2023 Toyota Prius Prime Review: The Next Best Thing to an EV

More range. More power. Better looks. What’s not to like about this new Prius?

Published June 9, 2023

·

Updated June 9, 2023

The Prius has been Toyota’s car of the future for more than two decades. Through multiple generations, the brand has kept to the same formula. The Prius has been hyper-efficient. The Prius has leaned into its otherness with a dorky-looking exterior and a quirky interior. And the Prius has gotten away with being exceptionally poky; no one is buying one for its driving dynamics.

With the new fifth-generation model, however, the Prius has finally met its moment. And Toyota endowed it with a more mature futurism. The new Prius looks like a sleek space capsule. It’s still super-efficient, but it’s a lot more potent, with both the standard hybrid and plug-in models adding around 100 more horsepower. Here in 2023, the Prius might be — dare we say it — cool? Well, Toyota loaned me a Prius Prime XSE, the middle-trim plug-in hybrid model, to drive around for a week to see.

The 2023 Toyota Prius Prime: What We Think

Owning an electric car may be too much of a burden if you live somewhere like New York City, or don’t reside in a single-family home. The Toyota Prius Prime is the next best thing. It offers enough range to do local trips on electric power, if you can plug it in; it operates as a regular hyper-efficient Prius if you can’t. And with more conventional, upscale looks and added oomph, the Prius Prime no longer feels like you’re making a sacrifice for efficiency. It’s so well executed, it makes you wish Toyota put this much belief and effort into its EVs.

The Prius Prime PHEV system is excellent

I could prattle on about the extra horsepower and how you can keep pace with traffic easily now. But you drive a Prius to be efficient. And the Prius Prime makes that as easy as possible. My test vehicle served up about 36 miles of electric range on a fully battery charge. That puts you in a new PHEV threshold, allowing multiple local trips between charges. I was able to pick up my daughter from school, run a separate errand to the drug store and make it to and from a friend’s house 25 minutes away — all on EV power.

Other PHEVs turn into gas guzzlers once you wind the battery down, but the Prius Prime reserves some charge for that scenario; it flips the digital indicator from m/kWh to mpg, and becomes a nearly 50-mpg Prius. The setup gives you the best of both worlds. The Prius Prime functions as an EV on local trips, allowing you to extend a tank of gas indefinitely. But you don’t have to deal with range anxiety or hunting down functional chargers on a long road trip.

The Prius Prime is still a little quirky under the surface

The Prius will lure you in with its handsome new looks. But it didn’t quite leave its quirky past behind. The Prius interior — similar to the bZ4X — now looks a lot more conventional; the shifter isn’t on the dashboard and the digital instrument cluster is behind the steering wheel. But the instrument cluster, which seems like it was designed for a yoke that ended up not happening (except in the Lexus RZ), is still a bit wonky. The Prius Prime also has funky, Nissan Pathfinder-like window grab handles to open the two rear doors.

prius prime interior — The Prius is far more conventional this time around. But there are some subtle quirks, like the instrument panel that seems designed for a yoke that never materialized.

I think the Prius Prime could work as a second family car

The Prius Prime did not meet all of my family needs with a partner and two kids. But it could work as a serviceable second family car to pair with a more spacious SUV. The 20.3-cubic-foot trunk is horizontally oriented with a practical hatch opening, and provides enough space for groceries or hitting the pool. The rear seating is spacious enough for kids; that said, at just under six feet tall, I was pushing the limit for acceptable headroom in the Prius Prime .

The Prius Prime still rouses a lot of aggression from other drivers

This may be a southeast Michigan thing, but other buyers seem unduly irked by your presence when you drive a Prius. And that dynamic doesn’t shift with the new 5th generation. I spent the week getting turned in front of, cut off and honked at if I didn’t have a Max Verstappen-like reaction time when a light turned green. I even had someone buzz me in a Miata (packing about 40 fewer horsepower) while I was taking pictures — on a 25-mph backroad near a school. I felt like I had to do a lot of elbows out driving, which wasn’t always pleasant.

What are some Prius Prime alternatives?

The Prius Prime is sort of in a class by itself. Most manufacturers have skipped the full flowering of the hybrid stage to move straight to full-electric cars. The PHEVs that are around are mostly larger crossovers. The Ford Escape PHEV may be the best match for price point and performance. I suspect Prius Prime buyers might be weighing spending more for a full-EV or conventional Camry or Accord Hybrids.