Toyota plans bigger 'wagon' Prius with lithium-ion battery for next year

As for Li-Ion batteries, their time will come. Being able to produce high yields at low cost is what Toyota has been working toward. Shifting over sooner is an unnecessary business risk for Prius... but on an entirely new hybrid, that's more realistic.
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A couple of comments:

1) The so-called "larger Prius" makes me guess that the model will be essentially a variant of the JDM Toyota Wish with the Lexus HS250h drivetrain. That makes the most sense since the HS250h drivetrain is powerful enough for a fully-loaded Wish to accelerate decently fast.

2) As for the hybrid Sienna based on the next-generation model that will be unveiled in a couple of weeks at the Los Angeles Auto Show, the most likely drivetrain will the one from the Lexus RX450h "crossover" SUV, since that is powerful enough for a fully-loaded Sienna. Even though it may cost nearly US$37,000, I think it will be a surprise hot seller.

3) This is what the interior of the current Toyota Wish looks like:



Note it appears it can seat five adults comfortably plus two small adults/children also.

 

Tesla's Li-ion pack is just a bunch of generic 18650-type lithium-ion battery cells. It is not a "state of the art" EV battery.
The same concept of 18650 Li-ion battery packs are introduced by Panasonic and Sanyo.
Panasonic Develops High Energy Lithium-ion Battery Module with High Reliability
SANYO to Mass Produce New Large-capacity High-voltage Lithium-ion Battery Systems

All Li-ion battery design are not equal.
For hybrid vehicles, the required characteristics are high instantaneous power output and high instantaneous charging power.
For EV, the required characteristics are capacity, capacity and capacity.

Ken@Japan

 

I hope Toyota will have some sort of hybrid with third row seating + trunk space. Otherwise it's just a waste of space/mileage.

 

Is it real, or is it... Photoshop??

2011 Toyota Prius Station Wagon To Feature Lithium-Ion Battery - Green Car Reports

 

Maybe this will help. You know that we've been saying for some time there is no advanced technology drivetrain that is the silver bullet - that there are numerous paths required to get to the ultimate eco-car? Well, what if that also applied to batteries? Right battery for the right car and the right customer. Just a thought.

What?! Well, I never! Who would think up such a dastardly idea? Buy now rather than wait for the next best thing? Noooooooooooo!

Doug Coleman
Prius Product Manager
Toyota Motor Sales, USA

 

I have no doubt that a bigger Prius would sell a lot in the US. But this sole source thread appeared to be conflicting the Li-Ion test results recently published by Toyota. Now Mr. Coleman's post clearly suggests that Li-Ion could be useful for the right Toyota car.

I'll take it that his participation in this thread supports the idea of a larger Prius.

I wonder what Toyota thinks will happen with the Chinese economy, which some US analysts believe is overheating. If they collapse and gas prices fall then I don't know if people will care about bigger prius cars.

 

Toyota Hybrid X as a Prius 2 or 4 wheel drive touring wagon would be just great. I'll take mine in silver with grey leather please.

 

Some of them are Photoshopped based on the copyrighted pictures from Toyota.

Ken@Japan

 

The Prius Coupe looks very hot while the photoshopped hatchbacks are just ridiculous. Come on Toyota say the Hybrid X is a go!

 

The green stretched gen II prius pictured on this new is a photoshoped version but such a stretched prius does exists believe or not.

Toyota Prius Stretch Limo! - Carscoop

 

That's under favorable conditions. EPA estimates are in the mid/low 30's, not quite what I had in mind. I'm talking lifetime average of 40 mpg (with gentle driving and tires pumped up 10% over the driver's door label, but otherwise normal driving in midwestern climate) for me to buy it. Plus, the Camry Hybrid only has 10.6 cu feet of trunk space, considerably less than the Accord. Remember, she'd want something at least as big (in terms of cargo space) as her current vehicle.

 

Thought those of you who don't know, the stretch Prius in the article has been around for a couple of years. Here are some links to the story.
Limousine-style Prius is hand made, still gets 50 mpg | DVICE
Prius Stretch Limo Achieves 50mpg and Seats 8
Toyota Prius Stretch Limo! - Carscoop

Made by a guy to haul his family around in and still gets 50 MPG. The pictures on these sites prove this was not a Photoshop project.

 

A most reliable Japanese car magazine, Magazine-X, scooped the design sketch of the Prius wagon.
Prius minivan
The article says it will use the same 1.8L hybrid system, but it comes with space saving Li-ion battery for 3-row seating.
The weight will be +150kg and the JP 10-15 mode fuel economy number will be 34km/L.

Ken@Japan

 

Couldn't they just convert the toyota wish into a hybrid?

[ame=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_WISH]Toyota WISH - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame]

 

Looks like a bigger Honda Fit. Would be perfect for hauling the family around - I could use a Prius with a couple extra seats - we often need to carry an extra person or two and thus have to take two cars.

 

The wish can legally(maybe not physically) seat 7.