130 MPG?? How This Base 2026 Toyota Prius PHEV Embarrasses EVs. Review
This is the 2026 Toyota Prius plug-in hybrid, and for this year, it receives a new trim. And in this video, we’re going to talk about everything you need to know about the 2026 Toyota Prius, and also why you should get this over an EV. Let’s roll. [Music] Special thanks goes to our great friends at Thornhill Toyota. They’re a Toyota dealership located just north of Toronto. They’re kind enough to allow us to borrow the 2026 Toyota Prius. I’m actually a big fan of this car. When I drove the 25 model, new generation, I actually liked it quite a lot. If you want to know more about this dealership, all you have to do is look at the link in the description below. You can go and check out the car in person, if they have any, because these things sell like hot cakes at the moment. Toyota is going all in on hybrids. They want to make pretty much all their fleets hybrid or plug-in hybrid, and rightly so. We know electric vehicle sales have plummeted so much, especially in Canada. Therefore, this is kind of like the best decision for them. And I absolutely love the idea of a hybrid because you get the best of two worlds, especially a plug-in hybrid, which is one of my favorites because I get to use the HOV lane alone. You get green plates in Ontario. Therefore, you don’t have to worry about having a second passenger with you and you’ll just fly through the traffic and get home early. And in this case, we have a plug-in hybrid. But this trim is the base plug-in hybrid trim. And I’m going to show you everything you need to know. If you are interested in the base trim because at this point, if you can find a good 2026 Toyota Prius, well, you’re kind of lucky at this point because they’re becoming rare and everyone everyone wants one. Let’s begin first with the exterior. Let’s begin first with the front end. We’ve got the LED headlights in this case, the daylight running lights. You have the Prius badge on the side here. So people know this is a Toyota Prius. We have the silver painted front lip to make it look a bit more sporty, not dull. Just because it is a base model, it doesn’t mean that it’s going to look like crap. It’s got some character. I love the front end of this thing. Very sharp design. And what’s even more important is the fact that this thing has an amazing drag efficient, which is pretty much like what you see in a super car. And that’s why it’s able to achieve amazing fuel efficiency. Moving on to the side, the wheels. With this package, you get 17inch wheels. But for this year, there’s a nightshade version of the plug-in hybrid, and it offers 19in wheels. The ones that you see in here, these are with a hub cap, but they kind of look like a Tesla a little bit. And of course, it’s a plug-in hybrid, so they want to make the wheels a bit more, let’s just say, better for aerodynamics. So, therefore, we’ve got this design with the Prius badge on the side, which I find it quite nice add-on. but they look pretty good. It doesn’t look like a base base model that you see around. This is the key fob. It says Prius Prime because it is the plug-in hybrid. And we’ve got unlock and lock button. There’s also the horn hold. So, like if you want to find out about where the vehicle is, but that’s about it. This is what you get with the base model. Moving on to the side profile. Things remain very standard in here. Nothing too crazy with this package. You don’t get the option to lock the vehicle through the handle on the side like you would find like the easy access. This you can do it through the actual remote, but you get the standard door handle on the side here that you find in the new Prius. And there is a button in case if that powered option does not work. On the right side, we have the plug to charge it. It can take level one 120 volts and level two 240 volts like from at home if you have level two. And you can see it right in here. It also comes with the actual charging cable like every plug-in hybrid in case if you’re stuck somewhere and you just want to use a standard outlet, you can do so with level one. And a little detail, it says Prius when you open the door. What a nice touch. Moving on to the back side. This is kind of like a black edition because the SE badge is blacked out in this case. We have the Prius badge as well and the plug-in hybrid badge so that you know this is the plug-in hybrid, but most people will figure that out because you might have green plates if you are in Ontario. And then moving on to the top sides, a little detail, it says Prius here where we have the actual rear windshield. At the top, we have your standard brake lights. But something interesting about this is that underneath here where you have the handle to open the tailgate, it says door handle. So that you know this is where it’s located. There’s also a backup camera, but you press this button and now you get access to this massive trunk space. We have the privacy shade in here and more extra space underneath. We’ve got this foam that you see, like kind of like a hard foam. And you’re probably wondering why do they use foam? Well, they try to keep the vehicle as light as possible. And then if you come close onto this side, we’ve got a plug for 120 volts in case if you want to use it for your laptop or anything that supports that