New Toyota Prius

So, the word (and the picture that’s worth a thousand more words) got out on the new ‘09 Toyota Prius. Kudos to folks at Popular Mechanics for publishing their spy report in the March 2007 issue of the magazine. There are scarce details about the next-gen Prius yet but here is what’s known so far


It’s expected to get a new 1.8L engine and better fuel economy at the same time. Sounds like an oxymoron to me though. You’d think larger engine means more fuel consumption but we’ll see.


The car is going to become 1inch wider and 1 inch shorter. I think I like that. Current model looks a bit too narrow. Is it just me or you guys also think of it as not being terribly stable on the road, especially if loaded heavily as I had a chance to experience today myself. I think it has to do with the body being rather high and narrow. Even though heavy batteries on the bottom surely add stability to the current model already, and think the new Prius will benefit at least aesthetically from becoming a bit wider.


The 80MPG figure announced by PM seems to be totally taken off a wall. I think that the author was participating in some earlier discussions about diesel hybrid before where the 80MPG figure was getting tossed around a lot and that stuck. Again, better fuel economy with larger engine seems rather unobtainable, but we’ll see what future hold. Maybe the ‘09 Prius is really going top be diesel

Toyota Prius Interior

The solar panels on the roof seems a bit looney an idea. I hope Toyota drops that. If they ever actually considered that of course. I can imagine that good panels the size of the roof will cost $2000-$3000, will be rather brittle and heavy and might only add maybe 300W if the car is parked on scorching Sun. I don’t know about you but I always instinctively park in the shadow if it’s available, so the solar panels will be of little use to me.


In any case, what good are the solar panels if you are parked in a garage, anyways?
So, all in all, I think the new design looks promising. The only issue is to see what the new engine is going to do to the fuel economy figures that are already invariably lower than what’s advertised. The weird 80MPG and ‘solar panels on the roof’ details thrown into the spy report simply show that not much is known about the actual production vehicle at this point. We’ll be posting more here as more details become available.

Toyota Prius Right Side
Toyota Prius Hatchback