Prius Plug-in rises to the challenge

Published: 17/11/2011

The second annual RAC Future Car Challenge took place last Saturday with over 60 electric, low emission combustion, hybrid, range extended and fuel cell cars making the journey from Madeira Drive, Brighton to Pall Mall, London with a goal to use the

The Green Car Website’s editor Faye Sunderland joined The Daily Telegraph’s Andrew English (who was driving) in a pre production Toyota Prius Plug-in to take part in the epic battle of the energy misers. It was Sunderland’s first hands-on experience of the Prius Plug-in, and the journey taken at “a snail’s pace” was pleasingly “uneventful” and “relaxing”, allowing her to take in the beautiful countryside of the South Downs. And the car lived up to its billing, jointly winning the range-extended/plug-in hybrid category with the Proton Exora REEV.

Sunderland’s final observations outline the real potential of the Prius. “Andrew reckons he touched the brakes twice between Brighton and the Crawley halfway stop as he anticipated slowing traffic and avoided harsh braking to conserve fuel.

“We used about two litres of fuel between Brighton and London at a cost of around £2.68, based on current petrol prices, over the 60 mile journey. Our mpg was equivalent to around 100mpg (official figures are 49g/km and 134mpg combined cycle). That worked out as an official 27.6kwH of energy.” (Source: The Green Car Website, 8 November)

Back