1. Attachments are working again! Check out this thread for more details and to report any other bugs.

Gen 4 prius horsepower explanation.

Discussion in 'Gen 4 Prius Main Forum' started by Piotrus Pan, Oct 13, 2020.

  1. Piotrus Pan

    Piotrus Pan Member

    Joined:
    Dec 1, 2014
    126
    46
    0
    Location:
    Luxembourg
    Vehicle:
    2010 Prius
    Model:
    III
    Hi everyone!
    I'm looking into getting a gen 4 but I come across 98 horsepower priusses often.
    I was under the impression that gen 4 is 122HP and that's it.
    Are they putting just the gas engine HP ignoring the combined HP or there really is a combined 98HP prius version?
    If there is a 98HP version then is it worth getting it? It seems a bit low amount of HP.

    Example:
    It's a French website so CV = HP.

    Toyota Prius 1.8 Hybrid Lounge Auto. used, fuel Hybrid and Automatic gearbox, 22.100 Km - 21.900 € | LuxAuto.lu
     
  2. JimboPalmer

    JimboPalmer Tsar of all the Rushers

    Joined:
    Apr 14, 2009
    12,470
    6,862
    2
    Location:
    Greenwood MS USA
    Vehicle:
    2012 Prius v wagon
    Model:
    Three
    [I frequently own station wagons with as little as 70 HP. (and have no electric motors)]

    Gen 4 has a 98 HP engine and a 27 HP motor. Since they are never at their peak at the same time, the total is 121 HP.

    Your Gen 3 has 110 HP total

    The Prius c has 98 HP total.
     
    kithmo, alanclarkeau and krmcg like this.
  3. jdenenberg

    jdenenberg EE Professor

    Joined:
    Nov 21, 2005
    3,836
    1,827
    1
    Location:
    Trumbull, CT
    Vehicle:
    2020 Prius
    Model:
    LE AWD-e
    Jim,
    I believe that the electric motor is actually 50 HP but the battery can't put out more than 27 HP. My AWDe also has a 7 HP motor on the rear axle :)

    JeffD
     
    JimboPalmer likes this.
  4. kevinwhite

    kevinwhite Active Member

    Joined:
    Jun 10, 2006
    331
    199
    0
    Location:
    Los Gatos Ca
    Vehicle:
    2017 Prius
    Model:
    Four
    I don't know how Toyota comes up with the 121HP rating. The peak engine and motor power probably never occur at the same time.

    The hybrid system in the Gen 4 Prius is rated at 72kW (96HP) for the engine and 53kW for the motor (71HP) with the Li-ion battery being able to supply up to 30kW (40HP).

    The battery power has been gradually increasing with each generation (20kW - Gen2, 25kW - Gen 3, 30kW - Gen4).

    The MG2 motor power actually decreased with the Gen 4 but is now able to support higher road speeds with the engine stopped than previous generations due to its higher rev limit.

    kevin

    This is from document SAE_2016-01-1163 published by Totota in 2016. Gen 4 is P610, Gen 3 is P410)
    upload_2020-10-13_16-0-55.png .
     
  5. alanclarkeau

    alanclarkeau Senior Member

    Joined:
    Feb 24, 2016
    7,041
    7,580
    0
    Location:
    near Brisbane, Australia
    Vehicle:
    2016 Prius
    Model:
    N/A
    I suspect you're right. That's why TOYOTA won't post a TORQUE figure on Hybrids - because it's never going to replicate.
     
  6. Elektroingenieur

    Elektroingenieur Senior Member

    Joined:
    Jan 8, 2017
    2,515
    3,253
    9
    Location:
    California
    Vehicle:
    2016 Prius
    Model:
    Three Touring
    Correct: all fourth-generation Prius cars use the 2ZR-FXE gasoline engine (1.798 L displacement) and P610 hybrid transaxle and have the same hybrid system combined output, which Toyota quotes as 90 kW (121 or 122 HP). There are three major variations, with basic model codes ZVW50 (Ni-MH battery, 2WD), ZVW51 (Li-ion battery, 2WD), and ZVW55 (Ni-MH battery, AWD-e with the Q510 rear traction motor).

    Only the ZVW50 and (starting 2019) the ZVW55 have been built for sale in Europe as new cars, but there are a few PriusChat users in Europe who have ZVW51 models exported from the U.S. or Japan.
    The former: they’re quoting the engine output only.
     
