So heres the thing, the 2024 Prius LE I own now is my first ever economy car. Ive always been a sports car guy. Ive owned Several Volkswagen Golf-GTIs, a Mazda MX-5, and a Veloster Turbo. Even once owned a Potiac Fiero and traded in my 2017 Honda Civic Si 2-Door Coupe towards this Prius. In fact, the Prius is my first ever automatic. My entire life up until this point I have driven Manual sporty cars. Theres a reason I went for the 5th Gen. In my opinion in the first ever Prius thay doesn't completely suck. Previous Gen Priuses were so slow that they would often cause issues in traffic, and because you had to floor it to get the thing moving - the fuel economy wasn't even that good, plus they were ugly. I mean my Civic Si nearly got the same fuel economy as the old Prius thanks to its slippery 2-door coupe body, low curb weight of 2800 Lbs and its super efficent, yet powerful 205 BHP Turbocharged 1.5L 4-Cylinder. This new Generation Prius represents a completely new design and philosophy for the little hybrid. Not only is it not slow anymore, its even slightly quick, being faster than a base model Jetta, Corolla, or Civic. Its also comfortable, stylish, and even handsome to look at, although I wouldn't say its quite "pretty" just yet. I never thought I would ever be a Prius owner, and yet here we are. So I was wondering - what if Toyota took this excellent new generation, and simply tweaked it a bit to create a hot hatchback that competes with the Volkswagen GTI and other popular Hot Hatchbacks. Hot Hatchbacks are so popular because they are so good at everything. They are fast, fun to drive, economical compared to other non-hybrid vehicles, they offer tons of space inside, are very safe in a crash, and even do pretty well in the snow. So what is Toyota takes the success of the Gen 5 Prius, and then adds even more power (up to about 250 BHP), lowers the ride height like 0.5-0.75 inches and stiffens the suspension like 15-20%, and then 18"x7" wheels with 215mm width tires and wala - you would have a car that drives a lot like a GTI, but offers much better fuel economy and is cheaper to insure? Sounds like a complete win-win to me. I even E-Mailed Toyota coorporate with the idea. So who knows, maybe sporty Prius in the future? Its just a fun idea and it would be pretty easy for Toyota to pull off.
You can have an economy car or you can have a sports car with lots of power... You can't have both, though some would argue the advancement of EV technology allows you to have both if you buy an electric car, but not with internal combustion engines.
Oh I would argue that you can with the Prius or any other advanced, modern hybrid for that matter. All it would need is slightly more powerful electric motors, and a slightly more powerful atkinson engine combined. If they brought 5th gen up from 130 to 195 BHP, then what exactly is stopping them from adding another 40-50 BHP to the Prius platform? Nothing at all, they can do it, they just need to choose to do it. Of course this theoretical Sporty prius wouldn't be as economical as my 2024 LE. I mean Ive been averaging 62-64 MPG every single tank in warmer weather. But as long as toyota is smart about the design, and doesn't add to much unnecessary weight, a sporty prius could have about the same straight-line performance as a Volkswagen Golf-GTI, and yet offer avout 48-50 MPG while doing it, and of course it would be cheaper to insure as well. Of course the only negative would be no manual transmission. With the electric motors and gas engine spinning at different RPM, the CVT with the power split device really is the only way to efficently blend the two power plants together. But I would say its a worthwhile trade-off. As a matter of fact, we already know Toyota can do this, because Toyota already has a car with much more power and a hybrid system - the Crown. Now imagine if they took the power of the Crown and threw it into the much smaller and much lighter weight Prius chassis - that would quite the recepie. The smaller and lighter profile of the Prius would take the Crowns powertrain and make it even faster and more efficient.
Yes, but truth is there's lots of hyrbid cars with big engines and sportier performance that only gets 35mpg and you'll spend double what you're spending on your Prius for gas over its lifespan. In my experience, the best case scenario is having a mental outlook that your low power Prius is actually kind of sporty and you can beat people in a race from a stoplight if they don't know you want to race. That seems like a better option than paying a fortune to get bad gas mileage and not thinking about it because on rare occasions you can floor it and feel lots of power. Or maybe you have a more practical reason for why a hybrid sports car is better than a hybrid high MPG car?
Gen 6 will likely offer a BEV version, which should be significantly faster. As for the hybrid version, I think the power could be slightly lower in Gen 6 because they are transitioning to a new, smaller, super-lean-burn engine that will deliver much better fuel economy.
