Press reports indicate that a freshening of the Toyota Prius will tone down its sci-fi styling. In the wake of drastically lower sales, “the base Prius will likely get some minor tweaks to its front and rear lights and large molded plastic bumper shields,” according to Green Car Report (Voelcker, 2018). The oddly spiked headlights and taillights are expected to look more normal — but without too closely mimicking the streamlined look of the Prime, which is a plug-in variant of the Prius liftback.
The Prime uses the same sheetmetal as the base Prius but has different front and rear styling. Although the Prime also has some weird styling flourishes, such as “double-bubble” lift gate glass, it’s not nearly so scary looking.
Toning down the Prius’ styling represents a major setback for Toyota’s once great hopes for the fourth-generation Prius, which was introduced in the 2016 model year (go here for our inside story).
Automotive News reported in December 2014 that the Prius’ initial design was sent back for a redo at the 11th hour. Reporter Hans Greimel (2014) wrote that “it’s clear from conversations with Toyota executives that a less-than-great design was not going to be approved.”
What was Toyota’s idea of great? “Getting the look right, executives hope, finally will free the Prius from its frumpy image,” stated Greimel.
Well, they certainly ditched frumpy. Let’s take a look at sales figures from carsalesbase.com to see how well that turned out.
One could argue that the Prius liftback’s 42-percent drop in sales from 2015 to 2017 reflects more than its controversial styling. During that same time period the Prius V fell by 62 percent and the Prius C by 68 percent.
Note, however, that the plug-in variant of the liftback saw dramatically higher sales — from under 2,500 in 2015 to almost 20,000 in 2017. In the latter year, the plug-in represented 23 percent of liftback sales, up from under 4 percent in 2015. Might that at least partially reflect its less weird styling flourishes?
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RE:SOURCES
- carsalesbase.com; 2018. U.S. Sales Data for “Prius liftback,”
“Plug-in hybrid,” “Prius C” and “Prius V.” Accessed April 15, 2018; links no longer live. - Greimel, Hans; 2014. “Last-minute Prius styling rebuff shows Toyota’s new focus on design.” Automotive News (subscription required). Posted December 15; accessed April 15, 2018.
- Voelcker, John; 2018. “2019 Prius will be restyled to look more like Prime: Report.” Green Car Reports. Posted April 11; accessed April 15.
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