Toyota Prius Sets Nürburgring Eco Record

The venerable Nürburgring Nordschleife is where car companies go to prove their worth on the track, with manufacturers competing to set records in each category of vehicle. So Toyota brought their latest Prius Plug-in hybrid to the 13 mile track to set a record that wasn’t about speed but was focused on efficiency. Toyota’s aim was to show just how little fuel the Prius would use on a lap of the circuit and it set a record doing so.

The Prius completed the lap on just five tablespoons of petrol and a fully-charged battery pack. Averaging about 40 mph around the track, the Prius relied mostly on its batteries, kicking in the 1.8-liter four-cylinder engine only when needed for extra power up the hills. The Prius’s lap time was a snail’s pace 20:59 minutes; however, the Prius achieved fuel economy of 581 MPG US, which Toyota says is a new world record. A fuel economy record which Toyota claims is arguably it’s most important Nürburgring record.

Of course, the all-electric Mercedes-Benz SLS ED did the course in under 8 minutes and consumed no gasoline whatsoever, so we’re not sure how this record was measured.