I have previously written about my complete disappointment with the Gen. 5 Prius. As I said, Prius was discontinued by Toyota. They merely used the Prius nameplate to market a new vehicle. Grrrr! Nevertheless, since 2024 offered no changes or upgrades, I am curious about 2025, which will be year three for Gen. 5. -I would like to see smaller tires offered for higher trim models. The 19” are unnecessary, heavy and ridiculous. -Expand solar on the roof and to the hood. -Recognize that the top selling point of Prius is mileage/range. I am not sure an improvement can be offered until Gen. 6. -Continue to lessen road and wind noise. -Allow customers to opt out of all information sharing. It’s out of control. Companies think they’re entitled to know what you’re doing and what you’re saying. Strict privacy laws must be passed.
Agree on all points... Can't imagine them executing on anything on your list though considering the way they've been circling the drain of car tech advancement for a while now.
As an owner of a 2017 Prime who has actually driven a 2023, 19 wheel on upper trim has left me on the sidelines. Drop in mpg compared to my current car with no spare? Single car family here. I also know it won't change.
The OP's wish list could be generalized across most new car models - & especially plugin's. Road noise is especially noticeable when you don't have the rumble of ice. As for Road noise, if not the 1st, Tesla was one of the pioneers of ev road noise mitigation - by having Continental tire manufacturing install sound deadening compound inside the tires. We discovered this by having a flat on our Tesla X & the repair required dismounting the tire from the wheel & slicing out a section of the compound - in order to do the repair. Then - for better balancing - reinstalling that section of compound. Cost/benefit analysis? sheesh. Same complexity for solar panels on cars. The cost (even after collisions) versus effectiveness? sheesh. But as for ridiculous oversized wagon wheels? Yeah that's a go. .
To address road and wind noise, manufacturers have used thicker windshields and driver/passenger windows. Some have also added padding inside the dashboard area and the front doors. While more expensive, I would think that thicker windshields are probably safer and more resistant to cracks.
Increase the interior headroom, and the hatch opening and space. Move the shifter and create more storage space
I don't expect any changes from Toyota regarding the Prius ....unless some competition pushes them ....like a Tesla model 2 a pure EV...if it happens
I mean, the Prius is still exceptionally fuel efficient. It remains a hatchback so continues to have more space than other Toyota sedans (even if it is smaller than before), and it does have to offer *something* beyond fuel efficiency to keep its place in their vehicle lineup. Otherwise they might as well put a hatch on the hybrid corolla and drop the Prius nameplate entirely. They've gone for filling the gap between corolla and Camry hybrids with hatchback and sporty styling. Given the Camry is hybrid by default now, I wouldn't be surprised if the Prius nameplate becomes a PHEV by default before other lineups move there too, especially if they get batteries to be more dense or small form factored for better hatch space overall. I will say though, the wheel size should be an option rather than trim default and having the lighting package be the same between all trims would be a nice to have. But that's far less fundamental than many other comments on here
Offer five more colors even if three of them are exclusive to the top line trims. More solar roof options on more models. Smaller wheels and tires like set above. And offer the Le model to be $35,000 out the door but not take anything away from the current model.
