4th generation coming 2015!

A lot closer to production than Prius. But no need for you to be rude. This thread discusses the next gen Prius, not whats on the dealer lot now. Also, in your sense next gen Prius is vaporware? This thread is speculation. And the figures I quote are officially from Volvo. An interesting comparison to the next Prius plugin.

 

Hey, hey, people! Running with scissors while throwing verbal "rocks" isn't really allowed in this forum (wink,wink).

 

Hey guys, new to the forum. Very interesting photos, Heat Gun! The first thing that struck me was the overall shape of the roofline. Compared to the gen's 2 and 3, the apex appears to be over the rear seat, rather than the front seat. The hatch looks nearly parallel to the ground. I'm trying to determine if the rear end of the car is that much higher, or if the front of the car is lower. Given Toyota's stated goal of "lowering the waistline", I'm guessing that most of the difference is up front, with a steeper windshield angle as well. Rearward visibility looks... minimal. Hopefully a lower center of gravity will improve handling!

 

I would say we need to wait to see what this really looks like, without the camouflaged. That will likely take awhile since the car doesn't hit production for 17 months.

What we have from the official leaks are

lower weight and likely a new suspension. This should help handling, but we have no idea how much.

More efficient engine (40% peak versus gen III 38% peak), lower drag, lower rolling resistant tires should hit 55 mpg.

All wheel drive option is likely but not official. Lexus Nxh may be close to the awd system which only drops city mpg 2 mpg, and hwy 1 mpg. Initial rumors was awd would not operate at highway speeds.

Base battery will be nimh but some models will have lithium. This could just be the phv with lithium or lithium may be included in other

No carbon carbon electronics that will wait for gen V. Improved motors and batteries though.

Its an evolutionary not a revolutionary change. Toyota probably doesn't want to make a drastic change with a very sucessful vehicle. The aqua allows them some room to upgrade some components without worrying as much about cost and shoot for a little younger demographic.

 

The more I look at the photos the more I think the rear end is a fake rear end to make it look like the hatch on the Prius. Could it be they may have done away with the hatch and went with a trunk? Or a hatch that doesn't look like a hatch? If you look at the roof and where it connects to the hatch, it's so chunky it feels like they are trying to fake us all out.

 

That is *exactly* what I was alluding to when I earlier mentioned the rear door C-piller looked like it was from a sedan, not a fast/hatchback. However, the 'problem' with that is that a sedan shape is not as aerodynamic as the fast/hatchback shape; and, Toyota seems to be pushing for lower aero drag, not more!

 

If you look at older spy photos, the rear door windows take on the same shape. It's covered but you can still make out the same curve.

2015 Toyota Prius Spy Photos - Photo Gallery of Future Cars from Car and Driver - Car Images

 

The whole undercarriage full of batteries would work! "wonder where I got that idea?" ☺

 

GM's "skateboard" vehicle chassis?

 

Good guess but no..

Thought you'd never ask..

 

I saw another taped car in Los Angeles but went to different direction, hopefully I can catch in so I can get better pictures

 

Yep

 

Sounds like Toyota marketing is taking a cue from the vintners, "We will release no Prius before its time."

 

I don't see that much market potential for "higher" priced hybrid with li-ion if it's not plug-in. Those first adopters will look elsewhere (EV, PHEV). Maybe if the li-ion option would also bring higher power (both ICE and electric) and as mentioned AWD? But I doubt in high volumes.

If engine efficiency rumours are true (from 38% to 40%), that alone will make a boost of 5% in fuel economy. That is the boost that record breaking hypermilers will see. In real world driving there is a little more room for improvement with better hybrid efficiency and with recovering more heat from ICE (winter). But I think that higher than 54 MPG EPA is very unlikely.

 

I have no mechanical aptitude, so please forgive me if this is a stupid question...
Is it possible that if AWD is implemented, the front gearing could be at a ratio to allow the highest efficiency at highway speeds, and the rear gearing ratio allow a higher efficiency at city speeds?
Thus minimizing the hit, or even increasing mpg?

 

Short answer is no. While I suspect this description is not totally correct, AWD would probably work something like the new Lexus NX:

• There is no mechanical connection between the front-mounted engine/motor combination and the rear wheels on AWD models. Instead, this is a through-the-road system, wherein a completely separate motor/generator unit, rated at a peak of 67 horsepower, is housed in a unique transaxle that sends power to the rear wheels as needed. We didn't find many areas to test this setup up in Whistler, British Columbia, outside of a gravel parking lot, but that was enough to confirm that power does indeed flow to the rear when called upon, as it isn't all that apparent under normal dry driving conditions.
• Interestingly, Lexus tells us that electricity from the battery pack is diverted from the front-mounted electric motors to the rear motor when slip is detected from the front wheels. In this way, the all-wheel-drive system is used only when called upon, thereby saving fuel, and total system horsepower remains unchanged. The majority of the time, the rear-mounted motor sits idle or is used to recapture more energy during periods of regenerative braking.

 

Wouldn't the first bullet point allow for the completely seperate gearing ratio though? Which would be required for the idea of different axles being more efficient at different speeds?

Thanks for your patience

 

Technology does have its limits I know but 54mpg will be no good especially if we are implying thats the best HSD can do in the near future. Diesel cars of comparable size and performance are expected to reach 52 MPG EPA by 2015 without any hybridisation or relentless optimisation of wind drag coefficient so whether we like it or not, that is the competition we face.

 

I'm as clueless as you about this stuff, but my understanding is that the combo of the HSD and planetary gear set already achieves what you describe.