Toyota Prius Turbo?
June 8, 2006 by Alborz Fallah
Ever since its launch in Japan in 1997, and international launch in 2001, the Toyota Prius has shown that a Hybrid vehicle is commercially viable. As of April 2006 Toyota has sold 504,700 Priuses around the globe. Although the shape is starting to look a little out dated, the Prius is still selling very strongly on the international and Australian markets. Nevertheless, Toyota has plans for the next generation Prius. One of the more interesting things I read recently was from Auto Express (a UK Motoring Magazine) who suggests that Toyota is going to bring out a Turbo Charged Prius!
I’ll give you a few seconds to let that sink in, because really, it’s big big news! Why? Well, one of the main reasons that has stopped the Prius from gaining massive support has always been its rather, slow nature (and the price). With the next generation of the Prius running Toyota’s Hybrid Synergy Drive II technology companied by the 1.8 Litre Turbo charged engine, one can only imagine the stir that the car will cause when it is officially released. Having a hybrid car that can do 4L/100km when driving conservatively while being able todo 0-100km/hr in ~5 seconds when needed, will pretty much sum up the sort of car that makes dreams come true. Can you imagine driving your SS commodore or XR8 falcon and getting beaten off the line by a Hybrid Prius? How embarrassing! Toyota continues to lead the rest of the world in viable Hybrid technology.
Print it: 
It all seems like Toyota has built a car that is better for the environment, but did you know that in it life span, from production, usage, and disposal, the Prius causes more harm to the environment than a H2 Hummer; that’s right, a H2 HUMMER. This is because making the high capacity batteries uses harmful chemicals and processes, not to mention the pollution caused when you have to dispose of the batteries. Yes, the Prius is a fuel efficient car, but by no means is it an environmentally friendly car.
No you are wrong, go find the article at this site about the study suggesting a Pruis was worse then a Hummer, the comments clear will provide you with some insight. They manipulated the stats through the period of time of the study, shorter interval so Prius at 100,000miles compared to 300,000miles for Hummer so the Pruis didnt have the time it needed for its fuel efficiency and emmissions to, on a per mile average over its life, have an impact. Something like a Hummer, from day one will have a huge impact in production then continue having a huge impact through fuel and emmissions, a Prius does have a huge impact in production due to mining but then due to better efficiency and low emmissions, its negative impact on environment increases at a slower rate to something like a Hummer. So, the length of time is clearly a key issue here, oringally I thought it may be reasonable as Pruis’ may only last 100,000miles, but from further reading there are examples which go on well past that. Simply, that study was poor… I even read somehwere that one of the creaters said it had major downfalls due to the length chosen. It was more for a dramatic effect rather then something that can be relied upon with a great deal of confidence.
Here is the quote:
“Spinella (President of CNW who conducted study) admitted that, If you can drive the Prius 200,000 miles, and do the same levels of costs and repairs, the cost per mile obviously comes down dramatically”
- http://www.hybridcars.com/envi.....costs.html
Where are these ridiculous articles sourced? A turbo charge Prius? DO you idiots have any idea how a car actualy works? A turbocharger is driven by the exhaust, and guess what, there isn’t any exhaust when the car is running on its batteries. A supercharger would be a more viable option, but then I would bet the moron who wrote this fiction doesn’t understand the difference.
Lol anonymous. I am curious how you thought that a turbocharger wouldn’t work when on batteries due to no exhaust – but somehow a supercharger would be viable despite that compressed air is of no benefit to an electric engine.
In any case the petrol engine kicks in the moment you floor it – so a turbocharger is a perfectly sensible improvement.
But they won’t be doing 0-100 in 5 seconds, or even close to. Not while the prius’s keep to the atkinson cycle – the turbocharger will help, but it’ll be very lucky if it gets to 100 in 8 seconds..