You’re Wrong About the Toyota Prius | Alanis King

Video Description from YouTube:

Let’s test drive and review the 2026 Toyota Prius Plug-In Hybrid Nightshade Edition! And thanks to @homefieldapparel for sponsoring this video!

The Toyota Prius is synonymous with hybrid cars. Its first generation arrived on the North American market in 2000, and the new car was met with a bunch of doubters. It still is, honestly. There are entire compilations of Jeremy Clarkson hating on it.

Toyota quickly redesigned the car for a second generation in 2003, and that’s when we got the classic design most people associate with the Prius: the egg-like shape and two bubbly, vertical rectangles as headlights. This car got an EPA-estimated fuel-economy rating of 48 in the city, 45 on the highway, and 46 combined. That was huge back then. Long-term, it still is!

Toyota sold hundreds of thousands of second-generation Priuses globally before the more anonymous third generation arrived in 2009. A pointy, angular fourth-generation Prius was on the market from 2016 through 2022, and then Toyota gave us the car in this video: the fifth generation. 

When the fifth-gen arrived, people were shocked. It paired Toyota’s then-new hammerhead front-end design with a sleek, aerodynamic body. I loved it then and still love it now.

This 2026 Toyota Prius plug-in has a 2.0-liter, inline four-cylinder engine and hybrid system that makes a combined 220 horsepower and 139 pound-feet of torque. The system has two electric motors, and the transmission is called an electronically controlled continuously variable transmission. In this Prius, the power goes to the front wheels. It also has hashtags everywhere, including on the #Battery cover.

For the driver, CVTs function just like automatics: You put the car in drive and it goes. But automatics have gears like first, second, third, and fourth, and those gears have rev ranges that they can work within. 

CVTs don’t have those rev ranges and gear limits. Instead, they are continuously selecting the perfect gear ratio for the moment. Traditional CVTs use a pulley system to do this, and Toyota’s current hybrid eCVT uses a planetary gearset.

Toyota’s all-in on hybrids right now. The Corolla hybrid is popular, the Camry is fully hybrid, and it seems like all the new generations of Toyota’s vehicles are big on electricity. It’s not a bad replacement with gas prices being so high.

In this video, we’ll talk about all kinds of things: driving the Prius; how it rides; the exterior and interior design; the infotainment system; Apple CarPlay; how eCVTs work, explained in easy terms; the best spec of Prius to buy; sound from the wind and road at high speeds; driver assistance; parking-assist features I wish the car had; and why if you didn’t care about the Prius for the past 20 years, it may be time to start.

Let’s drive it and see if we can change your mind.

Thanks for watching my YouTube channel. Enjoy the drive (and the video)!

#cars #automotive #carreview #carreviews #alanisking #toyotaprius #prius #toyota #toyotahybrid #hybrid #hybridcar #hybrids #hybridcars #hybridreview #hybridcarreview #hybridcars2026

FOLLOW ME:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/alanisnking
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alanisnking/
Threads: https://www.threads.net/@alanisnking
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/alanisnking.bsky.social
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@alanisnking
Website: alanisnking.com

USE PARTNER CODE ALANIS20 FOR 20% OFF TONS OF XPEL CAR-CARE PRODUCTS:

https://www.xpel.com/shop/c/care-detailing

CHECK OUT OUR PARTNER HOMEFIELD APPAREL:

https://www.homefieldapparel.com/

USE PARTNER CODE ALANIS FOR 15% OFF YOUR APEX COFFEE ORDER:

https://www.apexcoffeeroasters.com

CHECK OUT MY SHORTS CHANNEL:

https://www.youtube.com/@AlanisKingShorts/shorts

WORK WITH ME:

workwithalanis@gmail.com