TOKYO – Toyota is flipping the script for the next-generation Prius hybrid.
The gas-sipping nameplate, a byword for eco-friendly driving since its 1997 debut, will not be a complete lot greener with the redesigned fifth technology. However it’ll positive be a complete lot meaner.
On faucet is a brand new vary of extra highly effective drivetrains with considerably extra oomph and a zero to 62 mph dash time as fast as 6.7 seconds. Whole output, for the plug-in a minimum of, ought to prime 200 hp.
In a Prius.
What’s extra, it is all wrapped in head-turning, sports-car-inspired sheet steel that rides on a brand new platform that’s decrease and wider for spunkier dealing with. The Prius household’s acquainted and polarizing wedge form has really morphed into one thing attractive.
Toyota Motor Corp. executives unveiled the novel redesign right here Wednesday with a daring Prius promise: a ton extra energy and pleasure however with all the identical miserly gas financial system.
Toyota Chairman Takeshi Uchiyamada, the so-called Father of the Prius who shocked the auto world by growing the first-generation hybrid, says the Prius is now not a compromise automotive.
“We needed to point out we may keep the effectivity and see a soar in efficiency,” Uchiyamada instructed Automotive Information. “We do not have to have a trade-off. We are able to do each.”
Whole horsepower jumps as a lot as 77 % within the plug-in variant and as much as 60 % in the usual hybrid. That surge comes because of the introduction of Toyota’s fifth-generation hybrid system, which will get a much bigger engine, new battery and tweaked electrical motor.
Whereas Toyota did not provide gas financial system figures, it stated total miles per gallon will keep roughly the identical. The plug-in’s EV-only driving vary, although, leaps by as much as 50 %.
Whereas the specs launched in Japan pertain to the global-market model, U.S. specs are coming quickly. The redesigned Prius makes its U.S. debut Wednesday on the Los Angeles auto present.
Uchiyamada launched the first-generation Prius below the slogan “Simply in time for the twenty first century.” At the moment, a quarter-century later, the brand new catchphrase is “Hybrid Reborn.”
Engineers and prime brass jostled over how one can maintain the Prius related within the electrical car age. Toyota’s trademark hybrid know-how bolts an inside combustion engine onto an electrical motor and battery setup — a revolutionary breakthrough when it debuted 25 years in the past.
Today, as EV startups resembling Tesla flood the market and rival old-school steel benders — from Common Motors to Volkswagen — race to dump fuel-burning mechanics for zero-emission, battery-electric techniques, hybrids could seem to hark again to an earlier period.
At Toyota, some felt the Prius had completed its mission in popularizing hybrid drivetrains.
Toyota President Akio Toyoda proposed repositioning the Prius as a “commodity” automotive — a cheap fleet car or a automotive for the lots. Perhaps even a taxi. It might leverage the dramatic price reductions Toyota has achieved in hybrid applied sciences and attain new highs in quantity.
However engineers pushed again.
They needed to maintain the Prius aspirational and pioneering, one thing that lived as much as its title, a moniker derived from a Latin phrase that means “to go earlier than.”
The R&D crew, led by Chief Engineer Yasushi Ueda and Improvement Head Satoki Oya — neither of whom had labored on the Prius earlier than — proposed dialing up efficiency and emotion.
They would not sacrifice the Prius’ environmental cred.
However they needed to quash years of criticism that the Prius was a frumpy and boring go-to automotive for the granola-crunching, Birkenstock crowd.
Buyer suggestions had been panning the Prius’ hyper-efficient, thrashy “CVT really feel,” stated Masahiko Maeda, Toyota’s chief know-how officer and president of its car improvement middle. The phenomenon mimics that of a repeatedly variable transmission, the place drivers step on the fuel however do not expertise a corresponding kick of acceleration.
“We needed a lot better driving efficiency,” Maeda instructed Automotive Information in a separate interview. “Particularly within the U.S., folks say they like automobiles with higher acceleration.”
The talk continued from 2018 till January 2021, when President Toyoda lastly gave the greenlight to go emotional. However even then, he wasn’t fully satisfied.
“AT [Akio Toyoda] stated he appears ahead to seeing who was proper, and that can be decided by the automotive’s precise gross sales,” stated one individual conversant in the planning discussions.
Maeda stated the shift to extra highly effective drivetrains with peppy efficiency will seize a brand new section of consumers. That can additional the market penetration of Toyota’s hybrid know-how, with the additional benefit of additional lowering carbon emissions as extra clients shift to hybrids.
“That is an growth of the vary to popularize the know-how,” he stated.
World gross sales of the usual Prius hatchback peaked at 509,380 autos in 2010. By final 12 months, they plunged to only 85,970. All instructed, Toyota has offered greater than 4.7 million since 1997.
