Toyota takes the Prius to the Nurburgring in one of the most fuel-efficient run ever!

Usually car manufacturers take their crown jewel to the Nurburgring for just one purpose; to push the car to the limit in order to get a respectable lap time around the Green Hell. But Toyota’s recent visit to this fearsome race track comes with a different purpose and with a car like the Prius PHEV (plug-in electric vehicle), you could somehow sense that this run is not going to be about the lap time.

With motoring journalist Joe Clifford as the driver, he was put behind the wheels of a mostly standard Prius hybrid, fitted with some enhancements like the TRD kit and 18-inch wheels in 225/40 tires. And his main task? Completing a single lap on the Nordschliefe using as little fuel as possible, this at the same time obeying to the circuit rules like the 60km/h minimum average speed.

This Euro-spec car’s official combined cycle figure is 2.1l/100km but during this run, Clifford managed to record an average of 0.4l/km in this 20.75km circuit. While this is indeed an astonishing figure, the time he took to go around the ‘Ring is an agonizing one. 20 minutes and 59 seconds to be exact.

“We used no special tricks for this test. We simply took a fully charged car, fitted it with low rolling resistance tyres and drove the lap, among all the other public drivers taking the opportunity to experience the challenge of the Nurburgring,” said Clifford.

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