2025 Toyota Prius PHEV Review – Should you just get a Camry Hybrid?
Earlier this year, I drove the 2025 Toyota Prius and the Karashi mustard color, the beautiful yellow that Japan got before us. But I’m glad we finally have that mustard color. I enjoyed that Prius so much that it made it into a tier status on my best cars spreadsheet of 2025. This week, I’ve been reviewing the 2025 Prius, formerly known as Prime. This is the plug-in hybrid. It has the most horsepower. It has tons of EVO only range. This one’s equipped over $40,000. Is that too much for a Prius? Also, stay to the end because we’re going to look for deals on the standard Prius and this Prius plugin, as well as maybe other some Toyota hybrids that you may need to look at besides this model right here. And of course, we’ll grade it on the spreadsheet at the very end. And I couldn’t do this review today of this Prius plug-in hybrid without the help of Southeast Toyota, my local distributor, as well as my local dealer, Germaine Toyota of Naples. This is their car, and they’re letting me tell it how it is. Underneath the hood of the Prius plugin, this made in Japan hybrid, is a 2 L 4 cylinder naturally aspirated engine. It has on the standard Prius about 194 horsepower and optional all-wheel drive on the standard Prius. This setup is at least from my eyes nearly identical. Still 2 L naturally aspirated engine and it is capable of upper 40s miles per gallons. Unlike the standard Prius, this has 220 horsepower. So you get about 25 more horsepower compared to the standard Prius. However, all the power is only going to the front wheels. No all-wheel drive option in here. There is a 13.6 kWh battery. And in my testing this week, it got me just a hair short of 50 miles of fully electric, which is pretty darn good if you ask me. It’s rated at 44. I saw 50 with mild AC usage. Uh taking some kids here and there. If you have the base SE Prius plug-in hybrid, I wouldn’t be surprised if you can get about mid50s with a light foot in optimal conditions in terms of EV range. Also, the base model will give you better overall efficiency when you’re driving in normal hybrid mode. Mid to upper 40s, like I said, is what I’m seeing here. But on the base SE with the smaller 17-in wheels, I bet you can see over 50 m per gallon pretty easily with this heavier plug-in hybrid compared to the lighter uh standard hybrid with a much smaller battery pack. Underneath the hood here, uh some nice rubber lining in the back, a little bit of rubber lining in the front. It’s very compact in here. A little bit of a hood pad here, maybe to reduce some engine noise. We’ll talk about engine noise here once we start driving. very light aluminum hood. This thing is awesome. If we look at a standard Prius on the LE trim, for example, they don’t have these fancier daytime running lights at the bottom. The headlights up here aren’t quite as nice. But here on this Access Cy plugin, it looks pretty fantastic up front. However, for our market, they keep this stupid license plate holder here no matter what. In other markets, if you go to Japan, I believe this little plate is gone. Um, so if I own this vehicle, I’d put something cheeky here, like plug me in. I don’t know, some some ridiculous sticker I’d put on the front here, uh, to give it some character. At least it’ll show something. It just looks terrible here on the Prius. And it’s the same thing on on the non-plugin. I like the Toyota badge, how it’s kind of just inlaid into the front bumper here. This thing is so sleek, so aerodynamic looking. The A-pillars are so swept back. Um, and this was one of the first vehicles in Toyota’s lineup to bring in the hammerhead design, and it is absolutely breathtaking. Um, this is kind of maybe a little bit too bright. I know it’s bright, especially on this black paint here, but there’s probably a way to get this darkened out aftermarket, but that’s just a small complaint. Who would have thought we would see 19-in wheels on a Prius? Obviously, like I said, the SE is going to give you 17-in wheels with better efficiency. These tires are going to be hard to find, too. I mean, these are 195 width. They are 50 thickness. And my old Prius, let me show you guys. My old Prius back there has tiny wheels with 65 thickness. And I believe they’re 15-in wheels. It’s just crazy how far we’ve come with wheel sizes here on the Prius. And it’s not so much about efficiency anymore as it is about style. I mean, this is absolutely insane how the Prius looks. And there’s all sorts of cool uh Easter eggs around this vehicle. Right here, it says Prius. I’ll show a shamelessly take a picture so you know what I’m talking about. Also, hybrid reborn down here by the windshield wipers. This is little little nuggets everywhere that Toyota