Best Hybrid Cars of 2023 and 2024

BRIAN WONG: I'm Brian Wong, with Edmunds, and welcome to U Drags. [MUSIC PLAYING] Actually, you caught me. This isn't U Drags. This is about the furthest thing that you can get from U Drags. Instead of a half mile of fury, where we send fast cars on an empty airstrip, we've got a very practical head-to-head battle for you. With me our two cars that have been completely redesigned for 2023, the Kia Niro PHEV and the Toyota Prius Prime. We're here to see which of these plug-in hybrids is more worthy of your dollars. And to do that, we're going to put them through a series of tests at the Edmunds test track and in the real world. Now, on paper, the Prius Prime has a huge advantage. It has more power. It has a larger battery. And it has more electric range allegedly. But how do these two cars shake out when we got our hands on them? Let's find out. For more information on either of these vehicles, head over to edmunds.com, and we've got you covered. And if you're interested in adding a PHEV to your fleet at home, we'll help you your current set of wheels at edmunds.com/sellmycar, where you'll get an instant cash offer. The Prius Prime's redesigned interior identically matches what you're getting in the regular 2023 Prius. So the old Prius Prime, you actually lost one of the rear seats. You can only seat four passengers. But now, thankfully, you can fit five people. And it even has the same amount of cargo room because of better packaging for that battery. We're in an XSE model right now. Toyota doesn't actually offer a limited model, which is the top trim on the Prius. In the Prime, you're only going to be able to get SE, XSE, or what they're calling XSE Premium. But even though they have different names, you don't actually lose out on any features. Anyways, we're here in an XSE. It's been upgraded a little bit with the larger 12.3-inch touch screen. And we like it here, just like we did in the Prius. Toyota's infotainment used to be garbage, but they've really improved it lately. The native maps application is actually powered by Google, so you get more updates for locations, and things like that. And it's well placed. I can easily reach the screen. One problem, though, that we also had with the regular Prius, the volume knob is on the wrong side. They say we can use this little button here on the steering wheel to change it up. But it's also weird when you've been reaching for the volume knob on this side your whole life, and all of a sudden, it's way over here. Otherwise, we like that they've gone with physical controls for the climate-- very easy to use, very easy to reach. I mean, you don't have to look down for too long when you're driving to change the temperature, to turn on the seat heaters, or the seat ventilation, things like that. The wireless charging pad right here-- vertically oriented, easy to drop in your phone, though you do have to jiggle it sometimes to get it to hook up and actually start charging. And it's nice to have this because the system also comes with wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, something that the Kia lacks. So even though the Prius Prime back seat fits five people again, it's not ideal back here for a couple of reasons. As you can see, when I got in, I had to duck down kind of low. And that's because the shape of this vehicle compromises the way that the back end is packaged. Here in the back seat, legroom is actually pretty good, but headroom, as you can see, compromised. So my head is right now about half an inch from the headliner, which means that if I'm sitting in the back, and the driver goes over a bump of any kind, straight into the ceiling with the top of my head. Also, no real visible air vents back here; so we have USB ports, which is nice for charging. But some air would be nice to help keep things fresh for the backseat passengers, [MUSIC PLAYING] The Niro PHEV has redesigned interior, also brand new to this vehicle, but will be very familiar to anyone who's been in IKEA for the last couple of years. So you have matching side-by-side 10.3 inch screens up here, one for the instrument cluster and one for the touch screen. Down here, you have this new control scheme that Kia has gone for it. And this is something that we have some disagreement even on our staff about. I personally like it because it's a very efficient use of space. But some people would rather have physical controls here. So if you're going to get one of these, make sure that you climb in and try it out for yourself. One thing that the Kia Niro PHEV doesn't have-- wireless Android Auto or Apple CarPlay. So you're going to need to bring a cable, and it's going to need to be a USB A. Weirdly, the