1. The overhead lighting needs physical buttons. It's quite the challenge to find a touch sensitive flat area in the dark. And in the dark is when you'd most need to find a button to turn on the light. Physical buttons would easily guide a person to be able to turn it on/off. Physical buttons for lights just makes sense. The lighting for the middle of the car has physical buttons, we just need that same effort up front for the overhead map lights. 2. When going around a turn with adaptive cruise control enabled, while being under your target speed, and a car that was in front of you is lost in the turn, ACC should NOT attempt to speed up to your target speed until you come out of the turn since it's almost guaranteed that the car you lost in the turn will still be there in close distance once you come out of the turn. It's just dangerous for the car to attempt to speed up in a turn. This is an easy software fix. This is NOT the same as reducing speed in turns, that option exists. This is to tell the car not to accelerate in a turn if it just recently lost sight of a car in front. ACC should wait 1-3 seconds after coming out of the turn to reassess distance of any cars in front before accelerating. 3. The stereo should have an option to reset the volume to a specified value when it turns off. Allow us to choose that volume level in that setting of course. It's an easy fix for when you were rocking out in the car on your way somewhere and then you get back in the car and it starts at that loud volume you left it at and you're just not ready for that level. 4. An indicator on the info cluster if it's dark and headlights are not on. Since everything is lit up now you don't have that visual cue of your info cluster being dark like you do on older cars. 5. Currently hold to unlock can be made to roll down all windows. An odd option. I do wish it was like my old car where holding unlock on the key fob unlocked ALL the doors. Instead of trying to double tap the unlock with the right timing to make it happen as it is currently. I think a lot more people would appreciate hold to unlock all doors more than they want all windows rolling down. 6. Daytime running lights should just be a button, not an option on the stalk. Allowing you to toggle it more easily and gives you the ability to combo it with normal headlights or not. 7. The half turn signal trigger. Not a fan of it, end up triggering it frequently when I cancel a turn signal and push the stalk too far in the opposite direction. Can be confusing for other drivers and is embarrassing when it happens. 8. Add a variable follow distance option to adaptive cruise control. If I'm doing 20mph I don't need a big following distance from the car in front of me, but if I'm doing 65mph I certainly do. Would be a nice feature if my speed dictated the follow distance. Obviously while still having an option to set it manually like it currently it. 9. Blind spot indicators (they light up on the side mirrors) should be internal. They can be on that small vertical separator near the side mirrors that splits the roll down window from the small triangle of glass slightly more forward, AND/OR they can be on the farthest left and right of the instrument cluster. Which honestly would be even safer since you don't need to take your eyes off the road to know you have someone in your blind spot. Just makes more sense that external indicators be for information that other drivers need and internal indicators be for the driver of the car. 10. Base reverse speed is too fast for parking lots and it seems like mechanical brakes are being used a bit much to control the speed when the voltage to the electric motors could just be reduced a bit more. Side note, it's weird that you guys want more solar options and stuff. Makes sense if you only plan to lease the car but no one who is thinking long term ownership would want MORE repairable things added. Once these warranties go out people are going to get some real sticker shock at the cost of things. Now that minor fender bender that would've only needed your quarter panel and hood just bent back now needs a replacement hood solar panel which is gonna run you $3000. Same people who want all this stuff are the same people who complain about planned obsolescence, high repair bill costs, etc. Keep the solar on the roof of your home where another car won't hit it.
The Toyota hybrid drive is kinda on its peak- expecting further wonders seems a little bit unreasonable. Toyota works more on pleasing the mainstream - like more power, less weird noises and such. I wish actually they would have tried less hard to get maximum MPG with the P5 as none really likes these hard to get, annoying tires.
17.7 miles for 49 minutes averages out to driving at only 36mph. You DO realize a screenshot over just a tenth of a tank skews results? There are hypermilers here some here - driving in the genII Prius (20yr old tech) that could achieve 80'MPGs over the entire tank of gas ... so their results are based on 700 miles or more ... on the whole tank of gas. AND they didn't have the benefit of using 79% electric. Keep practicing ...you'll get better.
Long-timers such as yourself, should know by now that I'm the king of G5 fuel economy around here. I just post this for the newcomers who cry. They're not phony or skewed. I get these results nearly every day. This is just normal city driving, with normal acceleration; no annoying, hypermiling techniques. Lots of stop lights, turns, etc. I've clocked a 700 mi. tank, and could absolutely hit 750-800 IF I created a bunch of artificial, multi-hour city journeys - which is never going to happen. These screenshots are just reminders to folks who whine about G5 efficiency, but just don't know how to properly drive a hybrid. The G5 is absolutely more fuel efficient than the G4. Or at least, its potential is higher IF you know how to drive her.
Despite being more powerful and larger displacement, the 2L is as, or more, thermally efficient as the old 1.8L. It seems Toyota only kept the 1.8L around in Japan in order to have a cheapo model for fleet sales. I know it does better on their tests, but Japan only does the 3 cycle WLTP, and the numbers don't include high speed, freeway miles.
From your screenshot it looks like you're generally driving slow(er) & yes that's the easiest way to "know how to drive it". less hills, shorter trips allowing recharging, flat land, less traffic, etc all help. Most don't have that luxury & rather instead may drive 50 miles on the freeway doing 75-80mph just to keep up. Maybe only 10 to 15°f or even colder winters too. Makes a big difference. .
