2026 Toyota Prius – Spacious Plug-In Hybrid! Drive POV
Good afternoon. I’m Randy at Kentful Toyota and today we’re going to talk about a 2026 Toyota Prius plugin. [Music] So, this 2026 Prius, this is actually the SE model. So, this is the entry- level vehicle. So, for 2026, as far as we know, as the time we’re taping this, there will be the SE, the XSSE, and the XSSE with the tech pack. They all have the same common drivetrain. So, again, it’s our 2 L uh naturally aspirated Toyota drivetrain played with a hybrid drive for the Prius. It’s been the same now for a few years. This particular model, being the SE, comes with a 17-in wheel package and actually stated to give you the best fuel economy of all the Priuses. Not a huge difference between the SE and the XSSE, but uh it works out to I’m gonna guess maybe three or four percent better fuel economy with this vehicle because uh smaller wheels, smaller tires, and a little lighter car. So, this is the plug-in variant. You can plug it in on a uh level one charger, which is not a level one charger at all. It’s really just literally a cord in your garage or on the side of your home. It comes pre-wired um with the cable. So, you literally plug it into the car, you plug it into the wall. Charge time on this vehicle on your 110 volt cable is approximately 12 to 14 hours depending on temperature and the state of the battery. But if you plan on an overnight charge, it will be 100% charge every time you go get in the car. And the intention is for you to charge it at home. If you do want to go to a level two charger, uh you can go uh swipe your card, put it in the system, and reality is it’ll cost you uh probably under a dollar to charge this car, and at a level two charger, you can do a full charge in approximately 15 minutes. So, it’s um pretty user friendly. Uh but the intention is for you to charge it at home. So, in the front of the vehicle, as with all of this generation of Prius, you do have frontal sonar for uh park assist. just helps you uh stay within the lines, make sure you’re not too close to anything. The nose of this vehicle is quite long and that is a nice feature to make sure you’re not getting too close to anything on the front. Uh come down the side. Um this is a 17in wheel package. I am not a fan of this wheel cover. I’ll tell you the truth. I would throw that away because the wheel under it looks pretty near well and to my eye looks better than the wheel cover. The reason that is on there is it is an aerodynamic advantage is that that wheel cover has less drag than the face of the wheel. Um, if I bought this car, I would take them off or I would go somewhere and change them into something else. I do like the 17-inch wheel because it’s cost effective, good fuel economy, good torque. I don’t like the wheel. It’s my opinion. Everybody’s got their own. So, come down the side. Color match mirror on this trim. The blind spot monitor on this is still on the mirror, but you do not get the uh signal light on the exterior of this one that you do get on the upper trims. Come back in, you still have the lock unlock available on the door handle, same as it is with the intelligent uh key on most of our Toyotas. Um back here, um we’ve already done this on a previous generation of Prius is you do have a hidden rear switch uh for the rear door. So, it looks more like a two-door car. Makes it nice and sporty. Um easy to open and close. And again, there is a mechanical switch here. So, the battery is dead. You can still mechanically shove your finger way down in there and unlock that car. It’s hard to do, but it does work. So, in this case, because the vehicle is black, you have the black wheel arch. All blends in. Really sleek look. I do like this trim level vehicle in black. And with the ugly black wheels, this is as good a fit as you’re going to get. So, let’s come around to the back and have a quick look at back here. So, here we are back at the uh rear of this vehicle. My first look around, I couldn’t see the sonar, but again, my eyes are not getting any younger. They are here. The sensors are here for uh for backup as well. There is a punch out here for a tow hook in case you do go off the road, they can pull you out without ripping something off your car. And it is conventionally a hatchback. So, um because this is a plug-in hybrid, again, fairly high floor height, not a lot of drop down in the in storage. Uh it does come with a charge cable, which is all this packaging is from. It comes with a repair kit as opposed to a spare tire. So, for the first three years, you have roadside assistance with this