Toyota
This week Toyota unveiled the 2023 Prius hybrid. It’s the company’s fifth-generation Prius, and when it goes on sale, Toyota says it will be the most efficient Prius yet, with an estimated 57 mpg (4.1 l/100 km).
First seen on American roads in 2000, the Prius quickly became synonymous with environmentally conscious driving, characterized by distinctive styling that was hard to mistake for anything else on the road. In the intervening decades, Toyota has sold millions of them, though there are far fewer now than during the nameplate’s heyday in the early teens.
In part, that may be due to the Prius’ highly efficient Atkinson Cycle powertrain making its way into other Toyotas. The powertrain still offered nearly as impressive fuel economy, sometimes paired with a small traction battery as a “regular” hybrid and sometimes paired with a larger one as a plug-in hybrid (or Prime, in Toyota parlance).
Toyota
It would have been easy for Toyota to give up on the Prius and just continue building efficient hybrids similar to its regular cars, but instead it developed a fifth-generation model with a version of its TNGA C platform.
The shape is instantly recognizable as a Prius, but to these eyes it’s styled much more successfully than the previous model, which still looks to me like two different cars involved in a transport accident. But the new Prius will be 50mm lower and 25mm wider than the old model.
Under the hood you’ll find a slightly larger engine, a 2.0 L four-cylinder engine that still uses the Atkinson cycle. Battery capacity has been increased by 15 percent and the traction battery has been moved from under the cargo area to under the rear seat, placing it within the wheelbase for better weight distribution and handling.
Toyota
The larger engine increased total power to 194 hp (145 kW) for front-wheel drive variants and 196 hp (146 kW) for all-wheel drive versions. Toyota’s press release notes that the 2023 FWD Prius has reduced its 0-60 mph time from 9.8 seconds to 7.2 seconds, so the new car will be faster in traffic.
But people don’t buy Priuses because they want fast acceleration or sporty handling. Fuel efficiency is the goal of the game and Toyota has managed to make the new car even better than the current one, at least by 1 mpg.
Unfortunately, we’ll have to wait until later this year to find out exactly when the new Prius is coming to these shores, and how much it could cost.
