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.
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.