has baked into this vehicle. I do not have turn indicators on the mirror. That’s a bit of a miss. Um but who cares? I mean, this thing looks so sleek, so good. From the side, we have the door handles that are tucked into the back here. This hatchback design, no windshield wiper like you have on my old third gen, for example. Makes it look really sleek, but there are drawbacks to no rear windshield wipers. Let me turn off the rear lights so you can see one of the differentiators with this Prius compared to a standard hybrid Prius. A standard hybrid Prius uh has a red light bar in the back. This one, it’s whited out, but you can’t really tell it’s whited out when you turn on uh the lights, for example. It still looks amazing. Pretty futuristic. Tiny Toyota badge in here, kind of like how the Toyota crowns have that. Um, Prius lettering, which you can barely see because it’s a dark gray. Uh, you also have the backup camera here. Plug-in hybrid PHEV instead of the traditional HEV logo that they have in the back. I mean, the Prius from the rear ju looks just as good as it does from the front, maybe even better. I mean, this car is just such a looker. Big lift gate. I’m not going to hit my head on it. So, it’s taller than 6 feet. Um, we have another little hybrid reborn logo here. Uh, there is no spare tire, just to fix the flat kit. However, this is a big foam piece. Get an optional spare tire for this vehicle. This has a vehicle to load 1500 watts here of AC power, which is fantastic running your things. Um, there’s a box right here. was the box. Well, that’s the um level one and level two combo charger uh which is pretty nice. Little tano cover. And like any previous, you can fold down the rear seats in typical hatchback fashion. All right, but uh cargo space has gone down versus a previous generation and so has pretty much all the space. So, let’s get on the inside and talk about that. I like its dual shock here. Pretty nice. and that the top trim, the premium will have a lift gate that is electrified or or automated. Again, another one of those Easter eggs there. Now, the back seat is taking a little bit for my kids to get used to cuz there’s real no door handle here. All right, it is a button that unlocks the door and then you pull. You see booster seats back here. It’s My kids haven’t had any complaints though. All right. When they’re a little bit little littleer, maybe it would have been hard for them to open this door with a weird handle here, but not too bad. Cheap plastic in the back. Not what I’m looking for for such an expensive vehicle, to be honest. Soft back to the seats. Great leg room. This seat is set up for me. Great leg room and surprisingly good headline uh and headroom despite this being such an aggressively styled car. This has the glass roof option, so like a double sunroof. Um, it it can be had with a solar roof, but I’ve tested that in the past. And it’s kind of a cool party trick, but it’s not going to charge your traction battery worth a darn, even here in sunny Florida. I have two USBs down here, as well as an additional AC power outlet to get that 1500 watts. If I wanted to sit back here uh with a laptop or something would be pretty nice. But, you know, pretty cozy back here with these leatherrett seats. On the back here, this is where you’re going to charge your Prius. Um, level one and level two go right into here in this J1772 port. I just been charging my level one. It’ll charge fully uh the 13 kilowatt hour battery in about 9 hours on a level one. That’s just plug it into a normal socket in the wall. And that’s kind of the beauty of a plug-in hybrid. You don’t have to have crazy infrastructure put into your house. A level one is going to work most of the time compared to an EV. If you had a full battery electric like that Ioni 9 over there, you’re going to want to have a fast level two charging. A like a level one’s going to do the job here with this small 13 kWh battery. Inside of this Prius plug-in hybrid, you can see red accents. It’s a little bit sportier focus from the red accents on the seats with the red stitching. We have red stitching on this beautiful steering wheel. Red LED lighting. You cannot change this on the standard Prius. It is blue here on the plug-in hybrid since it’s more sporty. I guess it is a red accent. Um the physical climate control. What else say? Bravo. Heated seats. These seats are perforated. I do not have ventilated seats. I believe that’s on the XSSE premium as well as a 360 camera. You have a digital rearview mirror on that as well as like the the lift gate. The materials here, hard touch at the bottom, soft touch here, hard touch over here. materials up here. Yes, they’re softer, but they still don’t scream over $40,000 interior to me. I would say it’s