Jonathan Gitlin
“Looks fast,” my neighbor said as they looked at the sleek blue car parked in the shadow of their big BMW X5. That is understandable; occasionally some pretty fast cars are parked in my spot, and this one looked good, with a steeply sloping windshield and large open-spoke alloy wheels wrapped in low-profile tires. In this case, appearances are deceiving, because the car in question was not a sports car, but the new Toyota Prius. Which, no, is not fast at all. But it is quite economical.
Design
The new Prius is a relatively small car by 2023 standards; even with the slight increase in width, it measures 181.1 inches (4,600 mm) long by 70.2 inches (1,783 mm) wide and, in limited edition, is 56.3 inches (1,430 mm) high. (Smaller wheels drop 10mm while doing so.) In fact, that’s about the size of a Corolla or Camry, but none of those cars have the podium presence of this Prius.
That’s because it’s undergone a radical style upgrade for its fifth generation. It’s lower and wider than before and it doesn’t look like two different cars crashed into each other anymore. Instead, there’s a sharper A-pillar than you’d find in a Lamborghini Huracan, and the aerodynamicist’s touch is evident in the scalloped sides and cropped tail.
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The rear design is all about controlling the airflow and preventing the attachment of a wake that can drag on the car.
Jonathan Gitlin
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The sides are cut away from the B-pillar to the rear wheels to make the shape more efficient.
Jonathan Gitlin
Despite that, it’s a more dragging shape than the car it replaces. Toyota says the drag coefficient is 0.27 on 17-inch wheels, but only the entry-level Prius LE ($27,450) runs on them; every other trim comes with 19-inch wheels that will likely increase the Cd to 0.29. But as the more pedantic will know, it’s the combination of drag plus frontal area that counts, and while the older Prius had a Cd of 0.24, the 2-inch drop in height should mean the new car leads the way.
Drivetrain
Toyota has stuck with a parallel hybrid powertrain for the Prius, but it’s not just carried over from the old model. The Atkinson cycle engine has grown in capacity to 2.0 L, and the engine alone generates 150 hp (112 kW) and 139 lb-ft (188 Nm).
That joins forces with a permanent magnet AC synchronous motor that delivers 111 hp (83 kW) and 152 lb-ft (206 Nm), both driving the front wheels, with a combined output of 194 hp (145 kW). And instead of nickel-metal hydride, the traction battery is now lithium-ion, which is smaller and lighter. The battery capacity has increased slightly, to 1.5 kWh.
New for this generation Prius is the ($1,400) option of electric all-wheel drive; this adds a 40 hp (30 kW), 62 lb-ft (85 Nm) internal permanent magnet motor to the rear axle, increasing total combined power by a few horsepower.
