Prius C 2012 - Removing Back seat

I am considering buying a Prius 2012 C but I wonder if it is possible to remove the back seat?

I would like to carry one or two bicycles in the back of the car and I need to remove the back seat completely to do so.

Of course, I could buy a Prius III or a Prius V, but I want a small car because I live in a city and parking is always an issue.

Note: I like to keep my bike inside the car because on week end I used also to go shopping after doing a bike ride and I cannot park inside a mall if I have a bike on the roof. Also using a bike rack on the bumper or the trunk door makes parking in the street difficult, exposes the bike to be damaged by other cars, or been vandalized and have some components been stolen, also I cannot anymore open and use the trunk.

The rear seat doesn't fold completely, only the vertical part fold above the bottom part, making the truck not very practical, also there are two pieces of foam, above the spear tire, that I would like to remove to take advantage of the full truck size.

See also the following thread and pictures: Foam panels under trunk?
Foam panels under trunk? | PriusChat

I looked at the Prius C at the dealer, but I was not able to be certain:
1. If it was possible to remove the seat (I did not see any screws)
2. If the battery was located inside the back seat (explaining why the seat cannot fold down)
3. Or if the battery was located below the back seat, thus allowing removing the back seat
without exposing the battery.

I found the following video showing the body frame of thePrius C:
Toyota Prius c Technical Presentation - Dave Lee w/ Q&A

If you look at the 24:34 to 24:56, it seems to me that the battery is well below the back seat and there is a metal frame on top of it (see Red color in the picture shown in the video.)

If the battery is below the back seat, I wonder why Toyota decided to keep the bottom of the back seat fixed and use a piece of foam to make the trunk flat?

If you own a Prius C, can you look more closely and tell me what you think.

May be I will try to rent a Prius C for a weekend allowing me to get all the measurements that I need!

 

Thank you for your reply. If you can post a picture, that will be great.

Do you think that there is any issue with the battery not covered?

Does the battery get hot and Toyota did not wanted to have a fllor mat too close above the battery?

Is there any vent above the floor that will be on the way or do you get a full flat surface, except above the spare tire?

Do you need any tool to remove the clips? I might have to this operation at least every weekend. I would like to design some kind of hinges to fold the back seat against the back of the front seats.

I am still puzzle why the back seat cannot be folded like in the Honda Fit?

 

I am surprised that there is no air vent to cool the battery. In general there is a special vent integrated within the rear window or bumper. Here is a picture of a Prius


There is a white fan on the top right:




Honda Civic Hybrid, the vent on the left is quite noticable.


Here is the full Honda CR-Z Hybrid




The Fan is located near the spare tire

 

It would be great if you can document the removing steps and also describe the battery pack and air vent mechanism.

 

The Honda Fit back seats can fold up




Or they can fold down:


The new Fit-EV does not provides this dual configuration:


Ford Focus EV trunk , not too great....



Focus-EV battery, should be located under the car floor


The Nissan Leaf has all the batteries under the car floor, still the trunk is kind of cumberson:

 

I was thinking that the back seat was covering the battery, and part of the battery was inside the seat.

In fact the battery is located well below the back seat, so I don't see any reason to have the bottom of the seat been fixed?

If you look at the video showing the body frame of the Prius C at the 24:34 to 24:56 time:

Toyota Prius C Technical Presentation - Dave Lee w/ Q&A

You can notice that the battery is bolted on the floor panel and there is a metal frame on top of the battery (see Red color in the picture shown in the video.)

Because of that, there is this "strange" piece of foam, about 7" thick, in the trunk to make the trunk at the same level than the back seat when folded.



At least Toyota could had designed a box like in the Prius to store some small items.

The piece of foam is a waist of space and real no no!

It looks like an afterthought for a car using such advanced hybrid technology?

I was going to get a Prius C but I really got cold feet when I looked at the trunk and the piece of foam.

I wonder if anyone had the same felling?

 

Thank you for following up but my point was to try to understand why Toyota decided to make the trunk of the Prius C so tiny, as it would had been simple to make it more deep by not placing a 7" piece of foam above the spare tire.

And also making more practical by making the full back seat folding all the way as this seems possible by adding a set of hinges.

I imagine that a lot of Green cars drivers also like to ride a bike and carry a bike inside their car, and that was my issue.

I was not comparing the C to its older sister.
The Prius C 1.5L ($19k-$23k) is more a Yaris 5-Door 1.5 L ($15k-$$17) with a well designed hybrid system in it, than a Prius 1.8 L ($24k-$30k) with a reduced one foot and a half size length.