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What I’ve done, in fact, is kill the electric motor of this hybrid
wonder by pushing the start button a second time. It turns out I
already awakened the motor when I poked the button the first time,
but the hybrid power source was so quiet I couldn’t bring myself
to believe it was already up and running.
I am in the cockpit of the Toyota Prius hybrid
car. First launched by the Japanese carmaker in its domestic market
in 1997 as a four-door sedan, the eco-friendly vehicle now sports a
five-door fastback body. Because it is hybrid, it runs on two power
sources: a conventional 1.5-liter internal-combustion gasoline
engine and a 500-volt electric motor. Together, these power units
have a combined output of 110 horsepower.
In very simple terms, the Prius alternately uses
the gasoline engine and the electric motor depending on driving
conditions. If you’re stepping on the accelerator hard to overtake
a pesky truck, you’re using the gasoline engine. If you’re
crawling slowly or have come to a stop, you’re drawing juice from
the motor’s 168-cell battery, which recharges via regenerative
braking. The engine/motor combination nearly doubles the fuel
mileage of a similarly sized car that uses a regular engine.
Last year, Toyota Motor Phils. (TMP) brought in
four demo units of the Prius, offering them for test-drives to
various political, media and show-business personalities. From where
I sat, the automotive giant had two purposes in doing so. First, it
wanted to find out how the Prius would perform in tropical
conditions, with the view to selling the car locally in the near
future. Second, Toyota wanted the Prius to further cement its
reputation as an environmentally sensible car company.
The Prius units had been here for over a year,
but I had been too uninterested to fall in line for a weeklong
drive. My personal car is a very fuel-efficient 1.3-liter subcompact
hatchback, and its impressive mileage of 12 kilometers to a liter in
city driving was good enough to let me say no to so-called hybrid
vehicles. And then the fuel prices started going up.
Fifty bucks per liter . . . no, thanks, my
frugal car can take it. Fifty-three bucks per liter . . . this is
getting serious but my car can still laugh at this. Fifty-five bucks
per liter . . . I wonder if Toyota is still lending the Prius, but
no, my car is still relatively thrifty. Fifty-eight per liter . . .
I want to call Toyota now, but I guess I’ll just cut on
unnecessary trips. Sixty bucks per liter . . . “Hello, Toyota,
regarding the Prius test-drive you were offering me a year ago, does
it still stand?”
And so with swallowed pride, I now find myself
behind the wheel of the much-ballyhooed Toyota Prius—a car that is
so socially relevant that Leonardo DiCaprio and Jack Black drive
one. Besides its Hybrid Synergy Drive—named International Engine
of the Year in 2004—this car is highly entertaining. For one, it
doesn’t require me to manually use the key. I just keep it in my
pocket and the car unlocks itself as I grab the door handle. Neither
do I need to insert the key into an ignition switch as I simply push
the above-mentioned start button. And then, silence.
Yes, utter silence.
As fuel-price fears grip my sanity, the Prius
allays them by drowning them in complete tranquility. In one sense,
you feel this is Toyota’s way of assuring you that there is light
at the end of the motoring tunnel, like it did when the oil crisis
nearly crippled the car industry in the late ’70s, providing the
world (America in particular) with small, front-wheel-drive
fuel-sippers. Every time a crisis is threatening to send the
motoring community to its knees, Toyota seems to hush the commotion
and show everybody the way.
And right about now, the world’s largest
carmaker is showing me the way. Specifically, it is showing me how
the Prius is expending every drop of its fuel via the prominent
display screen on the dash. Not unlike schematic diagrams our
physics teacher showed us in high school, the Prius’ energy
consumption visual guide lets you know if the car is currently
employing the engine or the motor, or how energy is being
regenerated back to the motor’s battery pack. Park KITT beside the
Prius, and Michael Knight’s black sports car would look like an
idiot.
I am to use the Prius for a week, after which I
shall ascertain for myself that even Metro Manila’s horrendous
traffic conditions are unable to keep this car from achieving a
mileage of 20 kilometers to a liter of fuel. Suddenly, my economical
hatchback feels like a gas-guzzler. And I shall begin entertaining
the same question everyone who has driven the Prius is asking:
“Why isn’t Toyota selling it here yet?”
The answer, according to TMP First Vice
President for Marketing Danny Isla, lies in the car’s potential
pricing. Based on current taxation schemes, the Prius—should
Toyota introduce it to our market today—shall cost nearly P2
million. At that price range, you’d be a fool not to get a Camry
instead.
And so Toyota is looking into possible
government incentives to make the Prius more affordable to many
Filipino motorists. Isla believes the car will be a hit if priced at
around P1.3 million. In fact, not a few personalities who have tried
the Prius are already offering to buy the demo units.
It is remarkable to note that the Prius only
sold 300 units during its first year of sales in Japan back in 1997.
By April of this year, Toyota announced that it had already sold a
total of 1,027,700 Prius units around the world. That’s more than
a million of new converts—new believers in Toyota’s ability to
once again rescue the automotive landscape in the face of $150 per
barrel of crude oil.
Funny, the Toyota Prius—perhaps the quietest
car I’ve ever driven—has given me the loudest reassurance that
the future of the automobile (and indeed of mankind) is brimming
with hope. I still have my fears, yes, but am no longer gripped by
them.
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