2010 Toyota Prius Adds Muscle at Expense of Fuel Efficiency
Toyota’s yet-to-be-unveiled 2010 Prius will have a bigger engine and a higher top speed, but improvements to CO2 emissions and fuel efficiency will take a backseat.
While the company has plans for a hyper-efficient plug-in version of the Prius by 2011, the standard model will make relatively few upgrades to its environmentally-friendly features. “It will be cleaner, with CO2 emissions below 100gm per kilometer,” said Miguel Fonseca, a Toyota managing director. “We could have gone lower but, instead, we have chosen to give the Prius better performance.”
The engine will grow from 1.5 to 1.8 liters, the top speed could increase from 106 to 120 mph, and the car will measure a few inches longer and an inch wider. A Toyota spokesperson said the changes were to increase the vehicle’s mass-market appeal, but with the changing economy and increased concern for the environment, it remains to be seen whether top speed will be among buyers’ concerns.
Now that nearly every car company has embraced hybrid technology, Toyota could soon face steep competition—take the recently-announced Chevy Volt, for instance. Instead of looking to solidify the Prius’ status as the most fuel-efficient hybrid available, they’ve decided to adopt an unfortunate bigger-is-better mentality.
Photo Credit: Lorentey on Flickr under Creative Commons license.
I see that Felsinger obviously is long on Toyota stock - this move by Toyota is outrageous and unprecedented. It’s obvious that since the misfortunes to GM, Toyota is taking the opportunity to flood the market with gas guzzling SUVs and trucks,
and using the now-not-too-efficient Prius as greenwashing to hide the raping of American consumers. Felsinger should be ashamed to be an obvious shill for this rapacious and overly profitable
corporation. Felsinger is now on my shit list. He deserves it.
This is a bad move on the part of Toyota. Gas prices have been really high for a few years now. Can they use the excuse that this was planned years ago?
This follows Toyota’s disastrous move into trucks and SUVs. The auto industry really is in trouble if they keep zigging when the world is zagging.
American car companies aren’t the only ones with their heads up their . Toyota has moved to number 1 and they’re acting just like GM did when they were there.
What a relief, the thing that was holding me back from buying a Prius was the 106 mile top speed. Those extra 14mph are just what the doctor ordered.
Now all I need to do is find someplace in the US where I can legally drive over 80mph…
Seriously, The people that are going to buy a funky looking car like the Prius are not buying it for luxury, looks or sports-car performance, they are buying it because they want to do what they can to live sustainably or at least look like they are.
Making the mileage worse undercuts the Prius brand and reduces the whole motivation to buy it.
I don’t see a thing in the article about this thing’s capability to tow a trailer. The best thing I have found so far is a big diesel guzzling diesel pickup truck. about 20-22 MPG empty and about 16-20 towing. I can’t find any small pickups with reasonable sized diesel engines. Now the Jag XF2.7D engine (which Ford builds in Dagenham England) with a proper 6 speed tranny would be great, but it’s not available.
Erm, to be fair, the article did say it would have lower CO2 emissions. Lower CO2 emissions = better fuel economy, assuming a working catalytic converter of course. So they didn’t make the fuel economy worst. They just didn’t make it *as better* as they could have.
This is pretty discouraging. I can’t even begin to imagine what they are thinking. I sure hope a wave of electric vehicles hits the market soon. Before Toyota kills the goose that’s been laying it’s golden eggs.
@ChuckL: What’s the weight and tongue weight of that trailer? My folks have a ‘96 Jetta TDI they use to haul a trailer, but it’s usually no more than 2000 lbs. Driving it feels like it could take more though.
Nobody buys a Prius for speed *or* performance. I don’t get what they’re trying to do here. I guess enough people were in the heated argment of “I bet my Prius is faster than your Civic Hybrid” at stoplights.
I don’t understand the problem here. Within this article are no numbers showing a drop in fuel efficiency or CO2 emissions. All they state is they could have gone lower at the cost of performance. Toyota is expanding their market with the new Prius by delivering a better driving experience while retaining the high mpg.