vehicle. But if you buy any extended warranty program from Toyota Canada, it will extend your roadside assistance so that if you do have an issue with a tire or anything else, um they’ll come and give you a hand when your tires are toast. So, um yeah, we’re going to go in do a quick look around on the inside of the vehicle and then we’re going to take it out for a road test and give you some real world opinion about the drivability of this car in in uh electric drive mode. So, uh, let’s have a look inside. So, here we are in the 2026, uh, base Prius plugin. So, for 2026, there is the plug-in version of the Prius available in Canada in three different trims. Obviously, this being the entry- level trim, and it is available currently um for the 2026, as far as we know, you should still be able to get the all-wheel drive nonplugin version of this Prius as well. Uh, so this as the entry- level vehicle, um, still has lots of features. I’ve got to say the um driver seat’s very comfortable. It’s a manual seat. No, no surprise there. Um still get automatic headlights. You get the heated uh park zone for your wipers for deicing for the winter. Still get a heated steering wheel. Um automatic headlights. All those all the safety features are the same in this vehicle as they would be in the upper trims. The the things that you miss in this trim level vehicle are uh some of the upgraded trim, the larger screen, uh the larger screen in front of the driver as far as the mid uh and you lose rear cross traffic alert with emergency stopping. So, this vehicle has rear cross traffic alert, but no emergency stopping. So, it’ll audibly warn you uh that there is something in your path in the rear, but it will not put the brakes on. It will preload the brakes. So the minute you start paying attention and touch the brakes, they will stop. But it will not um it will not offer that safety feature on its own. Um simple features in front. Again, very similar Toyota layout on the steering wheel to uh the RAV 4. This actually feels that I’m sitting here now feels more like the BZ and the BZ 4X are full electric platform. The display is the same. Steering wheel configuration is very similar. Uh so I don’t get cooled seat in this car, but the AC is on. We’re in electric mode or EV mode right now. So, we’re running on full electric. I do see two USBC ports in front of me down here um in the storage area. Nice ample storage area down here. There is an old school 12vt um receptacle as well. I’ I’d use the expression cigarette lighter, but that would be dating me. Um so, I won’t do that. We do get this slot here for your phone, but it does not have wireless charging in this trim level. It does in the XSSE and the XSSE tech. So, let’s uh let’s go on the road. We’re going to take it for a drive. Um we’re in EV mode right now. This vehicle is not charged quite as much as I’d like. Um people are involved and it didn’t didn’t work out the way I’d planned, but regardless, um this vehicle on a full charge in summer here in Canada, uh consumers are telling us they are running between 70 and 75 km depending on their driving habits. Um, and we’re finding that for most people that is about the right range. I think I’m putting the car on I am the cars and driving. I don’t know what I was doing, but it’s not my not my first time driving. It’s just my first time driving this car. So, we’re going to pop out here on the road. Um, I don’t you probably can’t hear it, but we’re making the typical Toyota EV noises right now. Um, all of our vehicles are Transport Canada compliant and they give audible warnings to people around us that let us know that we are um we’re electric uh so that people can hear your vehicle because there is no gas engine noise. Um yeah, to uh to warn people that we’re we’re on the move. So um again, full electric. I’m surprised how quickly and easily that accelerated. Um, we’re burning no gas as we speak right now. So, that’s interesting. Um, I wouldn’t have known that the gas engine wasn’t on if the car didn’t tell me because that pickup was uh more than adequate for the driving conditions where we are. Seating position’s good. Visibility is great. This this vehicle does have a very very large wind uh windshield. Um quite a long swept back nose on the on the glass here. So it uh it does have a huge dash in front of you. Um anyway, just an observation. Visibility is really good. Um oh, we’re just going to sneak through this light. So we’re going to go up on the 100 series highway and just see how the um acceleration is on this vehicle. Uh again on full electric. So let’s see how that