The fifth-generation Prius enters manufacturing on the firm’s Tsutsumi meeting plant in Toyota Metropolis in December. That’s the place the outgoing model is constructed. Gross sales will kick off in Japan in January. Then, the redesigned Prius will roll out to the U.S. and Europe from early subsequent 12 months.
The flagship hybrid will not be offered in China, the place Toyota ended Prius gross sales in 2016.
Prius energy
Listed here are the nuts and bolts of what is on faucet.
The standard Prius and plug-in model will each get a 2.0-liter engine mated to a brand new fourth-generation lithium ion battery. That is a step up from the outgoing mannequin, which has solely a 1.8-liter engine and in addition choices an older-generation, nickel-metal hydride battery on some grades.
A decrease grade of the upcoming Prius will maintain a 1.8-liter choice as an entry-level grade.
However the U.S. will get solely the two.0-liter variants.
An all-wheel drive choice, utilizing Toyota’s rear e-axle setup, may also be out there.
The usual 2.0-liter hybrid system was first deployed within the Corolla Cross Hybrid for Europe. Within the Prius, will probably be the primary time Toyota has paired a 2.0-liter engine with a plug-in.
Within the previous Prius, each the common and plug-in powertrains churn out 90 kilowatts (roughly 121 hp) of mixed system energy between the engine and electrical motor.
Within the new, the two.0-liter normal hybrid delivers 144 kilowatts (193 hp), whereas the plug-in achieves 159 kilowatts (213 hp). The plug-in reaches zero to 62 mph in a handy guide a rough 6.7 seconds, down from a sluggish 11.1 seconds within the outgoing mannequin. The usual makes 7.5 seconds vs. 10.4.
Toyota says the PHEV’s EV-mode vary will enhance as much as 50 % over the outgoing model, relying on specs resembling wheel dimension.
Engineers repackaged the plug-in’s battery. It was once below the rear cargo space. Now, it is below the seats, delivering more room within the again to haul issues.
One other distinction can be how Toyota distinguishes the usual and plug-in choices.
Within the earlier technology, the plug-in Prius Prime bought dramatic styling prospers to set it other than its pedestrian stablemate, together with a flowing, wave-like rear deck and taillight motif.
The redesign barely distinguishes the 2 variations in any respect, save for some steel trim therapy.
Toyota calls it the “One Prius” strategy.
The up to date styling begins with a extra good-looking entrance face that employs the brand new hammerhead language seen within the bZ4X all-electric crossover.
The automotive retains its hatchback configuration. However it’s decrease and wider than the present mannequin and only a tad bit longer with an extended wheelbase. The cabin’s roof peak can also be pulled again for a sportier, rear-slung look.
The physique design is clear and technical on the lookout for a futuristic vibe. Creasing alongside the aspect and bulging rear fenders add a muscular aura that amplifies the automotive’s efficiency pitch.
The rear door deal with is hidden within the window body, a trick pulled from Toyota’s C-HR.
Across the again, Toyota ditches the love-it-or-leave-it zig-zag taillights for a minimalist gentle bar that stretches throughout behind and dips into the rear fender with a neat nook crease.
Toyota hypes the Prius model by spelling out the title in daring letters throughout the tailgate.
The Prius additionally will get greater wheels, 17- and 19-inchers, to beef up its stance.
In the meantime, two new colours, Ash and Mustard, imbue a way of vibrancy.
Toyota as soon as had excessive hopes for the Prius. It constructed a whole sub-brand across the title — together with the Prius V wagon, the Prius Prime plug-in and the subcompact Prius C.
At one level, Toyota even deliberate to construct the automotive at its then-new meeting plant in Blue Springs, Miss. That might have supplemented output from the Tsutsumi mom manufacturing unit in Japan.
However the Prius household has withered away. Solely the usual hatchback and plug-in are nonetheless on sale within the U.S. And the Blue Springs manufacturing unit, which opened in 2011, is making Corollas as a substitute.
With practically each main Toyota nameplate providing some type of electrified model — together with the Corolla — there are fewer causes for patrons to choose the Prius.
“Prior to now, due to the environmentally pleasant picture of the Prius, we all the time pursued gas effectivity above all else,” Uchiyamada stated. “However these days, nearly each Toyota mannequin has some type of hybrid, so it is not that the Prius stands out by way of gas effectivity.”
Within the U.S., mixed gross sales of the usual Prius hatchback fell 32 % to 19,539 autos via September. Outselling it — by extensive margins — had been hybrid variations of the Corolla, Camry, Sienna, Highlander, RAV4 and Venza. Toyota’s new hybrid champion is the RAV4 Hybrid, which noticed its U.S. gross sales soar 50 % to 124,153 autos via September.
Toyota sees the novel revamp in efficiency as a technique the Prius can dwell as much as its title of pioneering new floor by taking pole place as one thing efficiency oriented.
“We do not have to sacrifice something. The motor will allow highly effective driving efficiency,” Uchiyamada stated. “That is why we determined to pursue this technique.”