Featured 2026 Prius and Prius Plug-in Hybrid Adds a Nightshade Trim and a few Dollars more

The 2026 model coming out only four months after the 2025 model? No mid-cycle refresh? No TSS 4.0? No Arene? No changes?

It sucks!

 

Got the Nightshade, which is the usual extent of midcycle refreshes.

 

The Nightshade hald already come out in the HEV version in 2025. In any case, anything that is not common across all trim lines is not considered to be a mid-cycle refresh by definition.

Many people will still be frustrated by the lack of the 17" wheel option on the nonbase trims.

 

Now that I think about it, 2026 might actually be the final Gen 5 year, and Gen 6 might be introduced in the model year 2027 because the 2026 model year debuted so early in June.

Gen 5 has serious issues such as the reliability of refrigerant cooling in the PHEV models, and Toyota might have decided come up with a new generation sooner than later.

 

Guess I need to see what it is about.

• "LANE DEPATURE ALERT" - ugh, no
• "LANE TRACING ASSIST" - may need testing
• "PROACTIVE DRIVING ASSIT" - '20 to 30 mph', Wth!

It sounds too much like "man in the loop" and would not meet my requirement.

Do any of our fellow PriusChatters have significant seat time with TSS 3.0?

Bob Wilson

 

TSS 4.0 is coming out in the fall with the new RAV4. Perhaps they will let you test-drive one on the highway.

I have TSS 2.0, which is a little less capable than TSS 3.0. Lane-tracing with dynamic radar cruise control works, My main complaints are that it doesn’t work when a car cuts in front of you too close and it doesn’t work on sharp curves. Perhaps they fixed it in TSS 3.0.

TSS 4.0 will certainly be better, and it will have OTA updates unlike the previous systems.

 

The gen5 already has TSS 3.0. Models that have been redesigned since it came out should also have it.

This is what the gen4 Prime got for the refresh.
"In 2019, Toyota released a mid-generation refresh for the 2020 model year. The trim levels were renamed from Plus, Premium, and Advanced, to LE, XLE, and Limited, respectively, which puts the trim level structure in line with the rest of Toyota's lineup. Across all trims, Sirius XM satellite radio and Apple CarPlay were added as standard features. In the front of the car, the sun visors added extenders and the placement of the seat heater switches was made more prominent for better usability. The gloss white plastic found in the center console and steering wheel was replaced with gloss black for all trim levels. In the rear cabin, the middle console was replaced by a seat, allowing 5 passengers to sit in the vehicle, and two USB charging ports were added."
Toyota Prius Plug-in Hybrid - Wikipedia
The hybrid.
"The Prius received a facelift with redesigned headlights and tail lights, which was released in Japan on 17 December 2018."

Such minor changes has been the norm for the Prius, and most car models. Even when it was selling over 100k, that was the case. Sales are up with the gen5, but not up enough to justify paying for large changes for a refresh. They aren't going to divert resources for an all new thing like TSS 4 from the new model premiering it to one half way through its life cycle.

I don't know of any car offering the smaller wheels as an option. Doing so might entail retesting for the EPA.

 

TSS 3.0 has been great for me on the freeway. To be honest, no complaints. If someone cuts you off super close, it does kinda hit the brakes a bit hard, but that's to be expected. I'm usually paying attention anyway and if someone is about to cut in front because they think I've left too much room in front of me, then you can usually tell that they're about to change lanes so I can tap the brake or turn off the cruise control, so it's not *as* much of an issue. But unless TSS4.0 can predict a car changing lanes without hitting their signal light, or by seeing that there's a lane swimmer behind you, idk how much better it can get. To be honest.

And in terms of the mid cycle refresh, how often do they really do big changes for mid cycles?

And is the heating/cooling really problematic? I haven't read much about that being an issue. I mean, I guess if the HVAC's AC is tied into cooling the battery, if AC goes out that would be bad. But, its really rare that this becomes an issue. Especially since the AC compressor isn't even belt driven now. After all, my 2003 matrix had perfectly working AC until just a month ago when the compressor gave out, after getting super rusty after 22 years of driving. And if it goes out in the first 8 years, that's warranty covered as a hybrid component now.

[QOTE]I don't know of any car offering the smaller wheels as an option. Doing so might entail retesting for the EPA.[/QUOTE]

You can just go buy smaller wheels if you want them anyway. In the grand scheme of things, its not a huge deal right? I mean the overall circumference of the wheels is very similar isn't it? Something like 2% or less? Isn't that kind of acceptable?

