let's move on in shall we 60/40
split ninja
mode you know it's always funny to me when we do projects like this because
there's like a committee on whether my clothes are going to clash with the
interior styling of the car like that's the concern but it
didn't get awkward right
ah okay so let's take a look around here
most of this is at least somewhat familiar we've got the chi wireless
charging we've got the color heads up display JBL green Edge speakers
proximity sensors parking assist uh
backup camera so it's an 11.6 in 1920x
1080 full HD display running an undisclosed operating system that
handles all of the things that you would tradition do through the potato oh shoot
can we do that again take two Mark all
the functionality that you would normally get through the console nailed
it it's also running an undisclosed processor but I can speculate that it's
doing a heck of a lot more than just smoothing out the animations on screen
because there is a lot going on in here
scheduled charging the ability to use e mode normal hybrid mode or a third mode
that dynamically switches between them and their predictive efficient Drive
which sounds painfully marketing speaky
but actually does pretty much what it sounds like the car will learn up to a
thousand stops and will Coach you on when to release the accelerator so the
regenerative brake can can kick in earlier and work its magic even the
climate control system was custom tailored for Prime in cold weather down
to -10° C which involved this fancy
battery heating element in order to keep things working properly so that means
it's a cold day you hop in you can run in EV mode immediately and furthermore
thanks to the heat pump paced HVAC system your range in cold conditions is
going to be improved over systems that power the heating element off of the
battery directly so it's that combined
with everything else we've looked at today that allows Prime to achieve its
EPA estimated 133
mpge your mileage may vary full disclaimers tax is not included
batteries not included other charges May apply well okay no batteries are included so I don't want to I don't want
to get in any trouble saying things that aren't true which I guess leads us
pretty much to the end of this thanks to Toyota for bringing us down here thanks
to you guys for watching if you want to learn more about Prius Prime you can
check out the link that we've got in the video description that's toyota.com Prius Prime and I think that
pretty much wraps it up like this video subscribe all that good stuff um make
sure that you like the video I think I said that see you guys next
time