By Leo Magno
INQUIRER.net

ALTHOUGH the 2008 Toyota Prius can hold its own in terms of stylishness and exterior aesthetics and aerodynamics, it is what lies within this vehicle that strikes me more than its superficial construction.

I’ve never been one to adore form. Rather, I go for substance. And that’s what I found most appealing in this vehicle. My own vehicles are not well-taken cared off on the outside, but their engines are humming like bulls raging to be released on the streets of Pamplona — whether it’s the color-coding car or my own daily road warrior.

Beauty fades. Your cars will get dented and they will get old and ugly. You may even encounter fender-benders and those moronic street kids who steal side mirrors. But with the Prius I couldn’t care less as long as its second-generation hybrid system continues to work its magic whether it’s the high-output electric motor or the internal combustion engine that’s making it move quickly and efficiently.

Yes, the Prius is a hybrid much like Michael Phelps who is half-man, half-shark. The vehicle runs on both a zero-emission, battery-run electric motor and a gas-fed engine. I don’t know what Phelps runs on.

During our test run of more than 200 kilometers, we achieved on the average more than 16 kilometers per liter of unleaded gas. In Metro Manila traffic, I even achieved 21 kpl over five days of city driving.

Not bad for a 1.5-liter vehicle which gallops like my 1.8-liter car. And gallop this car can — you can overtake vehicles with confidence at high speeds because the engine still has more to pump.

Some people are even “hacking” the Prius so that it would run on pure EV (electric vehicle) mode. But as it is now, the vehicle saves a lot of gas during stop-and-go traffic because it runs on battery power, only to use gas as you drive faster. Toyota even plans to unveil a “pluggable” version which you can plug into an electric wall socket to charge the battery, which will in the future use lithium ion, the same kind of batteries used in laptops and cellular phones. This is not to say, however, that in the future you can just park your Prius beside the nearest Starbucks and use your cell phone charger or laptop adapter to juice up your car while sipping on latté.

But enough of the talk. Watch our trip from Makati, Kawit in Cavite, Tagaytay, Laguna and back as we test drive the Toyota Prius hybrid vehicle, and see for yourself.