Driving the 2025 Toyota Prius Plug-In Hybrid

October 15, 2025

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My job as a automobile reviewer is enjoyable once I get to shock you, however the fact is, it’s most likely higher information for the common automobile shopper if automobiles work just about as you anticipate them to. So I’ve the least stunning piece of data to convey — you’re proper concerning the Toyota Prius.

I spent per week within the 2025 Toyota Prius Plug-In Hybrid (PHEV) Premium and located it a pleasing, very well-made, fuel-sipping hatchback that will swimsuit most people and small households fairly properly for an affordable worth.

For those who haven’t had a cause to concentrate in recent times, it would shock you a little bit to listen to that the present Prius is kind of engaging. A drastic makeover for the 2023 mannequin 12 months made Toyota’s basic hybrid sportier and sleeker, and the plug-in model shares its sharp styling.

Which Trim Stage

Toyota builds the Prius as a hybrid and a PHEV. The latter can drive as much as 45 miles on electrical energy alone earlier than utilizing gasoline, and recharge from an ordinary wall plug. Drivers may also use a Stage 2 electrical car (EV) charger, although not the quicker Stage 3 chargers discovered at many freeway relaxation stops. Since you possibly can energy your PHEV on gasoline alone for lengthy journeys, the shortcoming to make use of these high-speed chargers isn’t actually significant.

My tester was the Premium mannequin — the costliest of three obtainable trim ranges. It’s no luxurious automobile — even the high-end fashions get simply eight audio system and SofTex fake leather-based. However niceties like heated and ventilated entrance seats make it fairly comfy.

Toyota included one function I’d skip. An elective photo voltaic roof provides energy so slowly that it isn’t value its worth. It’s a pleasant concept, and maybe sometime photo voltaic cells might be environment friendly sufficient to recharge a parked automobile successfully. However I ran the battery to zero, left the automobile within the solar for 48 hours, and located that the roof had added one mile of vary.

New 2025 Toyota Prius Plug-in Hybrid Costs

	Retail Value	Honest Buy Value (92620)
With	$34,510	TBD
X	$37,760	TBD
XSE Premium	$41,205	TBD

Favourite Function

My favourite function of the Prius PHEV is a straightforward matter of considerate design. Toyota positioned the motive force’s instrument display screen above the steering wheel. Regardless of how I adjusted the steering wheel, it by no means blocked my view of something vital.

Most automakers in 2025 attempt to impress consumers with big screens positioned in order that the steering wheel blocks your view of enormous elements of them. Toyota engineers thought extra about what was sensible and helpful within the Prius PHEV than what was stylish.

In an period when the common automobile on American roads is now pushing 13 years previous, avoiding fads and planning for usability is refreshing.

A tiny grace notice for example the purpose — the floormats within the Prius PHEV Premium are carpeted, however with a tender plastic patch the place your proper foot rests. You received’t put on a gap in it by way of every day use the way in which drivers usually do with floormats. They deliberate so that you can drive this automobile for a very long time, and I recognize the consideration.

What It’s Wish to Drive

The PHEV is the sportiest Prius. The place hybrid fashions get 194 horsepower, the plug-in model will get a full 220 hp from a 4-cylinder engine mated to an electrical motor. Each energy the entrance wheels.

It’s surprisingly fast, with a zero-to-60 time of six seconds — the form of determine many sports activities automobiles claimed only a decade in the past.

Steering effort is extraordinarily gentle and received’t persuade you you’re in a sports activities automobile. It’s tuned to make driving as low-effort as attainable, and the tuning works. The experience is unremarkable, which is a little bit of an enchancment in comparison with its historical past. The low rolling resistance tires of hybrids might give older Priuses a barely harsh experience. That’s gone right here — that is composed and cozy.

The brakes seize vitality to recharge the battery, however really feel as near odd disc brakes as attainable. You’ll discover the Prius PHEV a cushty commuter you not often have to consider, which is precisely what most consumers contemplating one are doubtless searching for.

Inside Consolation and Know-how

Toyota makes no try and move off the Prius as a Lexus, but it surely’s fairly comfy for what it’s. Toyota’s SofTex fake leather-based is tender and wears properly over time. The central touchscreen is 12.3 inches and feels massive for a subcompact cabin.

Unusually, even the high-end Premium mannequin lacks dual-zone local weather management.

However wi-fi Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are commonplace, as is a Qi-compatible wi-fi charging pad that truly added some cost to my iPhone 15 even whereas it supplied streaming leisure and instructions. Many wi-fi charging pads in automobiles can solely preserve a cellphone in its present state of cost whereas it’s working.

Toyota thinks you is likely to be checking your cellphone at stoplights, although. Ambient lights within the dashboard flash gently when the automobile forward of you begins to tug away at a stoplight, as if to immediate you to place your cellphone down and drive.

Limitations

Usually, Toyota’s top-of-the-line trims are just about Lexus merchandise. That isn’t true right here. In order for you roughly this automobile however with a extra luxurious sound system and different high-end appointments, think about the Lexus UX. It’s constructed on the identical platform and comes as a hybrid, however there isn’t a PHEV model of the UX.

Key Concerns

The Prius has been an environment friendly, reasonably priced reply that retains its resale worth higher than its rivals for hundreds of thousands of householders. However it’s small. In order for you that Toyota reliability and PHEV flexibility with extra usable house, the RAV4 PHEV isn’t rather more costly, provides you way more cargo house, and allows you to see over site visitors.