Toyota Prius faces uphill climb to reclaim relevance

TOKYO — The fifth-generation Toyota Prius is due next year. A onetime byword for eco-friendly driving, the car that put hybrid vehicles on the minds of shoppers faces a new challenge: how to be relevant in a sea of cutting-edge electric vehicles.

The Prius helped make Toyota Motor Corp. a green car hero when the innovative, quirky compact debuted as the world's first mass-produced electrified car in 1997.

But 25 years later, the car's hybrid drivetrain — which bolts an old-school internal combustion engine onto an electric motor and battery setup — seems oh-so-yesterday among today's offerings.

Just how much have Prius fortunes flagged? Consider this: Global sales of the standard Prius hatchback peaked at 509,380 vehicles in 2010. By last year, it had plunged to just 85,970.

Speculation runs hot in the Japanese motor press about how Toyota will revamp the Prius, the latest incarnation of which, with its heavily creased sheet metal, went on sale in the U.S. in 2016.

Some media report that the coming redesign was due to arrive in December, but that the launch was pushed off to the spring of 2023 because of the global microchip shortage.

Whenever it lands, many bet that the nameplate will be remade into a sportier coupe-style four-door. The overhaul could also bring big improvements in fuel economy and driving dynamics.

Best Car online magazine says the Prius will be repositioned as a fun, funky car that sacrifices a certain degree of comfort and utility.

The engine will be mostly a carryover 1.8-liter four-banger, but it will get an updated hybrid system with a newly developed lithium ion battery now showing up in the new Japan-market family vans, the Noah and Voxy. Best Car also predicted a 23 percent increase in fuel economy for the next Prius.

Another online car site, Cobby, speculated the Prius may even adopt a crossover-inspired body. Most Japanese car mags seem convinced the Prius will stay hybrid and not go full EV.

But will such updates be enough to make the Prius a player again?

Toyota once had high hopes for the car. It built an entire sub-brand around the name — including the Prius V wagon, the Prius Prime plug-in and the subcompact Prius C. At one point, the car's U.S. future was so bright that Toyota planned to build the car at a new assembly plant in Blue Springs, Miss. That would supplement output from the mother factory in Japan, the Tsutsumi assembly plant in Toyota City.

Today, the Prius family has withered away. Only the standard hatchback and plug-in are still on sale in the U.S. And the Blue Springs factory, which opened in 2011, produces Corollas instead.

The Prius name itself is part of the car's quandary. Nissan, for example, pioneered battery electrics with the Leaf. But that car never matched the Prius' impact. Nissan is now said to be phasing out the Leaf at the end of its cycle. The upshot: No big deal.

It's a different story for "Prius."

The brand equity wrapped up in that name is too valuable to squander. For Toyota to yank the Prius would be to turn its back on a quarter-century of green corporate citizenship built around spearheading an entirely new technology.

The name "Prius" derives from a Latin word meaning "to go before." It signals the engineering that made the car Toyota's showcase for its most advanced technology — including lithium ion batteries, super-slick aerodynamics, solar panels and even sun-refracting paint.

But now, Prius has taken a backseat to brighter, shinier things — such as the Mirai hydrogen fuel cell sedan. And soon, a whole new lineup of Toyota EVs will be in step with the latest industry and customer trends, as the world seemingly goes gaga over cars without tailpipes.

Even for people who still want a hybrid, fewer need a dedicated, hybrid-only offering. Toyota now offers hybrid versions of several nameplates. In 2021, the RAV4 Hybrid was its top-selling hybrid in the U.S. by far: Customers bought 120,983 RAV4s, but only 33,968 Priuses (not including 25,042 Prius Primes).

A radical revamp in performance or efficiency could help keep the Prius fresh. But if the Prius stays hybrid in an EV world, it must live up to its legacy by leading the way with something new.

Toyota is certain to keep the Prius name. The question will be how Toyota will keep the car's cutting edge.