Speaking in an interview to Autocar, CMO of Toyota Motor Europe Andrea Carlucci said the fifth-generation Prius is underway to the market next year, and will strive to uphold leadership in the eco-friendly segment.
To this end, the new Prius will take advantage of numerous new technologies and may even get a hydrogen version, although not the one involving fuel cells. BestCarWeb supposes that the launch is one year away from us.
The 2023 Prius will make use of a new platform based on the same technologies as the ones used in the latest TNGA cars, as well as the bZ4X electric SUV. The platform will support various hybrid and all-electric powertrains, but making the Prius all-electric is not on a priority at the time: the company will keep it hybrid for now.
However, it may become available with an internal combustion engine burning hydrogen gas instead of petrol. Toyota has been testing such an engine on its sports cars for a while now and may be ready to put it into the Prius Mk5 when it gets updated in 2025 or so.
Even though electric vehicle infrastructure has been booming in Europe lately, the company seems determined to prioritize hybrids over pure EVs for the time being.
The original Toyota Prius emerged nearly a quarter of a century ago and was one of the world’s earliest electrified mass-market cars.