Prius – technology for a reason

Posted by Colin Hensley on March 14, 2009 in Green Technologies

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As I said last week, it was great to have the chance to launch the new Prius in Europe last week in Geneva. I’d like to take a few lines now to describe some of the impressive technical achievements that we see gathered in the new Prius.

Of course, the powertrain is the tour-de-force of the car, a full series/parallel hybrid offering EV drive and very low CO2 in the combined cycle. It’s also very widely covered in various media, so let me move on to a couple of other features.

The solar roof that powers a fan to bring in cooler outside air is a feature that is proving to be a much talked about addition. Of course, it’s especially interesting for the countries where the sun really shines a lot (from my seat in Belgium, I think I can still just about remember what the sun looks like.) The system not only makes the car cooler when you get in, it also then means you need less energy to cool down the car to a completely comfortable temperature.

The touch tracer display is also a new feature, this one with a safety benefit. As you move your thumb (or finger) over the buttons on the steering wheel, you can actually see in the display which button it is, and so easily can do what you want to do. This means your eyes spend less time off the road. We know from our accident studies in the past that lack of recognition of a dangerous situation is a critical cause of accidents, so every extra millisecond you have can make a difference. For similar reasons, the Prius also has a head-up display showing the information you want to know as you drive, such as your speed, or where to turn when you have a navigation system.

I’m really looking forward to having a chance to drive the Prius, so I guess I’ll have to start begging Dirk (my colleague who arranged the iQ) as soon as we have the cars here.

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