Prius engineers mull over a GR sport variant

SODEGAURA, Japan — Here's an impressive fact about the newly redesigned Toyota Prius.

Its windshield, angled at an air-splitting 21 degrees from the hood, is the most raked in the Toyota's corporate lineup, beating the Lexus LC sports coupe and even matching Lexus LFA supercar.

"This is about the same angle as a Lamborghini," says body design engineer Shuhei Niwata.

Few people would probably mistake the redesigned fifth-generation Toyota hybrid for a 5.2-liter, V10 Huracan. But no one denies that the latest Prius cuts a sporty, nay sexy, silhouette.

The plug-in hybrid version, the Prius Prime, even packs punchy performance chops. It boasts a 0-60 mph sprint of 6.6 seconds, with total system output topping 200 hp. In a Prius.

But could the redesigned Prius arriving in lots this year be sporty and sexy enough to warrant a special GR-branded performance version, under Toyota Motor Corp.'s Gazoo Racing tuning line?

Prius Chief Engineer Yasushi Ueda certainly thinks so.

"Personally speaking, I would like to do it," Ueda said during a recent test drive of the plug-in Prius at — drumroll, please — a winding racetrack outside Tokyo. "But first we have to listen to customer voices and think of what kind of concept we would be able to deliver in a GR version."

The 2023 Prius Prime puts a premium on power like none of its Prius brethren. Total system output jumps by 100 hp to 220 hp, or 164 kilowatts, over the previous-generation plug-in.

The power comes from teaming its 120-kilowatt front-axle electric motor and lithium ion battery of around 13-kilowatt hours with an upgraded 2.0-liter gasoline engine.

That setup compares with the 144 kilowatts generated by the updated standard front-wheel-drive hybrid, which mates the same engine to a 0.91-kilowatt hour battery and 83-kilowatt motor.

Development head Satoki Oya said the Prius Prime's power would have to rise even further to justify getting the subbrand's black-and-red GR badge.

But by some measures, the plug-in Prius is already approaching GR territory.

The GR86 sporty coupe, for example, develops 173 kilowatts of power — not far off Prius Prime's 164 — although the GR86 bolts 0-60 almost a second faster, at about 5.8 seconds.

Other tweaks for a GR Prius would likely include tightened-up suspensions and handling, Oya said. And don't forget a special aero package and racing-inspired detailing, like funky seat stitching.

Despite their enthusiasm, both Ueda and Oya, as well as the rest of the Prius designers and engineers on hand at the circuit, insisted there are still no concrete plans for a GR Prius.

If one lands on dealer lots, however, it wouldn't be the first.

Toyota floated a sporty-styled Prius G's from 2011 to 2014 during the nameplate's third generation. And from 2017 until last month, Toyota offered a Prius GR Sport in Japan.

But those special versions left the powertrain essentially untouched. The changes were mostly cosmetic. And detractors would undoubtedly argue that previous iterations of the bulbous Prius could never shed their frumpy aura, no matter how much lipstick you slather on.

But the new Prius? Well, that's a different animal.

When and if it arrives, that GR Prius may just be the first Prius worthy of the name.