2023 prius..Hybrid Reborn, interview w/chief engineer Satoki Oya

Just an editorial. The chief engineer's name is Satoki not Satoko.

You might want to edit it while you can.

 

Not sure. But if they are, then I'm sure that they know now how to put them on so that the wheel will not fall off.

BTW, just read the news that Akio Toyoda is no longer the president of the company. He is now the Chairman... Whatever that means.

 

Pretty sure they went with the bolts. Heard the Crown uses them, and they are cheaper for the manufacturer. Unless, Toyota has other issues with them come up, expect all models to use them in time.

 

According to the 2023 manual, they're nuts. (pg 498-9)

 

The bZ4X manual does spell out they are wheel bolts. No Crown manual available yet.

 

Yes. Unless it's a typo, supersceded:



Isn't it more of a struggle getting a wheel on with bolts?

But, but: corroborating @Tideland Prius, screen-grab from OP video (around 7:40):



Another screen grab, earlier in video, a little clearer:

 

With the bolts there should be a pin that is put into the top hole to guide the wheel. A threaded rod will work if you have to replace the pin. Without it, yes it will be difficult. Not only do you have to hold the wheel up, but the brake rotor could spin out of alignment while trying to get holes and bolt lined up.

The bZ4X manual instructions covers the procedure with the bolts. But I don't think I've ever seen a wheel lug/nut that could be fastened with a hex wrench. The Prius manual should have answered this, but we can't rule out a lazy or ignorant copy and paste.

 

The pictures certainly look like the bolts from the bZ4X. So it appears to either be a case of the manual reusing the text from the 2022 because they weren't informed of the change, or that the pre-production cars used for the press tour used components from the bZ4X or Crown and the production cars will go back to lug nuts. Like everything else, I guess we'll know when we actually see cars on the lots.

 

Guys, look at the pictures carefully. You can see the wheel studs.

So—thank God—It is not a bolt. It is a nut with a bolt-like head.

 

We did, and a close look of photos of the wheels of the review cars are showing bolts. The post before yours summed the situation up.

 

There is a 0.1% chance of the owner's manual being wrong.

The pictures in the 2022 owner's manual are different.

 

Well, it looks at least for the 19" wheels on the upper trims for North American models maybe using the lug bolts, not the nuts.
Google Translate did not work on the page for me, but the article gives details on the wheels of the new Gen5 Prius and says it is a bolt at least the one they used for the test drive. (the top photo below)

But the article also points out that the Gen5 Prius shown on the World Premium "looks" to be lug nuts. (the bottom photo below) So, the article reserves the possibility that both systems may exist depending on the models.

https://prius-news.com/159472.html

 

Nah, they are probably nuts of different shapes. You can't have nuts on some but bolts on others. I don't think any reviewer has removed a wheel yet. I can't imagine Toyota using bolts on their flagship vehicle after what happened with the limited-production bZ4X.

 

I don't think Prius is their flagship vehicle. But that is another topic. In any case, they did move to use wheel bolts on their new Crown. And I think for some Lexus.

However, by doing more Google searches, you may be correct about the lug nuts being used on the Gen5 Prius. I have found several reviews and discussions on this topic, and they are as confused as we are in most cases. No one has actually seen the wheel taken off from the production models of Gen5 yet. We will know for sure very soon.

 

maybe someone in cali will stop in and take a look