Featured Gen 5 Prius now further delayed to the model year 2024

I blame Porsche. Marketing decided sedan would somehow sully the brand, so came up with calling 4 doors a coupe. Seems others are following their lead.

 

Yeah, those newer driver-assist features are not particularly useful for my daily driving conditions. Most of the features do not work at all on one lane rural roads, no traffic to follow, and mostly no lane markers. Our roads are often without a center lane or side lane painted. Even if it gets a fresh painting of lane markers, they are usually gone by the first snow. I will buy a car if it comes with those features standard, but I certainly will not pay extra for it.

 

Well, it looks like the article that this thread is about may be wrong. They cite Bestcarweb as saying that the next gen Prius will come out in January 2023.

I follow that site. It announced a few weeks ago that it's June 10 print edition would reveal info about the next gen Prius. Today it published that article on their web site. It states that the Next gen Prius will be released in January 2022, not 2023.

Here is a link to the article which is in Japanese. Use Google Translate to convert to English:

最終デザイン判明!! 2022年冬次期型登場!! HVの代名詞 新型プリウスとトヨタの深謀遠慮 - 自動車情報誌「ベストカー」

They are basically saying that the next gen Prius won't change much, will still have 1.8 L gas engine with the Toyota Hybrid system and a similar body (hatchback with split window) but that the engine may eventually be converted to burn hydrogen. Aside from their rendering of the body, very few details are given.

So, the big question is 2022 a typo or the real release date. Nothing official from Toyota

 

Here are their renderings:

 

I wonder how many Prius 4 sales have been lost due to the extreme ugliness of the exterior? (This is of course according to my own taste!) Personally, I would buy a corolla over a Prius for that reason alone, even though the Corolla front end is still pretty horrible!

Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.

 

I didn't read the entire article OP linked. I looked at the linked Japanese article, it says "Next-Gen Debut 2022 Winter" in the title, and in the article, it states the next-gen full model change is expected to debut in "Dec. 2022". So, the OP's original article may have assumed the actual earliest release in the US would be Jan. 2023?

Edit: I just read the OP-linked article. Even if the next gene release in the US is early 2023 following the debut in Japan in Dec 2022, I don't know why they speculated it would take a full year for the new Prius to reach the dealership in 2024.

Edit2: BTW, as summarized by @royrose, the linked Japanese article describes almost nothing about the Gen5 Prius exterior design. It says nothing about the "Coupe-like" body. Most of the article content talks about speculation that Prius's next-generation power unit may shift to hydrogen-base similar to what is found in Mirai, but this change will not happen at least for 3 years. Thus the starting of the Gen 5 projected in 2022 winter is likely to be a carryover power unit from the Gen4 using a 1.8L engine and battery.

 

Well, they are fake but the magazine claims that they have based them on accurate info. They state "we have already obtained the final confirmation information of the exterior design." but then state "the image is the predicted CG by the best car editorial department". By final design, they mean that it will still be a 5 door hatchback.

Their headline makes it sound like major news but the article seems like mostly speculation to me.

Ah. I read the article in the middle of the night and didn't see the Dec 22 date in the wording under one of the renderings. I figured Winter 22 was January or February.

Except they are talking about an ICE that runs on hydrogen rather than a fuel cell.

 

It is likely a wash, since the market was moving away from "cars" and that familiar look was becoming available elsewhere.

 

Oh Yes, you are correct. According to the article, the Hydrogen based e-FUEL engine is going to be the main new feature of Gen5 Prius. However, the article claims this to happen as a mid-generational "minor change" during Gen5. The article does not elaborate on details of what this power unit is going to be. My speculation was that it is going to be a hydrogen-powered internal combustion engine and a fuel-cell-powered electric motor hybrid. But that change sounds so much more than the current THS, not a "minor change". This makes me think the entire article to be very untrustworthy.

 

Toyota has been working on hydrogen fueled engines.
Toyota Developing Hydrogen Engine Technologies Through Motorsports | Corporate | Global Newsroom | Toyota Motor Corporation Official Global Website
They may have finally acknowledged that expensive FCEVs alone aren't enough to grow hydrogen infrastructure. The Prius being the first consumer car to get it makes sense. Considering past dual-fuel hydrogen burning cars suffered from power or efficiency loss, I don't see Toyota putting this engine in a nonhybrid.

 

Just adding that the latest bestcarweb. jp article does add that the next gen Prius will use the new "bipolar" battery. That would make it the first in the U.S. while Japan is getting the Aqua with the bipolar battery first.

 

where did the rear bumper go, looks like it already got hit by a snow plow

 

selling point for us old fogies that are the only ones left driving sedans - makes it easier to lift stuff in and out the hatch?

 

a concept car for sale . . . yea that'd be a 1st. not too often concept cars even remotely look like the final version / end product.

because it's oh-so easy for us old peep's to crouch way low down to get in uber low cars?

.

 

hey, if ol' joe can do it, i can too. of course, i'm not 6'-9"