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I noticed the improved drivability of the prime today when I went into an average banked curve in the Siskiyou mountain range. The speed limit was 45 mph and I went through the curve at 72. There was no sign of exceeding the car's ability. It was a stretch of road that I'm familiar with, and my wife's Camry feels like a boat by comparison.

I'm looking forward to the next version.

 

It’s a bit of apples and oranges considering differences in roads, but I find a 2021 Prius Prime that I rent for weeks at a time while in Arizona handles better than our 2020 non-Prime Prius XLE AWD-e driving in Seattle proper.

 

@Tideland I missed the autocar link until today. I was curious if anyone else saw part 4 of the "Will it Drift" series, further down the page titled
Will a Toyota GR Yaris drift? | 4wd hot hatchback Will It Drift? special, part 4
It's shot on a test track, and although I was unplugged (no audio) while I scrolled onto it, I was curious about just how slippery that track was. Since they did show the sprinkler system working, it was still hard to detect if that's asphalt under the 1/4 inch of water, that made the track look like glass. Not ice, but close, anyway.

In the linked article I was klnda bummed to hear autocar suggest toyota might use the bZ4X platform for the gen5 prius. Still hoping toyota will wait a while longer to increase the size of the car. Americans fixation on land barges is bad enough already.

 

The weight of the battery has been reported as helping with driving feel.

 

It has been my impression that the bZ4X platform would be longer and wider then the current prius platform. But I don't know the proposed dimensions yet either. I guess looks can still be deceiving.

 

Wider and taller, but not longer.

 

Platform dimensions aren't set in stone, and designers have leeway to adjust them. The Rav4 and Camry are on the same platform, yet there is a 5.3 inch difference in wheelbase between the two. There is intended to be a bZ line up, which would require more than one e-TNGA platform to meet different segment needs. A Prius on it could easily have the same dimensions as the current one.

e-TNGA is not a 100% BEV platform, and was designed to handle engines. The reason for moving the Prius to it is because of the traction battery. It should package that better than the TNGA platform the Prius is currently on.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_New_Global_Architecture

 

thanks for the link!

who says it's going to be wider, taller and the same length?

 

Yeah, my bad! I'm more interested in the gen 5 prime and I can see I didn't make that obvious, so getting a response about the bz4x suv would be natural. Even if the suv wasn't what I was thinking about when I wrote it.

 

without going into what I believe is a big problem in translations, cause it also includes religion and politics, a lot of Toyota info is gathered from translations of Japanese releases, some good some not so much. Leaving a lot of room for personal embellishments or additions never actually included in the original.
I do understand why many might not understand such a view, still, it doesn't mean I have to like it, for example (almost everything) on this page Toyota bZ4X Specifications Revealed | Page 8 | PriusChat

 

What part of that system? Because I would prefer a 2.0 liter replacing the 1.8 rather than a 2.5 liter. Do you have any info?

 

I'd prefer a 1 liter (or less) and a 16kWh battery.

 

There has been speculation that the USA hybrid Corolla Cross will have a 2.0 instead of the 1.8 as it does in other markets. I just thought maybe a 2.0 based HSD (similar to the Lexus UX) could be shared with the 5th gen Prius as well, especially if they are talking about increased performance for the 5th gen. I don't know, but that just seems more logical than the 2.5 liter.

 

Here's what I'd want:
-60 miles all electric with same charge time
-About 40 more horsepower (with 60 all elec miles I would be OK with losing a few MPG as a regular hybrid if the vehicle had more power - but no more than a few)
-AWD option for the plug in.

I was disappointed when first researching Prime about 2 years ago that there was no AWD, only with the regular Prius. I assume because it would be too expensive and/or the big battery is in the way for some type of rear trans-axle - no idea..

 

If it's a plug-in, there's no reason for the engine to have more power than the average power draw of the car over an hour or so. All the peak power can come from the battery.

 

They do have a 2.0L hybrid system although I believe it is only currently sold in europe.
2.0-liter Toyota Hybrid System (THS II) | Toyota's New Powertrain | TNGA | Mobility | Toyota Motor Corporation Official Global Website
In a European toyota corola hybrid the newer 2L system provides 180 hp peak almost 50% more than the prius or corola hybrid using the current 1.8L system. The engine itself is 41% efficient slightly higher than the prius.

The rav4 hybrid has either a 1.6 kwh nimh battery or a 1.1 kwh lion battery. The lion battery actually has more usable energy. Its likely weight savings from using that rav4 lion battery would cancel out the weight gain of using a 2L system instead of the current 1.8L system without port injection. That rav4 battery would allow peak 190+ hp if mg2 and electronics were allowed to use it.

We will know when toyota tells us, until then its all speculation.