USB-C port appears for charging only. So if you want your phone to actually talk to the vehicle, make sure you've got a USB-A. But who carries those around anymore? Down the center console here, a nice storage bin-- so a really cool solution here, these buttons open up cup holders. But when you don't need cup holders, you can just tuck them back in, and you have a nicely-sized, small storage bin. One thing I don't like about the front of this interior, though, is this big, glossy, black panel. This is my PSA to automakers everywhere. The glossy stuff doesn't look as nice as you think, and it also is blinding us. In contrast to the Prius's back seat, when I hop in the Niro, I don't actually have to bend down at all. I just slide right in. This back seat is where we see the shape of the Niro really paid dividends. Instead of arcing down the way that the Prius does, it looks flat, like a regular hatchback or even something close to an SUV. This is basically SUV levels of passenger room. And it also makes the cargo area bit more vertical, and we're going to see how it matches up to the Prius next. Now, I can tell you that the Niro PHEV has 39.5 inches of rear headroom, three extra inches of rear headroom, compared to the Prius. So that's why, when I sit here, I have to look up to see the ceiling. And there's also this handy cutout here. It just helps the entire cabin of the Niro to feel a lot more spacious and open, while the Prius actually feels quite confining. One other thing we like about this back seat-- rear air vents, which, if you are a car-sick person like me, makes a difference between life and throwing up out the window. And the placement of these USB charging ports is excellent-- easy to see, easy to access. This is just a back seat that is good for even adult-sized passengers. And I could sit back here for a long trip and be perfectly comfortable. Believe it or not the, Prius Prime actually has a larger cargo area. According to the spec sheet, it's got 20.3 cubic feet, to the Niro's 19.4. But the Niro has a much larger cargo opening. And I actually think that you can fit more stuff in the Niro if you try. So let's find out. So time for a hypothetical road trip, me and three of my imaginary friends. So oh, that actually fits in there pretty good. Get rid of this. Who needs that? Hold on. Better than I thought. Let's see how the Niro does. There. So both of them fit roughly the same amount of stuff. But you're going to work a lot harder fitting into the Prius than in the Niro. However, with the seats folded down, it's not really much of a contest at all. The Niro PHEV offers 54.6 cubic feet of cargo room, while in the Prius Prime, you're only getting 26.7 cubic feet. And that's less than half of what you'll get in the Kia. Now on paper, this Prius Prime has a big advantage over the Niro when it comes to electric range. This is rated at an estimated 39 miles, while the Niro that we have is only rated at 31 miles. But when we put them on our Edmunds testing loop, we found that the Niro actually slightly outperformed its estimate, going 31.8 miles, while the Prius Prime was underwhelming at only 33.7 miles, which means that the gap between the two is actually not that big. Now, both of these vehicles do offer different region settings for getting energy back into the battery. But an advantage that the Prius Prime has is that it's the only one of the two with a charge setting. So you can actually drive the car with the intention of charging the battery. And this works quite well for scenarios when you're on the highway. Or if you're coasting on a downhill, it'll actually pull a little bit of energy off of that gas engine and use it to refill the battery. PHEVs are notably more efficient in the city than on the highway. So you can actually use this to build up battery while you're at highway speeds. And then once you get into the city, you have more range to use at that lower speed, where you get the most out of the battery. Like we said before, Prius Prime is just a lot more pleasant to drive in its electric vehicle mode than the Niro is. Now, you do run out of breath a little bit around 45 miles an hour. That first burst of speed comes quickly, but then it does taper off. However, you can still get on the highway. You can still pass people. And that makes the Prius Prime a little bit distinct as a PHEV, in that it functionally feels like an EV. The Prius Prime does debut a new safety feature, that you don't find on the regular Prius. This is actually the first Toyota product to get this, and it's called Traffic Jam Assist. It functions like some other systems that we've seen from automakers like BMW, where if you're in a traffic jam, the adaptive cruise