passable in terms of materials for the interior. There’s lots of glossy black in the middle. All right. And I don’t know if you guys will see, let me wrangle this down. We have the traditional hybrid shifter from Toyota. All right. D mode. There’s a B mode uh which plays with three different levels of regen braking. Um, but you can’t use cruise control with that regen braking and it is not one pedal driving. So, in my driving, I just leave it in D mode. All right. I have auto brake hold here. It is not memory, so I have to turn it back on like any other Toyota. Every time I reset the car, here’s your auto EV HV button. Right now, it’s in EV mode, but if I press it again, it’ll let the car choose what mode it should be in. All right. And then there’s uh Yeah, that’s it. This is auto EV HV. If you run out of EV range, this button does nothing. Okay, so right now it’s just an EV mode. It’ll stay in EV mode even if I floor it. All right, there’s also HVE mode. Oh, it says it’s in hybrid mode right now. If I could take that off. Um, it’ll charge the battery, too, if I remember correctly. But since my battery is completely full, I don’t have that option here. All right, a wireless phone charger here. And we can probably angle this up real quick. Uh, you know, we have six USBCs in this car from the armrest to two up here. There’s hidden storage uh in here that says # hidden compartment. Um, you have this 12vt uh big option. This is not standard on the XSSE, this 12-in screen. It is an option. It’s not that expensive. But the volume knob is all the way across the car. Like I have to get out of my seat to get to that volume knob. It just makes no sense. The base screen that you spend less money on has a volume knob like right here. So, honestly, I’d probably give up this bigger screen to have a closer volume knob. That’s how picky I am with volume knobs. Oh, there’s a deer in my yard. Let me see if I can get it before he runs away. Kid, I mean, the kids saw that deer the other day and they were they’re just so excited. It’s cool to live out in the country now. I have the cold weather package, obviously, heated seats, heated steering wheel, and I also have windshield wiper deicer. Um, auto highbeams of course. Um, but like honestly th this it is a little cramped in here. It’s a little small. It feels a little bit more claustrophobic than my old Prius, but I still am comfortable in here and comfort or should I say a slight downgrade in comfort wouldn’t be a deal breakaker. Now, I’m 6’1. I haven’t hit my head getting into this vehicle, but if you’re much taller than that, I wouldn’t be surprised this really aggressive roof line might be an issue for you. All right, with that being said, I’m ready to start driving this uh a really cool Prius plug-in hybrid. We have a potato for a backup camera here. And like I said, I believe you can get the 360 camera, surround view camera um on the XSSE Premium, but that backup camera is a complete joke. It seems like it’s 15 years old. All right. Well, everything else about this car so f futuristic from the design uh and the powertrain’s really cool in here and then they just kind of have that terrible backup camera. This does have the newer updated software in here. So, I have finally an escape out of my Android Auto without flying through the touchcreen to find the escape. All right, check this out. This is what’s a little disappointing as well on my energy flow. Um, it doesn’t tell me anything about Oh, it says I’m in hybrid mode, which that’s okay. I can be in hybrid mode. I forgot I left that on with the HVEV button. But it never tells me the state of charge on my hybrid energy monitor, okay, of the battery. And without that, it’s a comp. Like, for example, if I go to fully electric here, the engine turns off. It doesn’t tell me what the state of or like how how full my battery is here. That’s just a small complaint. But as a result, I never find myself using this screen anymore. Okay. And up here, it doesn’t tell me either my battery charge. Uh, so it’s just frustrating. And but that’s just in the energy monitor. You see the small one here and the big one here. Now, there is a little B Whoops, I hit my blinker. There’s a little battery gauge right here. And the battery gauge has a green area to let me know roughly how much um EV battery I have left. Of course, it does say in the bottom right what percentage I have left of the the electric side of the battery. Below that is a tiny tiny little bar and it’s blue. And that blue bar indicates my traction battery once I’m in hybrid mode. Okay? And so that little blue bar does deplete over time um if I’m just sitting in carine and I’m running AC. Okay? So, that tells me my state of charge on my hybrid battery, but it’s it’s just so small and