Toyota Prius Fifth-generation Announced A Major Change In Body Design With Plug-in Hybrid Energy

Although the Japanese automaker Toyota has begun to produce electric vehicles, they have not given up on the hot-selling hybrid models.

They announced the new fifth-generation Prius model in the United States yesterday. The basic gasoline-electric hybrid models will be launched in Japan in the winter. A plug-in hybrid version will go on sale in the U.S. and Europe next spring.

Yesterday's press conference mainly focused on the appearance design and features, and the pricing has not yet been made public.

Coming to the fifth generation of Prius, Toyota finally gave up the use of nickel metal hydride batteries and replaced them with thinner and lighter lithium-ion batteries. This change nearly doubled the horsepower, while bringing stronger acceleration and a 50% increase in battery life.

The new car adopts the second-generation TNGA platform, but the body design is more streamlined and lower. Compared with the previous generation, the height is reduced by 50mm, and the width is slightly increased by 22mm.

Although the length of the vehicle is reduced by 46mm, the wheelbase is increased by 50mm. Its A-pillar has a higher slope to the rear, coupled with the front design similar to bZ4X and bZ3 electric vehicles, and the 19-inch wheels enhance the running taste.

Toyota has not disclosed the specific specifications for the time being, but only revealed that there will be 1.8L and 2.0L gasoline-electric hybrids. The latter has 193ps horsepower, which is 1.6 times higher than the previous generation.

The plug-in hybrid Prius will be equipped with a 2.0L hybrid power system with a horsepower output of 223ps. It only takes 6.7 seconds to accelerate from 0 to 100 km, and the pure electric driving distance has increased from 63km to 95km.

The interior cage of the car continues to focus on the comfort of the family. At the same time, a new version of the intelligent driving and parking assistance system has been introduced, which can also be operated remotely using mobile phone programs.

Other features include a roof-top solar charging system, second-generation technology that can provide the equivalent of 1,250km of additional driving distance per year.