control is on. When you're at speeds of under 25 miles an hour, you can do hands-free driving. And this system is facilitated by the addition of this camera that watches your eyes. And it's an infrared camera, so it also works at night. And this is something that you don't find in a normal Prius. The problem with this system, though, is that it's extremely sensitive. So if you look away for more than a split second, a pop-up appears on the instrument panel, and it might even beep at you to tell you to face a screen. The other annoying thing is that this cluster is very poorly placed, just like we noticed in the normal Prius. So the only way to really see it is to drop the steering wheel down a little bit while you're driving. And since it's not real comfortable to drive with your hands in your lap, my natural tendency is then to put a hand on top. But when I do this, a warning shows up on the screen, and it says, sit up. The problem with safety features like this, that are overbearing, is that users end up turning them off. We spoke to Toyota to get some clarity on how these safety systems interact. And they confirmed our observation, that you can shut off the driver attention warnings without losing access to Traffic Jam Assist or any of the other safety features. With those warnings off, now if you're looking away from the road, the system shuts off Traffic Jam Assist on its own and prompts you to take the wheel as it kicks back over to regular adaptive cruise control. [MUSIC PLAYING] Back in the Niro, it's a lot simpler, this driving experience. And I do mean that in a good way. There's only two drive modes, Sport and Eco. And there's also a way to force the vehicle to go into EV mode or into hybrid mode, if you want to. But there's no charge mode, like you get the Prius. So really the only way to add a lot of juice back into this battery is to plug it in. I mean, if you want to hold the charge, you can put it in hybrid mode. And it does a pretty good job of that. But you do end up losing a little bit of battery along the way. The Niro PHEV doesn't offer the same sort of EV driving experience that you get in the Prius Prime. Now, that's because the electric motor is a lot less powerful. But I think that the best way to drive the Niro PHEV is to not think about that at all, just to get in and drive it. And if the gas engine needs to kick on to give you enough acceleration, it kicks on. And then once you start coasting again, it's shuts off rather quickly. I would say that on the street, the overall kind of fun you can have behind the wheel in the Prius Prime is still rather evident. But the Niro PHEV is perfectly fine for anything you want to do day to day. The other thing I like about the Niro PHEV is that philosophy of simplicity also extends to the driver aids. So it doesn't really have anything that's equivalent to Traffic Jam System, so it's definitely not as advanced as the Prius. But that being said, all of its safety systems don't really bother you. They stay out of the way until they're needed. And Highway Driver's Assist is still very good at following at a safe distance, slowing down and speeding up smoothly, and keeping the car in the lane. So all in all, I think I would rather take the Niro PHEV's more simplistic approach, that is out of the way, than the Prius's very much in-your-face, annoying, notification-laden approach. [MUSIC PLAYING] So here we are at the Edmunds test track, giving the Prius Prime a bit of a shakedown. And much like the regular Prius, which was redesigned for 2023, as well, drives much better than its predecessor. One of the things you immediately notice about the Prius Prime-- big upgrades under the hood. There is a 2-liter, 4-cylinder engine up front. And then you have an electric motor. Both of them power the front wheels, so you can only get this in front-wheel drive, unlike the Prius, which you can also get an all-wheel drive. But a big upgrade in power-- 220 horsepower total between the two of those. And that is a huge leap forward from the last Prius Prime. Looking at just the electric motor, the electric motor by itself makes 161 horsepower. And that's 40 horsepower more than the last Prius Prime made in total. This actually kind of feels just like an EV. 161 horsepower actually puts the Prius Prime within spitting distance of other vehicles. So for example, a Hyundai Ioniq 5, in its single-motor version with a standard battery, only makes about 10 more horsepower than the electric motor in this Prius Prime. Speaking of battery, the battery is also bigger, 13.6 kilowatt hours now. That's an improvement. But that bigger battery also gives the Prius Prime a big jump in electric-only range. So it's an EPA estimated 