it doesn’t give me a lot of information. I wish um I had a percentage battery here like in Hyundai hybrids once I get into um my hybrid battery instead of, you know, the full-on EV battery, if that makes sense. I’m in EV mode, so we’re going to do a 0 to 60 and fully electric. Now to keep in mind as I’ve been driving this week uh this car mostly in I I would say 50/50 in EV mode. 50/50. Now again half the time in fully electric and I haven’t once once gone full pedal down in fully electric even with uh four kids in here using every seat. So that tells me it’s like okay well on on paper it might not have the most electric juice or horsepower. I would assume it’s probably around 120 horsepower. That’s just my guess of fully electric. Um, which is is more than enough. All right. Driving in town, electric is uh very smooth, as we’ll find out here in a little bit. And it’s plenty torquy and plenty powerful in my testing. All right. So, the drag meter is ready to go. We’re in fully electric. Pedal down. Yeah, that 0 to 25 is really good. We’re going to get there. We’re going to get there. It’s a 10.6 second 0 to 60. And that’s roughly how fast previous generation like the third and fourth generation Priuses were in um in hybrid mode when you use the gasoline engine. So about a 10 and 1 half second 0 to 60. And like I said, I haven’t once needed that much power um even with all the kids in the car. All right. this week. So like the 0 to 25 is really really good and then it kind of falls flat after that and we can put into sport mode. It’s not really going to matter. I don’t think I haven’t been in sport mode once this week. It’s not like it limits your throttle or or it enhances your throttle but it doesn’t limit your horsepower. All right, so we’re just going to go. Oh, a little wheel spin there. A little chirp. so much faster. 6.75, that wasn’t even that good of a run. It might be able to do faster. So, 6.75 0 to 60 um in in combined hybrid mode. And it’s noticeably faster, but it’s also noticeably louder. And so, I feel like that’s a good segue. Um this this powertrain is loud. Um, and I’m comparing it to um, another hybrid I’ve driven recently from Toyota, and that’s the amazing Camryle. The Camryle is about a $30,000 vehicle. It’s bigger than this. It gives me better fuel economy when in full hybrid. If you’re comp comparing hybrid to hybrid, um, and it’s it’s it’s a quieter, smoother, less loud, uh, better powertrain than what this Prius plug-in hybrid has. the the best aspects of this powertrain is um you know the the you pedal down and it goes like the responsiveness is fantastic. It does feel a hair faster than the the Camry, but it’s so much louder uh when the engine is on. And that’s a bit it’s a bit unfortunate because I think this Prius, what’s holding it back from maybe stepping in a little bit more of a a pre uh like a premium vehicle is that the engine just is buzzy and it’s loud. If they’ve had a way to make it as quiet as the Camry from the engine compartment, it would I would say it it could probably fetch the price tag that it has. All right, but that’s its glaring weakness is that the powertrain is is awfully loud um in hybrid mode. But I get it like if you’re driving mostly uh an electric, then you won’t have to deal with it. But if you’re driving mostly in electric, maybe you should just get an electric car. All right. So, while this is the like probably the coolest Prius with, you know, the vehicle to load the 50 I got 50 mi of electric range, like it’s very versatile, but no all-wheel drive is kind of a thing. This had all-wheel drive, man. All-wheel drive, let’s say 250 horsepower, then or more, then we’re really talking about something truly special here for the price. But again, the price, it’s just a little high for for the size of the vehicle and what this vehicle offers. Now, it’s unique. It’s hot, but the standard hybrid is just as hot as this car. So, you don’t need to get this um if you’re looking at the Prius in general. All right. All right. Powertrain aside, I typically focus a little too much on powertrain. All right. Good torque, good power in hybrid mode, just a bit buzzy, and in electric mode, it is very, very quiet. All right, but back to the rest of the car. I said the comfort’s good enough. It’s a little tight. Ride quality here. Despite having 19inch wheels, ride quality is I don’t know why, but it’s good. It shouldn’t be as good as it is. Um, the vehicle feels really solid. Um, I don’t have any creeks or rattles. Um, and ride quality, even over less than perfect road, is just surprisingly good for such an aggressively styled small vehicle. really impressed with that. It’s quiet. It’s acceptably quiet um once you’re cruising. Um not too much road noise surprisingly and not that