Toyota manage 698 mpg at Nurburgring

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A standard Toyota Prius Plug-in completed a lap of Nurburgring, amongst the usual daily traffic and returned 698 mpg.

On paper, both the speed requirement and the circuit length (12.9 miles) put the feat within the all-electric EV range Toyota quotes for Prius Plug-in, performance designed to meet the day-to-day driving demands of urban commuters.  In theory, the distance could be covered without a drop of petrol being used.

Prius at Nurburgring.Prius at Nurburgring.

Motoring journalist and Japanese car expert Joe Clifford was tasked with the driving duties, taking the wheel of a standard Prius Plug-in he has recently upgraded with the addition of TRD parts – styling rather than performance elements that improved the car’s appearance rather than made it more fuel-efficient.

In dry, breezy conditions, he recorded 698 mpg, completing his lap in 20 minutes and 59 seconds.  This far outstrips the car’s official combined cycle figure of 134 mpg; in fact the Toyota used less than five tablespoons of fuel to do the job.

The technology that made this feat possible is a development of Toyota’s full hybrid system that matches a 1.8-liter Atkinson cycle petrol engine with a compact, rechargeable lithium-ion battery.  The battery’s performance and excellent energy density means the car can be driven further and at higher speeds on electric power alone than the standard Prius.