how do you open the hatchback from the inside? going camping

Do you have your owners manual? You have to take the back cover/false floor off the trunk area and then the latch to open the hatch will be exposed. The hardest part is if you are inside the car and have to remove the back cover/false floor. The area is a bit cramped to be doing this while you're in the car.

 

The post above is about using the "emergency release". Other than that there is no way. You could tie a cord to the emergency release and feed it above the floor so you could get at it. For that matter, you could -probably- tap into the release wire and install a button on the inside, but that would require some effort and knowledge that is uncommon with the non-mechanical public.

 

If you are concerned about getting at the battery for a jump there is a jumper connection point under the hood . H

 

I tried sleeping in the car and had the car set up and parked with the front of the car slightly downhill. Wife said she didn't want to sleep with her head on the lower side so we slept or tried to with our heads at the back of the car. You can almost kiss the rear window from there! Well........ she hasn't offered to camp in the car since. I will certainly do it again, except I'll park so my feet will be in the rear of the hatch.

Point is, that if you sleep with your feet to the rear of the car there is no need to open the hatch from inside. I read somewhere on this forum that a couple of milk storage crates stacked and placed in the rear seat foot wells give a continuous surface of the rear compartment, with over 6 1/2' of room and you can sit up fairly well to get in and out. (Front seats must be vertical and all the way forward.)

 

Just curious - is the "emergency" release electrical? Or is it a mechanical release? I crawled through the rear door this week trying to fish my jumper cables out of the false floor compartment. The non-functional electrical release was my first clue that the battery was flat. Found that I had left the left rear door slightly ajar for 4 days in the garage while i was out of town.

 

Manual release. There is a jumper point in the engine compartment. H

 

Yeah, I remembered the jumper under the hood, but I had to check the manual to find it (didn't expect it to be in the fuse box). I just might need to rethink my jumper cable storage location! Seems like a key lock might be useful on the back of the hatch...

HTC One M8

 

Marpet30,

I know that this question is almost 4 years old, but I don't see a proper answer yet. Here are some detailed instructions for opening up the Prius Hatchback from inside the car.

Since I can't post links yet, here is what you do. Go to the website called axleaddict (with the normal com ending), go to to the folder called "cars", separated by a forward slash and then put this as the end of your web address - "How-to-Open-Your-Toyota-Prius-Trunk-When-Your-Battery-is-Dead". That page has detailed instructions along with pictures.

 

or better yet, here's a video