much wind noise. All right. And it shouldn’t have that much wind noise as I take it out of uh sport mode and get back into normal mode. Um but uh yeah, like not that like I don’t have a lot of wind buffeting going on or anything like that. So overall, it’s a pretty quiet, comfortable vehicle. Like more so than I was expecting. And the handling, I would say, uh, does match the the looks. Is it quite as accurate or as sharp or as eager as something like a Civic? No, not even close. But I would say the driving dynamics are um satisfactory given the looks of the car. This is a bit surprising. There are only 91 Priuses pre Prius in my area and there are 97 plug-in hybrids. That is bizarre that there’s an equal amount. I think it it could be because the T like the Prius sells much faster and the plug-in hybrids maybe be are are starting to build up in inventory. I’m not quite sure, but that’s staggering to see this sort of equality and plug-in hybrid and Prius non-plugin hybrid availability. But let’s just start with the plug-in hybrid and check out the prices. Uh some price drops, a little bit of price swaps. Let’s see if we can see lowest price here. Again, this is going to be the SE 33K. This is a really good buy here if you can find one 33K. I know it has its issues. It doesn’t have the smart key access. But if you like this silver one has the smaller wheels, you’re going to get better efficiency and range. If you can get an SE Prius for the low30s, it’s a great great great buy. All right, that is surprising me. But let’s look at XSSE. How many how many uh well, we’re seeing some night shades. That that means there’s 26s coming around. Nightshade fixes the ugly front bumper being silver, but man, still over 40 grand. It would be I would just find an aftermarket solution for that bumper. All right. Uh there’s quite a few XSSE. This is the highest volume 38K. That’s not That’s pretty decent. That’s pretty decent. But again, these things can XSSE premiums often times are well over $40,000. XSSE premium is not a good buy. But let’s look at standard Prius, okay, instead of the plug-in hybrid. Where are the prices at? You know, 28K uh for the base LE. That’s about Well, we’re seeing actually uh some price drops here on the base Prius. 28K about 2 grand price drops. Uh 1 grand price drop. Okay. So, around 30K. Really good deal. Let’s look at some night shades because well, I’m a big fan of the night shade. Oh, does it not have the Karashi paint color anymore? If it doesn’t, that’s a big miss. But, um XLE is the most popular as well as the Ellie. Um I I like them in both trims. you know, at 32K, would I take an XLE normal Prius or would I spend two, three grand more and get the plug-in hybrid? That is tough. You might not ever see, you’re never I’ll say this, you’re never going to be able to make up the fuel savings going to a plugin. All right? Because a standard Prius is so efficient. So, it’s it’s not going to be worth it to some. All right? And if you need all-wheel drive, then that’s another discussion altogether because you can’t get it on the plug-in hybrid. But I love the versatility that the plug-in hybrid affords you as well as the extra power. And I do think it’s a a a rational upgrade for three grand more. Four grand more maybe, but three grand, I could see that over and I would take an LE Prime or plugin over an XLE. But here’s the thing. As we look at these Prius uh prices, there’s a Camry out there and look at these Camry prices. You can get a Camry for three grand less and it is better equipped in some ways than that Prius is. A Camry Ellie is definitely a better buy than a Prius. No doubt about it. It just doesn’t have that sex appeal. I don’t know why this has older model years popping up here because the 25s are here. Anyways, it doesn’t have that sex appeal, but it is a far more usable vehicle. It’s easier to put friends and family in it. It’s easier to put cargo in it in theory, right? It depends on what you’re using the Prius Lift Back for, but it’s just a much more usable vehicle, and it is more efficient than the Prius, uh, at least versus the ones with 19-in wheels, the Camry Ellie with the 17-in wheels. So, this is the problem of the Prius. The Camry is just so good, and it’s it’s a better vehicle for less money. And then you also have things like the RAV 4 which you can get for around 32 grand. And it’s a lot more has way more utility than the Prius. The Prius has style though that the other two more mass market vehicles in the Camry and the RAV 4 does not have. All right. Now, this is more of a direct competitor against the Prius. And this is the Civic Hybrid. And you can get into Sport Touring if you want with the lift back. This is also a really solid buy here. And you can get these for the