The new 2017 Toyota Prius Prime just picked up its official report card from the Environmental Protection Agency. It seems to be good news for one of the world’s biggest automakers as the company’s latest hybrid earned 133 MPGe, making the Prius Prime the industry leader for all vehicle types in its class.
That MPGe term is the EPA’s way of taking the more familiar Miles Per Gallon abbreviation and transferring it over to hybrid and electric vehicles. It stands for “Miles Per Gallon Equivalent” and converts the power used by an electric or partially electric vehicle into an MPG-based figure.
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Before these numbers arrived from Washington, the 2017 Prius Prime was already make news for its redesigned aesthetics. Previous incarnations of the Prius – in all its sizes and trim levels — were hardly lookers. In fact, they took a good share of abuse for eye-abusing styling that seemed to call attention deliberately to their drivers and their smug “save the planet” egos. Toyota didn’t much worry about such criticisms as the Prius was and remains the beat selling hybrid in history. In fact, its name is synonymous with “hybrid.”
However, we can officially call an end to those dark times for automotive aesthetics as the lines of the Prius Prime are clearly laid out to look like a proper car. It fits nicely back into Toyota’s overall design language now.
Perhaps the thinking is the smug hype over global warming is fading under the realities of lower gas prices and the obvious fact that we’re not all living on a North American continent flooded by melting icebergs. So, the time arrived to make a prettier Prius and tuck it back into line with its Toyota sisters like the Corolla and the massively successful Camry.