  7. Piotrus Pan

    Piotrus Pan Member

    Joined:
    Dec 1, 2014
    126
    46
    0
    Location:
    Luxembourg
    Vehicle:
    2010 Prius
    Model:
    III
    I know there were cars even with 30HP, but I don't want to drive 130km/h (80miles/h) on a highway and lose hearing because the engine has problems keeping up with this speed.

    So there is no varian with combined 98HP. I just got really confused with the ads on the car dealers pages.
     
    #7 Piotrus Pan, Oct 14, 2020
    Last edited by a moderator: Oct 14, 2020
  8. Tideland Prius

    Tideland Prius Moderator of the North
    Staff Member

    Joined:
    Oct 2, 2004
    44,809
    16,051
    41
    Location:
    Canada
    Vehicle:
    Other Non-Hybrid
    Model:
    N/A
    Officially, the Gen 3 is rated at 132hp (even though Toyota said it’s the same as the Gen 4... they just revised the way they measured combined hp).

    Gen 2 was the one with 110hp.
     
    Vman455 likes this.
  9. vvillovv

    vvillovv Senior Member

    Joined:
    Mar 19, 2013
    3,525
    1,241
    1
    Location:
    NY
    Vehicle:
    2017 Prius Prime
    Model:
    Prime Plus
    My first thought
    Concerning Gen4 Prius horsepower, that is correct, there is no 98 horsepower Gen4 prius available. The 98 horsepower Gen3 Prius was called Prius Aqua in Europe and Prius C in US.
    For Gen4 Toyota has released a Yaris Hybrid with a 1.5 liter gas engine and total 98 HP...... Toyota Yaris Hybrid 2020 review | Carbuyer.
    EU Gen4 equivalent 2020 Yaris Hybrid is slight difference from EU Gen3 2012-2016 Prius Aqua.

    All really confusing

    US + EU + ASIA wiki Prius C Prius Aqua Toyota Prius C - Wikipedia
     
    #9 vvillovv, Oct 14, 2020
    Last edited: Oct 14, 2020
  10. kithmo

    kithmo Couch Potato

    Joined:
    Apr 25, 2010
    2,404
    2,773
    47
    Location:
    South Yorkshire, UK
    Vehicle:
    2016 Prius
    It doesn't really matter what HP the ad states as long as it's a non AWD Gen 4 they're all the same.
     
    alanclarkeau likes this.
  11. Vman455

    Vman455 Senior Member

    Joined:
    Feb 8, 2014
    534
    551
    13
    Location:
    The Middle
    Vehicle:
    2013 Prius
    Model:
    Two
    I think it was 138hp. So says the 2013 Product Information sheet I downloaded from Toyota's website.

    Not that power matters much anyway; I would argue that consumers generally should compare torque figures, since that will actually tell you the maximum tractive force the car can produce. Since power is a time derivative of energy, it's hard for the average consumer to wrap their head around what power figures mean; they just figure that more is better.
     
    Tideland Prius likes this.
  12. Prashanta

    Prashanta Active Member

    Joined:
    Oct 11, 2016
    292
    242
    0
    Location:
    Canada
    Vehicle:
    2017 Prius Prime
    Model:
    Technology
    You really don't need to know this to understand power. Someone who exercises has more power than someone who doesn't. Your dad probably has more power than your mom and would probably win in a fight. More is obviously better if you want to accelerate quickly. You don't need to really internalize how much power 150 HP is to know that all things equal, if the vehicle was rated at 200 HP instead, it'd feel noticeably faster.
     
  13. JimboPalmer

    JimboPalmer Tsar of all the Rushers

    Joined:
    Apr 14, 2009
    12,470
    6,862
    2
    Location:
    Greenwood MS USA
    Vehicle:
    2012 Prius v wagon
    Model:
    Three
    Horsepower correlates well with top speed, torque correlates better to 0 - 40
     
    alanclarkeau likes this.
  14. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

    Joined:
    Mar 30, 2008
    23,239
    15,055
    0
    Location:
    Indiana, USA
    Vehicle:
    2010 Prius
    Model:
    IV
    If Dad is big,strong, and sedentary, and can clean a 300 lb barbell and then go open a beer can, and Mom can stack twenty 15# feed bags in the same interval, that's equal power.

    Even getting away from cars, it's possible get mixed up about (the equivalents of) torque and power.
     
  15. Mambo Dave

    Mambo Dave Active Member

    Joined:
    Jul 5, 2019
    640
    305
    0
    Location:
    33312
    Vehicle:
    2019 Prius
    Model:
    L Eco
    I don't know what it is, but my 2019 is zipppier than the HP and torque numbers suggest.