Well, I don’t see a down side to removing this from the back hatch if it does not increase sound levels too much to get more cargo room. Maybe instead toss in some foam Matt material. Seen on Alex on Auto review.
I wonder if it would help to put some foam in the cargo area and rear floor when we drive from Arizona to Georgia. The floor and cargo area are usually filled with suitcases and other things that all probably transmit road noise.
Google search for Alex On Autos 2023 Prius review. One would just lift the felt cover up then remove the Styrofoam piece from right and left side
at 8:30, he makes some unfortunate observations about cargo area space, then goes under the deck to the styrofoam: watch he does a nice job imo, better than any other review i've seen. it's funny, when i first saw the gen 5, i was overwhelmed and excited. after seeing so many details now, i feel it's not going to work for me.
Hmmmmmmmmm..... why are they putting so much styrofoam there. I would just remove them all and have more space instead of making it flat when the back seat folds down.
i suppose they think it would look weird? or maybe to give the LE the spare placement. either way, there might be an option for oem styro for a spare, like the gen 4. it would be nice if they had a prefab option for people who just want more depth, or storage. anyway, it's good to know the space is there, and judging by the looseness of the styrofoam, i don't think they're adding to crash safety. i like the way they did the 12v, compared to gen2 and 3.
To support the lighter load floor. If you watch the video when he lifts it up to reveal the white organizers underneath, you can see it has noticeable flex to it. And while you might prefer maximum open volume versus a flat floor, you're very likely in the minority with that view. Especially considering that dropping the cargo floor to the bottom would create a large lip at the hatch that would make it difficult to lift things in and out of. Personally, I would prefer a more rigid floor that would allow for larger compartments underneath and one that was also continuous from side to side like the one in the gen3. But I'm sure there are cost/weight/commonality of parts/other reasons why Toyota seems to be going the way they are.
I found out in this video at 4:21 the cargo space is much more and the floor is lower and flat with the space around the battery. Maybe we can have more cargo space if we retrofit parts from Japan?
Also something off the cargo topic. In this video at 6:51, I see an auto-folding mirror button. Japan has more equipment than the US as always.
wouldn't it be nice if they made it more versatile by simply allowing you to remove blocks of styro for a deeper space, leave them if you want it flat, or exchange them for ones that hold a compact spare
The styro is for reducing road noise from the rear. Maybe @Danny can source a styro pre-fab for a compact or full size spare in his PriusChat Shop. Looks like it would be enough depth for a compact spare but have a slight hump with a full size spare. I think people wouldn't mind a little hump over taking up half the room with a spare on the top or behind the passenger seat like some have done.
So it is hard to discern...is the cargo flat still flat or might is slope downward towards the back as it flows from behind the back seats. Indeed if that could be sourced from Japan that would be great though guessing toyota won't want to see the parts #1 and cost #2 would be very high...just guessing.
it's hard to be sure in two dimensions. in one shot, it looks about 6" lower. then when they lift the floor mat, it only looks like an inch to me.
For sound deadening without the styrofoam you could add Dynamat to the cargo floor. If you added a space saver spare you could cut a sheet of Masonite or plywood to fit over it and provide a flat load surface.
This appears to have the red accent lighting on the dash - thought that was only for the Prime?, regular Prius has blue?