plug. The trunk is actually quite big for the size of this. It’s kind of like a hatchback style vehicle. Moving on to the interior. We’ll start first with the second row. First, you don’t get leather seats with this package. It’s just cloth interior, which it’s fine. You’re getting a very fuel efficient car. Like, you shouldn’t be complaining much about this. And we’ll get to the price because it’s even better. Next thing is that you do get two USBC ports located at the bottom. Plus, you get a plug of 120 volts. So you can use it for your laptop or anything like that. There is an armrest in the center with two cup holders. There’s no panoramic roof. There is no sunroof for this package. Again, this is the base base cheapest Toyota Prius you can buy. So it’s pretty good at this level. There is a light at the top over here so you can use it. You’ve got two um at the back and that’s about it. It’s pretty standard. No heated seats, none of that. Now let’s jump into the front because that’s where it gets a little bit more interesting. Okay, jumping on to the front. Here we go. Now, you don’t get the fancy stuff in here, but you still get quite a lot. And let’s start it up first. You’ve got a power start button, and because it is a hybrid, it goes into electric mode at this point. And here we are. There’s a little badge that says Prius to welcome you. There’s a small screen. This is the smallest screen they offer with this package because the base model, but you still get quite a lot. You’re welcome by the standard features. Uh, you can activate everything through your phone, so you can connect to it. Um, we don’t need this. We’ll set it up later. And here we go. And that’s your main menu. First, you got a backup camera. There’s no settings in it. That’s more than enough. Then you need the screen. It’s pretty easy to use. Uh, you can connect your phone, Apple CarPlay, and Apple Car. There we go. We’ve got wireless CarPlay. That’s all you need. Literally, that’s all you need. This is perfect. Connect it to your phone and you’ve got Apple CarPlay. There you go. I love this. This is perfect. This thing play. It’s all good. Just keep rolling it. Um because I can cut it, right? Um and going back into the main menu, you’ve got your climate control over here, front and back. There’s trip information. So you can keep track of how much you’re burning in terms of fuel efficiency. This is your energy when it’s charging. It will tell you. Uh this is your charging schedule. Um quite a lot of information even at the base level. Going back to the main menu, you can create your own profiles. Bluetooth devices for example. Uh let’s just delete mine. We don’t need it now. And here we go. And go back into the main menu. We’ve got your notifications. There’s built-in hotspots because it is connected. Again, great feature. If you don’t have enough internet on your phone or you ran out of data, you can make use of it. You can do your sound tuning. Uh you’ve got your voice and search, sound and media. In this case, Sirius exam, all the cool things. Here you go. Lights, door control. You can lock and unlock the doors by putting in like shift into park or from park. Custom drive modes. You’ve got your sport modes. There’s sports steering in this way in this mode and then there’s normal eco charge time uh climate unit. There you go. There’s quite a lot for base model. I expected less than that. Uh we go into connectivity. You’ve got your audio and there should be the Google maps or actually GPS standards maps in this case. And here you go. So, you have to actually activate this thing through your phone in order to get access to the maps, but most people are not going to use this, so doesn’t really matter. We’ve got the air vents over here. There is heated seats in the front for driver and passenger. There is the climate units, and you’ve got the standard screen that you can control the speed, fan, and so on. This is a single climate unit. It’s not a dual zone. Again, this is the base model. And then moving further down, we have one USBC port and another one to charge your phone, one to connect your phone. And then we’ve got some space here where you can slide your phone. Now, with the highest rim, that’s where the wireless charging pad would be. But there is extra space underneath once you remove this part and you can actually make use of it because there’s more extra space in case if you wanted to hide something that you didn’t want to carry it with you. You can slide it in here and then put this on top and that way it’s not visible especially now with a lot of breakins. Things like that actually are very important. We’ve got two cup holders on this side. We have the shift knob in the middle. Now to put into drive you go like that into park. to put in reverse. You go forward, you put into neutral and then you can also do by going into that driving mode and then you can put into park. You have the button here for the driving modes which gives you eco mode. Uh there’s also sport mode package. There’s custom and normal mode. Uh there’s the auto HEV which is for auto hybrids or you can do manual where it switches from EV to hybrids. There is a power handbrake in this case, brake hold with this package, which I’m still very impressed. And you got your traction control on the side. We’ve got a phone holder, so in