Currently reading: Toyota Prius leaks early
Next generation Toyota Prius pictures surface early on the web

Three images of the new Toyota Prius have leaked onto the internet ahead of the petrol-electric hybrid’s launch next year.

The pictures show that Toyota has stuck closely to the current Prius’s proportions, but that the new car has been given a sleeker, more aggressive look.

We already know that the new car is going to be bigger than the outgoing model, with Toyota insiders saying it will be about 10cm longer and 3cm wider than the second-generation Prius.

It will also get a more tightly packaged hybrid drivetrain and battery pack to further increase interior accommodation.

A bigger capacity 1.8-litre petrol engine will provide more power and still lower emissions, with the new car capable of a combined economy figure of more than 70mpg, and CO2 emissions likely to be below 90g/km.

Despite the rush of other manufacturers towards lithium-ion batteries, the new Prius will initially continue to use a version of the current car’s nickel hydride battery pack.

Toyota is determined that nothing should sully the company’s reputation for reliability, and the plan is to introduce lithium-ion batteries in 2010, after the technology has proved reliable.

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benw123 21 October 2008

Re: Toyota Prius leaks early

bomb wrote:

The technology you mention from BMW that, quite rightly, tries to make efficiency improvements over more conventional products makes far greater use of the fossil fuel powering it with much less impact on the environment in terms of producing the vehicle in the first place and then disposing of it at the end of its life.

There was a test between a BMW 520d saloon and a Prius in the Sunday Times earlier this year - I don't know how relevant a comparison that is - during which the Prius failed to match the BMW's fuel consumption figure on mixed roads over 500 miles.

I applaud Toyota for pioneering this technology but less fuel can be used more efficiently and sympathetically elsewhere.

Agreed - BMW's EfficientDynamics is the most recent and most credible attempt at genuine fuel efficiency; the engine shuts off at a standstill, low resistance tyres are fitted, aerodynamic shapes are used and alternators which charge the battery under engine braking or cruising - all Prius strengths.

I also read the same 520d vs Prius comparison, which took place on a journey to the Geneva motor show. The BMW pipped the Prius by just a few mpg, but critically - to labour a point myself and "ordinary bloke" have made several times in this thread - the journey in the Prius would have been cheaper thanks to the lower cost of unleaded.

And therein lies the real reason I've stood up and batted for the Prius, and indeed why after researching dozens of differents cars I went ahead to purchase one - forget all the so-called "green" credentials, and even the claims made by Toyota. It's just an extremely cheap car to run.

jskater 21 October 2008

Re: Toyota Prius leaks early

Apparently it was a mis-translation of Starion/ Stallion-esque proportions...

It was meant to be Pious, not Prius...

csmith319 20 October 2008

Re: Toyota Prius leaks early

Sorry - being honest, I'm on holiday and was being rushed to get out of the door to go for dinner, so was just being funny (although my wife tells me I'm not funny, so maybe she's right...).

It's not a rubbish car, far from it, just maybe a little premature and doesn't live up to what it promises - in someways, isn't the Civic hybrid a better execution of this breed?