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Originally Posted by wylee  The Prius is not a lot better than a Yaris above 50mph. It takes a lot more HP to maintain interstate speeds than driving 20mph in city traffic. |
It's all relative. 25-30 HP is all that's needed to go 60 MPH, but IC engines are inefficient when it comes to accelerating in 20 MPH city traffic. That's why the Prius generally gets 45-52 MPG for both city and highway while a Yaris generally gets 29-35 city and 34-41 highway. So the Prius averages ~30% better highway and ~50% better city.
BTW, the Yaris' Cd is between 0.29 and 0.32 (depending on body style). The Prius' Cd is 0.26.