Prius v 3rd row seating....

I don't think it can be done. IIRC, the version with the third row seating uses a Li-type battery in the center console, vice the US version using the older battery type that resides where 3rd rowing seating would go.

 

Gathered Prius Vee'erz - Lee is correct. The 7-passenger version of the Prius v hybrid wagon sold in Japan, Europe, Australia, and etcetera had to move and replace the standard, larger volume NiMH Traction Battery with a more volumetricly compact Li-Ion battery of the same performance. The replacement Li-Ion Traction Battery was moved from the battery location beneath the Cargo Bay Floor to make room for the feet pan, feet space of the “+2,” passengers space required for the added third row rear passenger seats.


You can thank your lawyer friends, and the litigious culture of the 21st Century U.S. for keeping the seven-passenger, seven-seat version of the Prius v hybrid wagon out of U.S. showrooms. To offer a 7-Pax v(vee) wagon that would keep NHTSA bureaucrats, and “Ambulance Chasers” away and at bay, would require installation of a Rear Air-Bag System, and further increase the price of the v(vee) wagon, as well as have it be completing with the seven-passenger, 7-Passenger Sienna van.

 

(what I want is a Prius v PHV using both battery locations)

 

Correct

I would like the option to remove the seats when not in use, to save fuel.

 

The curtain airbags on 7 seater extend all the way to the third row. Isn't that enough for US regulations?

 

EMCGuy - G'day Mate, from up under. To be honest, I am not sure. USA NHSTA bureaucrats forced the Toyota (Scion) iQ to install 11 standard airbags in the car, including the world’s first rear window airbag, before they would let it be sold in America. I am just presuming that because of similarly very close geometry of the two, +2, added rear seats and the rear cargo door hatch in the seven-passenger Prius Plus/Alpha version of the Prius v(vee), NHSTA would impose the same rear impact, rear air bag, NHSTA standard on the seven-seat Prius v Station Wagon sold in the USA.

The reason we in Yankee Doodle Land are not offered the seven-passenger Prius v Station Wagon, may simply be so a 7-Passenger version of the Prius v Station Wagon would not compete with Toyota’s 7-Passenger Sienna van, and, thereby, gut some of those Sienna van sales. However, here in our “Big Mama State” of the new United Socialists States of America, my tax money is on the NHTSA bureaucrats.

 

OP can look at some of the images that still work at [Hands-On] Prius+ (Plus) or Prius V, Toyota’s first Hybrid MPV and CNBC video. | PriusChat.

(That thread was created before the forum software switchover.)

 

I could be wrong, but I don't believe that any third row seats in US vehicles are required to be crash tested?

This is a little old, but seems to indicate third row airbags won't be mandatory until 2018 and there was no clear timeline as of 2011 for when third rows might start being crash tested.
Airbags for Three-Rows Not Universal - KickingTires

 

If Toyota was to introduce a new 3rd row seat version in the USA, I would look for them to do it shortly after the new battery packs are rolled out.(2015+) Current American models would not support it thanks to the current American battery location.

 

Corporate propaganda for years has worked to persuade Americans that they don't need access to the justice system. I for one am grateful to our lawyer friend Ralph Nader for calling out lying auto execs about safety belts. I really want a third-row Prius, but I'm not persuaded that we don't have it because it's less safe...I think it's more likely that Toyota doesn't want to cannabalize it's lucrative SUV sales here.

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