goes. Okay. Can’t really get after it too much because there’s a car in front of me, but uh go up here a few meters. So, there we are. We’re already at 80 kilometers an hour. Just going up the on-ramp in EV mode. Can’t go any faster because of traffic conditions, but certainly no problem with getting up to highway speed in this vehicle um on EV mode alone. So, there we are. We’re at the speed limit. Just like that. That was painless. I will say I’m surprised there’s quite a bit of tire noise and it could be the actual tires on this vehicle. Um, but there is no engine running in the car. So, obviously the uh decibel level in here is pretty low, but it is more than I expected. But again, entry- level trim on a 17-in wheel. So, be interesting to do a comparison between this and the 19s just to see how noisy the uh the upper trim level vehicles are uh either just in general and especially in EV mode. We were at about a 20% charge when we got uh on the road with this vehicle. Uh we just accelerate up to highway speeds, which is all uphill for the first couple of kilometers in the position on the highway where we just got on. We’re down to about 14% because of that. Um I’m going to get back off the highway. We’re going to come back through a secondary road and um I’m actually going to put it in hybrid mode so that it uses both drivetrains and do a little hill climb with this and see what the power feels like when you’re actually asking for some power. So, we’ll just come to a stoplight here. will get uh reconfigured and I’ll figure out how to switch the drivetrain to where I want it to and then we’ll go again. So, I can see the indicator on the dash is telling me that a I’m coming to a stop sign and b my regenerative braking is doing exactly what it’s supposed to. So, I’m going to put it in uh regular EV mode. Oh, and somebody’s pulling out in front of me. Hopefully, they won’t. So, I’m going to step on it. And it feels like my drivetrain is gas and hybrid. And wow, that’s that’s impressive for a Prius. I uh my current daily driver when I’m not driving my Tundra is a 2014 Prius V. And um wow. I don’t think it has ever been able to respond like this thing does on the accelerator. Um that is really impressive. Um, yep. I am definitely driving on electric and that is surprising. Uh, the performance of this car is really way way better than I expected. Um, again, the reviews have all said from the the gurus who talk about cars, who are not me. I’ve worked with cars, not talk about cars, although I’m talking about cars. um that this is a new generation of Prius that you’re not sacrificing performance, comfort, or anything uh for fuel economy. Um and I would agree wholeheartedly is that the performance of this car is impressive. It’s comfortable on the road. This is a pretty rough secondary road. It’s handling the bumps as good as any Camry that I have driven. So that’s uh that’s impressive. What do you think there, co-pilot? How’s the ride back there on this rough road? Little jerky. Well, is that my driving or is that the road? Probably my driving. Oh, that’s fair. Okay, excellent. Backseat driver. Give him a camera and he becomes a comedian. That’s perfect. Okay, so if it if it’s not for the inconsistent speed, how is the ride as far as the quality of the road? Not bad. That’s not bad. Okay. Good. Good. Excellent. How’s the headroom? Could be better, honestly. Could be better. Yeah. It’s pretty snug. It’s more of a two-seater than a family car. Yeah, that’s fair. That’s fair. I guess as a as a commuter vehicle, this would be um mostly, you know, two people would be driving. This would be very comfortable. There’s a ton of leg room here. Again, I I’ve said this before. I’ve got a long torso and shorter legs. Um I can’t imagine with the headroom that I have in this vehicle, again, no sunroof in this configuration of Prius. Um you’d have to be way taller in the torso than I am to have a problem here. And we do have the ability to raise and lower the seat. Works well. Pretty rudimentary, but very effective. So, we’re going to go to another secondary road and do some uh do some more driving. I’ve got to say it’s very comfortable. Um I it it is uh I don’t say it’s noisy here. My expectations would be that the car would be quieter than this, but again, maybe that’s an unreasonable expectation. It’s not certainly I wouldn’t call it loud, but it’s more than I expected. Okay. interesting. We’re we’re consuming battery fairly quickly, but again, driving in hybrid mode, it’s still predominantly using electric until it exhausts that battery. So, that’s normal. Um, I