The Toyota Prius was a revolutionary breakthrough when it first debuted two decades ago, the world’s first gas-electric hybrid at one point becoming the best-selling car of any type in the huge California market.
But the last few years have been tough for Prius, buyers largely steering clear of the fourth-generation hatchback introduced in 2016.
So, there’ll be a lot riding on the all-new 2023 Prius making its debut at the LA Auto Show next week. Toyota isn’t saying much about the fifth-generation hybrid but it did use Instagram to give a few hints of what’s coming
The social media posts bill the 2023 Toyota Prius as a “Hybrid Reborn,” while confirming that it will debut Nov. 16 in Los Angeles. While it doesn’t appear Prius will go through any radical transformation — it won’t suddenly reappear as an SUV — the Japanese automaker appears to be moving away from the cartoonish design elements that made the outgoing hybrid so controversial.
Ups and downs
The Toyota Prius made its debut in Japan in December 1997 as a gas-electric sedan. It came to the U.S. four years later and in 2003 migrated to the hatchback body style that we’ve known ever since.
The Prius quickly became a darling of environmentally minded buyers — both the California Air Resources Board and the U.S. EPA declaring it one of the cleanest vehicles ever put on the road. At one point, it became the best-selling nameplate in California, aided not only by its high mileage but the fact that drivers could gain access to the state’s coveted High-Occupancy Vehicle lanes.
But the fourth-generation hatchback unexpectedly lost momentum. It didn’t help that California ended the HOV lane access program. But critics lambasted the new model for its over-the-top design which, some saw almost as a self-caricature. U.S. demand peaked in 2012 at just over 147,000 units — a figure that included two other Prius-badged models. The Prius C and V have been abandoned and the original hatchback generated sales of just 59,000 last year. For the first 10 months of the year, the total is down another 40 percent.
An uncertain future
As several Toyota officials confided on background in interviews with TheDetroitBureau.com shortly before the pandemic, the automaker gave serious thought to whether the Prius would still be needed. After all, the automaker now offers hybrid versions of virtually everything else it produces, all the way up to its big Tundra pickup.
But the conclusion was that Prius “has to keep a role, and we have to make sure it will always be a front-runner with that kind of technology. Although I can’t disclose much, we don’t want to waste our icon, even for the future,” a company official told Britain’s Autocar last year.
Next week’s debut will reveal just what Toyota has done in a bid to rebuild at least some demand for its pioneering hybrid.
Some major changes could be coming
What it won’t do is migrate to a radically different body style, as the teaser silhouette makes clear. It appears to retain a liftback design, though one that is more coupe-like than the existing model. And there appear to be fewer of the gimmicky design elements first introduced in 2016, the close-up teaser suggests.
From a few folks who’ve actually seen a prototype, word has it the 2023 Toyota Prius will adopt a bit more of an aggressive stance, possibly influenced by the design of the new Crown sedan — which is sold only in hybrid form. That could mean a taller ride height, though designers likely won’t go quite as far to avoid sacrificing mileage by trading off on aerodynamics.
Toyota has clearly hinted at what it calls “a new direction,” something that could refer to the hybrid’s underpinnings. There’s been speculation in Japan that the 2023 remake will migrate to an entirely new platform, dubbed E3. It reportedly blends features from the eTNGA architecture used for Toyota’s bZ4X battery-electric vehicle as well the Corolla’s GA-C platform.
At the extremes
Among the more extreme rumors is that Toyota could introduce a fuel-cell hybrid version of the next Prius. The automaker is a firm believer in fuel-cell technology and sees it as an essential part of its future zero-emissions line-up. But it’s unlikely a FCV Prius would premier at launch.
Just how far Toyota plans to take things we’ll find out next week.