case if you have a passenger, they can make use of this. There’s an armrest with cup holders. And there is two USBC ports in here. More USBC ports. So, you got four USBC ports in the front and two in the back. So, six in total. We have a screen in the front for the cluster and you can control it through the button onto your uh steering wheel. So it comes with a lot of information, your messages if something broken, your lane assist here. Uh you can turn them off from this side, the PDA which is offered with this package. Uh you can even change the infotainment in this case. Uh and then we go back into the main menu. Um, it’s a nice, easy to use screen compared to the other ones. And here we go. You can change all the settings. And we’ve got more settings on this side. We have tire pressure with this package. You have your energy motor that you can control from here. Uh, you have your audio in case if you want to turn it off. Going back up, we’ve got your compass, the adapted cruise control, so you can see, and you’ve got your energy mode, which is sort of like your average of what you’re burning in terms of fuel efficiency. You can keep track from here. The screen shows quite a lot of information. It’s easy, doesn’t bother too much. It’s not large, so it’s not like this new computers. It’s not like the new screens are massive, like 52 in in some cars. This is very, very easy to use. The next question is, how does it drive? How much you going to pay for it? And what’s the horsepower and fuel efficiency? Well, what’s going to find out next? Let’s go for a drive. [Music] This thing pulls. That’s because under the hood, it uses a 2 L 4 cylinder engine. Naturally, I sprayed it. With the electric motors, it makes 220 brake horsepower. Apparently, 0 to 60 in about 5.6 6 seconds, which is quite impressive. It is a light vehicle. And it is a plug-in hybrid, which means it does get a battery. It’s got electric motors. Then you get a plug to charge in the back. Level one takes about 11 hours to fully charge. Level two, that’s a C63 4 cylinder. That is the first time I have seen that car on the road in Toronto since it came out. Someone actually bought that four cylinder. That is the first time I have seen one on the road. Sorry, I got carried away, but that is the first time I’ve seen a C63, which is also plug-in hybrid, but it costs 150 grand for a four cylinder plug-in hybrid. Back to this car. This one uses a CVT or electronic ECBT technically electronic control continuous variable transmission. It is only front-wheel drive. There is a four-wheel drive or all-wheel drive version with a different trim, not the plug-in hybrid. Range with the electric motors, you get about between 63 to 71 kilometers uh on a full charge, of course. So, you can get up to 890 km in a full tank or 550 miles on a full tank. That is crazy impressive. What’s even more impressive is that you can drive it on full electric again full electric at a speed at about 130 km an hour or maybe about 79 mph which again it is crazy fully electric essentially drive. What I love the most about the car like this is you get the green plates which help quite a lot. It’s like I’ve taken uh like if you’re from Toronto, the 401 or for example, if you’ve taken like QEW, if you’re from Toronto, you know it has HOV lanes. A lot of the highways now are offering HOV lanes for green plates, which this will be equipped because it is a plug-in hybrid. It’s kind of crazy that the hybrid doesn’t get it, but the plug-in hybrid gets it. Politicians, I don’t know why, but luckily you get with this model. Now, price-wise, here’s where it gets interesting about the price. In Canada, you’re looking about $42,000. Now, with the conversion, you’re looking about $31,000 USD, which doesn’t make any sense for the base model, but the actual price, it’s about $33,000 in the US for this. So, in Canada, we paid $2,000 less compared to the US, which again, quite impressive. Now, what to love about this car? It is a very seamless powertrain transition from hybrid to electric. You don’t even notice it. That’s how smooth it is. They’ve done a great job with the Toyota technology hybrid system. It is quiet on the inside. And look, as someone 6’2, my height, I’m quite comfortable. I’ve actually loved this car since day one. The way it looks, it finally looks like a car that you are willing to drive. I’m not saying it’s the most exciting thing out there, but it’s a very nice car to look at on the outside. It’s got the proper lines. It looks sporty. It’s they’ve done a crazy beautiful job on this and I genuinely love this thing to drive and sitting inside I’ve got quite a lot of space this massive dashboard visibility even the back it’s got a small window but you get with the highest trim I believe you get that rearview mirror uh as an option so that way if you have three people in the back it doesn’t block visibility. Um, what do I think about this package alone? Base model, you still get a lot. Driver assistant package, heated seats in the front, tons of USBC ports. Uh, yes, you don’t get leather interior. Yes, you don’t get power seats for driver and passenger. But it’s a base model at $43,000 for this much vehicle. Can you really complain?
130 MPG?? How This Base 2026 Toyota Prius PHEV Embarrasses EVs. Review
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