How is 48-50 MPG bad gas mileage? A Sporty Prius would still have incredible fuel economy. Again, look at the Toyota Crown - a big, heavy, luxurious, powerful hybrid that can still manage 40+ MPG. The "Hybrid-Max Platinum" trim of the Crown weighs 4,335 Lbs, does 0-60 in 5.1 seconds, and has 340 horsepower. Weve had Hybrid SUVs on the market that do 35+ MPG for some time now. A standard, gas-only, non-hybrid version of the Toyota Crown would do at best like 25 MPG Highway because getting 340 horsepower out of just a gas engine would require a Turbocharged 3.0L V6 with low boost levels to eliminate lag. The reason has nothing to do with practicality. Some people like fun, sporty cars. Otherwise, why do fun, sporty cars even exist? And with a hot hatchback, you get the fun, sporty driving and all the practicality of a hatchback at the same time. Why do you think people love hot hatchbacks? Again, read the OP. A Hot hatchback is literally good at EVERYTHING, except maybe towing and going off-roading. Theres a very good reason why the Volkswagen Golf-GTI has been in production since 1976 (In USA, even longer in Germany), and has sold more than 50 million units of that single model worldwide making it the most popular hot hatchback of all time - its because its literally the PERFECT daily driver. There are no faults with a GTI that anyone can reasonably argue. Plenty of people want a sporty car that is still fuel efficient. Why do you think I owned so many GTIs, other small sporty cars such as my Civic Si that I traded in? You do realize my Civic literally did 40-41 MPG on the highway, right? And thats not even a hybrid. The reason a sports car was able to achieve such incredible fuel economy while not even being a hybrid was pure clever engineering. Its a small, 2-door coupe that only weighs 2800 lbs and has a very aerodynamic body. And because its so small and so light, it doesn't need a big engine to go fast. The 205 BHP 1.5L Turbocharged 4-Cylinder managed a 0-60 time of about 6.4-6.5 seconds, and thats with a manual 6-speed transmission. Honda doesn't offer an automatic on the Si or Type-R. You either drive the 6 speed, or buy a different car. The only bummer about my Honda was the short ratio gears. In order to achieve 40 MPG, I had to drive relatively slow on the highway compared to what most may expect. On a 70 MPH highway, I would restrict myself to 75 or less because of the RPM involved. Due to the short ratio gears, 70 MPH in 6th gear was 3000 RPM, so as soon as I started getting close to 80 MPH the engine would be screaming at 3500+ RPM and would begin destroying fuel. Short ratios are excellent fun for daily driving, but when you take a long trip there is definitely a downside. Honda has already taken my idea of a Sporty Hybrid car, its just they executed it poorly - the new 2026 Prelude. If Toyota takes the idea of the prelude and just keeps the practical Prius body and ACTUALLY adds more power, then the sports prius will be a massive hit. People wanted to love the Prelude, there was so much hype around the car, thousands of people were sitting there waiting for a car like it to come out. Then the final specs and price were revealed and it turns out - Honda majorly screwed up. Instead of adding more power, Honda simply took the existing Hybrid Powertrain from the 2025 Civic Hybrid and threw it into a different body. I still would have chosen the Prelude over the Prius if it weren't for the price. So Honda decided to make the new Prelude a low-volume production car. And because of that and the "2-Door Coupe" Tax that is somehow imposed because companies are stupid - The new Prelude starts at $45,000 and most people pay $47-$48K to actually pick it up. So you pay $48,000 for a $30,000 Civic Hybrid with a different body on it. Ya, needless to say it has been a complete flop. Honda had the ability to create the greatest daily driver of all time, but they were morons and ruined it.
I can't post links because Im too new to the forum and it wont allow me, but just go to youtube and search for the 2026 Honda Prelude review by Throttle House. You will see that they like the car overall, but it needs to be faster and it needs to cost a whole lot less.
Im not interested in full electric vehicles. Not yet, not until the battery pack can last 200,000+ miles with little or no degradation. Im sorry, but there is a reason why Tesla owners admit they made a mistake. Because when 130,000-150,000 mils hits on the odometer, you are stuck either buying a new car or paying $25,000 for a new battery pack. Plus EVs arent even as environmentally friendly as people think. You still have to plug into the coal-burning power grid to charge them, and making such a huge battery packs absolutely wrecks the environment. Building and charging EVs is still so bad for the planet that to be honest, owning a small sporty gas car such as my old Civic Si is considered to be exactly as environmentally friendly over its lifespan as owning any EV. EVs still suck, and until a completely new revolution in battery technology happens and I can charge one at my apartment that has no access to electricity in the parking lot, then standard, non-plug in hybrids still remain the best choice there is.
I call BS on an EV when Gen6 comes around... And considering all the delays and waffling before Gen5 finally come out, I think Gen5 will be as far Prius can go before its discontinued.
While I agree that BEV is unlikely as Toyota already has a selection of full electric vehicles, I doubt the Prius will be discontinued. Toyota invented the Hybrid with the original Prius of 1997 and Toyota remains the best seller of Hybrid vehicles by far. Getting rid of their absolute best economy car with the best fuel economy would only cripple themselves. Demand for 5th Gen Priuses is through the roof. Even in this currently collapsing economy I see tons of brand new or near-new 5th gens rollong around in my area. Its is by a large margin - the most common new generation car on the roads around here. New Generation Camrys are also quite common around here.