44 miles in the lowest trim level and then 39 miles in the XSE, like the one we're in now, or the XSE premium, because you have bigger wheels, and those are a bit less efficient. The transition between gas power and electric power is also handled very seamlessly here in the Prius Prime. So if I'm not in EV mode-- right now I'm in this Auto mode-- and I get on the gas, it hands off very cleanly between the two. There's not any shaking or jittering, and you don't really tell except for you can hear the engine kicking on. This steering wheel is perfectly sized. So last Prius had a big, ungainly wheel, but like Mazdas of old. Steering wheel on this is actually really nice, fits in the hand super great, and actually fits in with this Prius Prime's character quite well, which is more fun than you might think. The steering rack-- pretty sharp, but not a ton of feedback to the steering. But this is actually a pretty good handling vehicle. And I have the impression, that if you actually put a much grippier set of tires on here, you would lose a lot of efficiency, but it would actually make this a pretty fun vehicle to drive around. The new Prius Prime definitely feels faster than its predecessor, definitely quicker around our handling circuit. So similar to the Prius Prime, the Niro PHEV also got a power gain and an increase in battery size and range in its own redesign. So less powerful than the Prius, 180 total system horsepower. And about 80 of that horsepower comes from the electric motor. That's an improvement over the last Niro PHEV, has 60 horsepower. But it does mean that this electric motor is actually about half as powerful as the one in the Prius. So it does drive a little bit differently. You can't quite get the same level of push out of the electric motor. So we're going uphill here. The gas engine has already kicked on pretty much immediately, even though I'm an EV mode. But then as we come over the crest here, and we start to go down the hill, it shuts off, and we go gliding down in EV power. In that regard, the Prius Prime drives like an EV sometimes. And the Niro PHEV pretty much drives like a hybrid all the time. Any time you get really past half throttle, that gas engine loves to kick on. And that does give it a better feel around town. You have enough acceleration. But it does mean that you're not going to quite be able to drive it solely on the battery as easily as you will the Prius Prime. The battery pack has grown to up to 11.1 kilowatt hours. And that gives the Niro PHEV either 33 miles or 31 miles of electric range, depending on trim level. This is the SX Touring, basically the top of the line one. So you're only going to get 31 miles because it's got the bigger wheels, and it's just a little bit less efficient. The Niro isn't quite as fun to drive as a Prius. It doesn't feel nearly as agile on the front end. Acceleration isn't on the same level. But I would say one thing that's true of both of these cars is that they drive really better than they need to. Ride quality is quite good. And around here on our handling circuit, there's a little bit of body roll, but not too much. Just like the Prius Prime, the Niro PHEV does a really good job blending its physical brakes and the regenerative braking. And the transitions between electric power and hybrid power, we're using both the electric motor and the gas engine, also very seamless. So from driving these two vehicles out here on our test track, it really does feel like the Prius Prime is going to have a big advantage on the testing numbers. Let's see how those played out. [MUSIC PLAYING] As expected, the Prius Prime was considerably quicker than the Niro PHEV in our instrumented testing, throwing down a 6.9-second 0 to 60 mile an hour time and a 15.3 second quarter mile. That outpaces the Niro PHEV's 8 second, 0 to 60 mile an hour in 16.2 second quarter mile times by quite a bit. This has been a fairly comprehensive victory just by the numbers for the Prius and out here on our test track. [MUSIC PLAYING] The margin between these two vehicles is very, very thin. In fact, they have the exact same Edmunds rating of 8.1. What separates them is really how they go about their business. The Prius Prime is more forward thinking in its styling, in the way it drives, and in the way that it offers a near EV experience. While the Niro PHEV feels more like a hybrid, but it's also simpler and easier to live with day to day. Superior rear seat packaging, more usable cargo space, better ergonomics, and simpler safety features give the Kia an edge when it comes to practicality. So if you were to ask me which one I want to spend my money on, I'm a simple guy. So I've got to go with the Kia. [MUSIC PLAYING]