Few cars throughout history can claim to have altered the course of the industry, the Toyota Prius is one of them. The Japanese model has been on the market for many years, but its name is quickly associated with a style of mobility that spawned a new era in the motoring world. The “founder” of electrified cars will always have a place of honor in history, and every time a new generation emerges, everyone attends to find out what its new secrets and new technologies are.
Its origins date back to 1997, a first generation that opted for the compact format and a mechanism that was then called Hybrid Synergy Drive. Although it did not reach Spain, other markets did know what everyone considers to be the first commercial hybrid in history. A small 1.5-liter gasoline engine was associated with a 30 kW electric motor. What we take today as something every day, at that time was a turning point, although sales were not spectacular.
The real commercial explosion was when the Prius crossed borders. Toyota made it a global car and it was then that the second generation, presented in 2004, revolutionized the market. Its low consumption and its new style dazzled a society that began to speak for the first time about electrified mobility. At each new stage along the way, Toyota showed that it was years ahead in technology, although its rivals soon caught up. Today the Japanese have made their hybrid sedan a benchmark, although the latest generation has not penetrated so deeply in sales.
The fourth generation, presented in 2015, turned out to be excessively extravagant for a market that already had more to choose from. Despite this, Toyota went ahead, changing the styling slightly in 2018 with a facelift. Since then the Prius is not even the shadow of what it once became. Not even the introduction of a plug-in hybrid variant, Toyota’s first PHEV, managed to take flight. It was time to undertake a change, to re-introduce a new model that would redirect the situation, work that the Japanese have taken for 4 years.
But there is already an official presentation date; November 16, 2022. On that day, in Los Angeles, the world will be introduced to the fifth edition of the Toyota Prius. The announcement has come almost without warning, catching many by surprise. Very little is the information that has leaked. We only know that it will be the most efficient generation of all with a new hybrid engine that will achieve extremely low consumption figures. A plug-in hybrid version will also arrive, and its commercial launch will take place sometime next year.
The good thing is that you will not have to wait long to know every little detail of the new Prius. On an aesthetic level, the few sketches that the Japanese have advanced show a considerable change in design. The line is much more stylized than that of the current generation, and on the front, it is clear that the new design DNA of the house is chosen. The headlights are very reminiscent of the Toyota Crown, although little else we can guess. Toyota considers this presentation one of the most important of the year, knowing that they need to revive one of their star models to make it a new sales leader.
