Prius C 2012 - Removing Back seat

In the previous generations, there was concern about dust and hair getting into the fan and the traction battery and thereby, reducing the airflow over that cells and increasing the temperature of the traction battery. Since the C's air vent is underneath the left rear seat, is there a way to add an high flow air filter to it in order to cut down the dust and hair that might get into the traction battery? I was thinking of cutting up one of those cheap $1 furnace filters... Also, is there any easy access to the fan so that it can be cleaned out once in a while?

 

Yes, and this shows what? That the Hybrid Yaris rear seat doesn't fold flat either because of the battery?

 

the rear seat cushion is attached to the top of the metal cage frame...

there's no real advantage of having that cushion not fixed.. which it really isn't since you can easily remove it.. however... there's really no significant increase in storage capacity with the seat cushion removed..

seriously, take apart the car.. and find out for yourself.. Toyota had a lot of design considerations to create a hybrid vehicle of this size... and one part of it was to sacrifice cargo space.

 

This explains the process pretty well: https://techinfo.toyota.com/techInfoPortal/staticcontent/en/techinfo/html/prelogin/docs/priuscdisman.pdf
However I'd be very careful in leaving the batteries exposed. It might be best to fabricate a replacement cover to replace the seat that was much thinner than the seat. My interest in this thread is because I want to wire a two way radio directly to the 12v battery and removing the 12v battery cover still does not give me much access (or much of a view) to see how to lug the radios power cables to the battery, but I now think the best move will be just to remove the 12v battery and see if I can pull the cables out far enough to see how I can attach the radio's power cables to them, rather than remove the seat. If someone else has already done this though I'd welcome any suggestions!

 

Anyone ever document this? I run a delivery service and am looking to pick up a couple of Prius C's. My hope is to remove the rear seat (or at least the rear seat backs), and possibly the foam in the trunk and then build a large platform (possibly out of plywood?) to create a large, level cargo area. I'd love to see anyone's documentation/ pictures on removing the rear seat.

 

If you followed through with the idea could you please post some pictures. I would LOVE to see how it turned out as I am looking to do the same!

 

I'd say rent it first and see how the standard area fits your needs. I'd say the bikes should without removing the seat by just taking off the front wheel. I was able to fit my Columbia 3 speed in the back of my old Kia Soul (with the wheel on!)

 

Check out this tutorial I made to completely take out the back seat. You can take off the folding portion and leave the bottom seat intact so the batteries are not exposed but you won't get a lot of extra room by taking any part of the seat out since they fold down pretty flat.

Prius C backseat removal in 10 steps | PriusChat