spoke to a customer a couple of days ago. She’s driving a 2024, one of the first versions of this car that we delivered uh for that model year. She has uh solar array on her roof, does her charging at home on a level one charger, literally just on 110 volt uh cord that is provided with this vehicle. Um so she has no way to quantify what the electricity has cost her because it’s part of her infrastructure cost at her home. She did say that even with her day-to-day driving uh and she would probably average oh 350 km a week just in general driving around the valley floor as someone who’s semi-retired and um in almost a year and a half’s driving her car is telling her she has averaged 1.2 2 L per 100 km. Um to the point that she puts high-te car high test car, how about high test gasoline in the vehicle and she’s actually putting fuel stabilizer in because the tank of gas is lasting way longer than um you would want it to is that old gasoline does not age well. Um and it can be detrimental to the overall uh maintenance of your gasoline engine. So, she’s done a little reading on the online forums and for the couple of dollars that it costs her, she’s putting fuel stabilizer in her Prius, um, just so that she doesn’t have any long-term problems with it because her intentions are to drive this car for no less than 10 years and hopefully put a couple hundred,000 km on it. So, uh, interestingly enough, I’m gonna just try a I’ve got to say this thing accelerates way better than I expected. Oh, interesting. Because of the way I’m not really playing to the camera, but I’m aware of the camera. My car my car this car just warned me um that I was not looking at the road that I should probably change the angle of my head that so it’s telling me to sit up driver’s face not detected. So, there is a camera in front of me just at the head of the steering column, and it’s looking for my eyes. And if it sees that my eyes are not where it thinks I should be, um, part of it could be the way I’m sitting. But what it’s looking for as a safety feature is it’s looking for the fact that I’m texting while I’m driving, which I’m clearly not. Although talking to this camera while I drive is probably more detrimental than texting. I don’t know if that’s true or not, but it’s certainly not the without its uh without its problems. So, it’s interesting that most of the newer vehicles that we uh that we sell now do have these safety mechanisms built in to protect the consumer from their own stupidity. So, um, anyway, that is the nature of the business we’re in now, that we try and assume all liabilities for consumers because not everybody’s a good driver. Although, I will say that uh, the average conventional Prius driver has been a very conscientious driver who looks after their car and looks after the wheels of the road pretty diligently as well. So, uh, I’ve got to say I’m I’m really pleasantly surprised by this vehicle. The drive is nice. Handling is good. Um, I don’t find the um safety features too intrusive. It is warning me uh because there the the road that I’m on right now does not have a secondary line. It’s warning me when I’m close to the center line, but it’s not fighting me as I avoid some of the potholes that we absolutely do need to avoid on a lot of the roads in Atlantic Canada. So, uh yeah, it’s doing lots of things for us, but not I don’t wouldn’t find it intrusive by any stretch. Well, thanks for watching. Uh this has been our drive, learn and drive, look at, whatever you want to call it. This has been our video we’ve just done on a 2026 uh Toyota plug-in Prius. Hope you’ve enjoyed it. I’ve got to say I am pleasantly surprised with this car. Um that’s way better drive than I expected. It’s really helpful for us to get in the vehicle, take it on the road, have an opinion about how the vehicle performs, how it feels. Um I hope you find these interesting. Um that’s been my first test drive of this vehicle. I would recommend that you should test drive one, too. uh the Prius because of some of the politics going on in the US, uh we’re going to have more availability of the plug-in Prius over the foreseeable future. Uh built in Japan, quality second to none. Uh and I’ve got to say, good bang for your buck, good value on that car, great performance on that car, and and who doesn’t want to uh save on the fuel bill. So again, thanks for your time. I’m Randy at Kent Toyota. Like, subscribe, comment. Do what you’re going to do. Waste your time. Spend some more time with us. Come visit us at Campell Toyota. Thanks for watching.
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