Though I guess technically if it was a factory offering the odometer could be adjusted to be fully accurate? Is that the concern for not having something offered as a factory option?

 

Adjusting the odometer is just changing a number in the calculation, though the tire sizes are close enough that it really isn't a concern when doing a change after purchase.

 

You are not familiar with the Gen 4 Prius Prime. Major “mid-cycle” updates happened later in the cycle:

• 2020 model year: Got the third rear seat—a huge update.
• 2021 model year: TSS-P (basically TSS 1.0) was updated to TSS 2.0, which added lane tracing to the dynamic radar cruise control—another major update.

How am I familiar? I owned a silver 2020 Prime XLE, and I currently own a blue 2021 Prime Limited.

As far as I know, virtually nothing was updated in 2022 if at all, perhaps except for a minor multimedia update.

 

But is that the dynamic radar applying the brakes or the automatic emergency braking (AEB) applying the brakes? If AEB kicked in, I, too, would freak out, and it would be because the dynamic radar not working properly.

Refrigerant cooling for the battery is more of a headache for Toyota until the battery warranty (10 years?) is over.

 

Everytime I search for a Toyota PHEV they all seem to be $50k

Without the tax credit there are still better options

 

Cars have got really expensive in general though.

2026 Prius SE PHEV is $34k.

 

The Wiki mentioned the third seat. Toyota was getting panned in the press for not having it, and it was costing them sales. The gen5 has no comparable fault to correct.

TSS 2.0 wasn't introduced on a model's refresh. The redesigned 2019 Rav4 was the first to get it. As well as, the new 2019 Corolla hatchback. The sedan didn't get until 2020MY, when its redesigned arrived. The 2019 Mirai was the only other model getting that year, and it's a low volume, hand built oddball. The only models not getting 2.0 or better by 2021 were the soon to be cancelled Avalon and the full frame truck ones. Some of the ones to get it then were at their refresh point, and others weren't.

Toyota would likely have been happy to put TSS 2.0 in all their models for 2019, but production of the parts needed time to ramp up for that volume. TSS 4.0 is going to follow the same roll out schedule. Go into a couple new or redesigned models first, then rolled out to the rest of the line up. It was the same with TSS 3.0.
https://staging.engage.toyota.com/static/images/toyota_safety_sense/TSS_Applicability_Chart.pdf

I was expecting the steering yoke as the big thing for the refresh with the dash design, but it seems the roll out is still going slow at Lexus.

 

Well, it would make little sense for a mid-cycle refresh to get a TSS update first.

In the case of Gen 5 Prius, the RAV4 debut will be in the fall. So, in principle, Toyota could have had TSS 4.0 on both the Prius and RAV4 if they waited for a few more months to release the 2026 Prius.

However, it is quite likely that Gen 5 Prius will never have TSS 4.0, as it probably also requires Arene, which would require a major redesign of the computers in the car. That brings up my earlier comment again that the 2027 Prius could be the redesigned Gen 6 Prius with Arene and TSS 4.0, perhaps as well as the new 1.5-L super-lean-burn engine. We would then be looking at a car with self-driving capabilities and an EPA fuel economy of 70 mpg or better.

 

Thanks for this history. I have a 2019 Rav4 hybrid and when we bought my wife's 2021 Avalon hybrid, I looked the the steering wheel controls and assumed that the TSS capabilities were the same. My bad. Now I know the reason. She likes the Avalon's comfort but when I drive it boy do I miss the lane keeping/tracing on long trips on the Interstates.

 

It's the dynamic radar usually, not emergency braking. The little screen flashes a very very different warning if its the emergency braking. And I've only seen it once when I was cut off by an extremely aggressive driver who *barely* missed clipping my bumper by a hair. To be honest, it reacted faster than I could have moved my foot and probably bought me an extra second of braking power. For your average "I can sneak in here" driver who takes up safe following distance but isn't one cm away from a collision, TSS does a good job of slowing down.

Also I am well aware of the mid cycle change to the gen 4 phev, but that's because a 4 seater car is weird, and people were really not happy with it. And it also prevented many car seat models from fitting in the car, so its not exactly a good example.

 

So, it is not only in LA where they cut you off too close? I was lucky that some guy only clipped and broke my left side mirror passing between me and another car doing over 100 mph.

It sounds like TSS 3.0 is an improvement over TSS 2.0 when someone cuts you off. TSS 4.0 with OTA updates should be a lot better and keep evolving.

This seems to be in Houston: