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Is Four-Wheel-Drive Hybrid A Sensible Buy?
Auto Express
|September 18, 2019
FIRST DRIVE Is four-wheel-drive hybrid a sensible buy?
The Toyota Prius has become a hugely popular hybrid since it made its debut in 1997. With good reason, too: it hardly ever goes wrong, it’s easy to drive and should be really cheap to run.
And now the biggest name in hybrid tech benefits from a refreshed exterior and minor cabin tweaks in order to stay competitive against its main rival, the Hyundai Ioniq.
There’s a new model joining the range, too. This is the Prius AWD: the first hybrid Toyota outside the firm’s SUV range to come with four driven wheels. The extra drive is supplied by a 5.3kW motor and inverter mounted on the rear axle, and is engaged at all times below 6mph to provide smoother traction when pulling away from a standstill. From six to 44mph it engages only when the sensors detect front-wheel slip, and the rest of the time the car operates in FWD mode.
This story is from the September 18, 2019 edition of Auto Express.
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