low30s. Again, two grand discounts. There’s a ton. As we saw at the Prius availability in my area around 90. Look at the Civic hybrids. There’s over 600. So, you’re much more likely to be able to wheel and deal and and bargain down your local dealer. Look under I mean this is Priusle prices, right? And this is a more usable vehicle than the Prius. Doesn’t look as good. It handles better. It is quicker off the line, but not quite as efficient as a Prius. All right, so it’s also an excellent buy here. But would I take a Camry Ellie over this? Yeah, I I still would. All right, so let’s get to the spreadsheet. Where does a Prius plug-in hybrid uh stand here? It’s beautiful. It’s zippy. Great EV range, great miles per gallon. It is a bit on the pricey end and it’s, you know, if you can get it under MSRP or under $35,000 or or definitely under 40 once you’re over 40 like the model I I tested today with all the options on it. It’s not worth and it wasn’t an XSSE premium for example and mine didn’t have the JBL audio or the digital rearview mirror and it is still over 40K because of distributor and dealer add-ons. But there’s no all-wheel drive. It is tight on the inside and when you are in hybrid mode, it is loud. So, where is the Prius going to end up? All right. I I I still think it’s it’s a just like the standard Prius. Now, it’s going to be up to you to decide if it’s worth it over a standard Prius. I’m going to put it just under the Prius here. All right. There’s so many thing I guess I could put it as as hatch. There’s so many things I love about the the Prius plug-in hybrid, but again, it’s it is still a compromised experience. No all-wheel drive and the price. Those are the two biggest cons for me with this vehicle. And so, let me know in the comments. Would you be spending uh two, three, four, it’s typically three to four grand more for a plug-in hybrid Prius over the standard? All right. And that also comes with, hey, you’re still going to have to plug it in every day. Every single day. And that’s a little bit more nannying, too, in some ways. Now, I wouldn’t mind it. It wouldn’t bother me. I would never be spending money on gas with 50 mi of EV range. I could drop the kids off, plug it in uh while I’m working, then pick up the kids again. Um it it would be a really really good buy for me and my needs, but so is a standard Prius. Like, that thing is great. Um and it gets better miles per gallon overall than the the Prius um plug-in hybrid when you’re running in hybrid mode. So again, also you guys in the comments, let me know. Are you going to get just a Camry? It’s a better car. It’s not as sexy, though. Are you going to get a Civic? It’s more fun to drive. It’s a little bit quicker in some ways. Not as sexy, though. So the the Prius plug-in hybrid has that sex appeal. It has that flexibility, and it’s just a really, really, really good car. All right. And there’s nothing too majorly annoying about it uh in my week of driving. All right. So, I thought I was going to put it down here, but after seeing plug-in hybrid availability on the Prius skyrocket, um, and deals really improving as a result, under 35K, I think the Prius plugin is a really good deal. All right, I’ll see you in the comments. Thank you guys for watching. Stay tuned for more car reviews and special thanks again to Germaine Toyota of Naples as well as my distributor Southeast Toyota for helping me out and getting these cool press cars. Let me know what you would like to see next. I might take a break for a while because I have so many trips coming up. So, I might take a break a while until September, January, sorry, December, January time frame, but we’ll see how things pan out. I’ll catch you guys in the next one and have a great day. Peace.
#Toyota #Prius #phev
In this video I review Toyota’s famous Prius Prime…I mean PHEV. This Plug in #hybrid has many upsides and a few downsides that I will cover in this video.
The 2025 Prius Plug-in Hybrid will be available in three grades: SE, XSE and XSE Premium. With a 13.6 kWh lithium-ion battery, the SE grade has a manufacturer-estimated 44-mile all-electric driving range rating. While the XSE and XSE Premium have a manufacturer-estimated 40-mile all-electric driving range rating. When those long commutes are inevitable, the Prius Plug-in Hybrid puts Toyota’s fifth generation Toyota Hybrid System to work, combining a highly efficient 2.0-liter engine and electric motor generators for an efficient driving experience with a manufacturer-estimated of up to 52 MPG combined rating.
00:00 – 2025 Prius PHEV Intro
00:51 – PHEV Powertrain
03:00 – Exterior
06:16 – Cargo
07:13 – Backseat
08:19 – Charging
08:57 – Front Seat
12:29 – PHEV Prius Driving Impressions
20:54 – Cross Shopping Prius PHEV
27:05 – Ranking Prius PHEV
