Here’s What A Professional Car Designer Thinks About The Stunning New 2023 Toyota Prius

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Alright! Your Autopian in-house designer has returned! I’ve spent the last three weeks road-tripping around the Land of The Free (Drink Refills) and meeting some of my fellow inmates Autopians. I am now in a position to confirm the following horrifying truths: Torch lives in a proper people house and actually does wear pants, Mack Hardigraw is an internet Terminator in a human skin suit who gives good Columbian chicken, and David Tracy is not surrounded by a permanent cloud of dirt like Pig Pen from Peanuts and does indeed own The World’s Greatest Truck (which he graciously let me drive). But now I’m back on my damp little island with its revolving door of Prime Ministers and it’s time to get down to some serious design business. To wit: what the hell is going on at Toyota at the moment – are they suddenly making cars you might actually want to buy as opposed to wheeled white goods? Check out the 2023 Toyota Prius.

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Overnight (and just in time for the LA Auto Show, where I understand there is some sort of fancy soiree happening that I’m not going to with shrimp served out of a wheelbarrow), Toyota revealed the new, fifth generation Prius and it’s quite the looker. No I’m not being my usual snarky self here – it’s a properly good looking car. I know we’re on the alternate timeline but what the hell?

The truth is quietly Toyota has been knocking out some quite tidily designed hatches for a couple of years now, but you’d be forgiven for missing them because they haven’t been available in the US. Both the Aygo X and Yaris Cross (a mini compact and sub compact, or Euro sub-B and B-class cars — see below) took the slightly overdone RAV4 language, removed the visual frippery and emerged looking much cleaner and leaner and all the better for it. Slightly less recently the GR86 has sanded off the worst of the previous model’s flicks and ticks and is looking more mature in an attempt to broaden its appeal and garnish more sales.

 

Sidebyside

Let’s Talk Prius Design History

Speaking of sales, the Prius has been crushing it in the U.S. since its introduction to the market in 2001. For a while it was the only hybrid on sale, which in terms of its image became something of a double edged sword. Buying and driving a Prius came to be seen as vehicular virtue signaling whatever the owners intentions actually were, its aero shape flattened under the weight of political baggage it was carrying around. These days you can get hybrids in a variety of car types – they’re no longer a novelty and a weirdly shaped Toyota isn’t the only game in town.

Comparo1

 

The first generation Prius was as generic a Japanese four-door sedan as was possible. Its nondescript vanilla exteriors with oddly high proportions hid what was then bleeding edge powertrain technology. Then in 2003 came the clothes iron-shaped second generation that propelled the Prius into the mainstream conversation as a car for the ecologically conscious (or for those who wanted to be seen as green). With almost a single unbroken line running from nose to truncated tail, the Prius placed aero efficiency front and center of the design language. The headlights pulled two thirds of the way up the stubby hood only added to the effect of it looking like a domestic appliance.

Comparo2

 

The third gen introduced in 2010 (which became the unofficial car of all Uber drivers in the Greater London area due to its ability to swerve the Congestion Charge — see above on the left) sharpened up some of the previous model’s flabbiness, introducing crisper feature lines and a more shapely headlight graphic, but kept the same aero theme with the cut off rear. Finally the outgoing fourth gen (above on the right) was a car for the terminally attention-deprived, dreamt up by the Toyota designers after a sake and manga bender to end all benders. Saddled with crazy lines to nowhere, a furious front visage and possibly the worst tail lights I’ve ever had the misfortune to look at, there was no mistaking it for anything else on the road. A riot of clashing shapes and angles that collided and bounced off each other, Chris Bangle described it as a car designed to appeal to children so their parents would buy it.

So we have a car that was once a pioneer, now finding itself beset on all sides by competitors from without and within, and saddled fairly or unfairly with a reputation of being bought for what it says, rather than what it does. How to shed this baggage? Take a hard swerve into desirability and come up with a new one that really, honestly looks very decent indeed. [Editor’s Note: That is the most British sentence I’ve read in months. -DT]. 

Let’s Dig Into The New Design

Side Callouts

Firstly, Toyota have yanked the header rail (the top of the windshield) back. Way back. It’s now at about the halfway point of the door, and the transition from A pillar to cant-rail is virtually indeterminate. It’s a neat trick – if you look at the side view you can see volume has been added back into the hood on the center line (or Y-zero as we say in the biz). This means it has both a proper demarcation between hood (helped by a slight inset of the base of the glass) and windshield but keeps a single, much more raked unbroken line running from the fender all the way across the DLO (daylight opening — window) and down to the C-pillar. The high point of the roofline is over the rear passenger compartment, which is really bold because it gives the side profile a wedge shape, and it’s also very clever because the battery pack is under the rear seat meaning it’d be tough to lower the rear passengers H Point (it’s worth noting that, overall, the new model is about 2” lower than the old one).

As you know I’m obsessed with wheels, and it looks like my peers in the Toyota studio won a battle here. Standard now is a 19” rim package but notice how the wheel arch edge maintains an almost constant offset to the tire, to the extent it wraps back under as it descends from the centerline of the wheel, when normal practice is to drop that edge down vertically or even flare it out a little away from the tire. Toyota has apparently done this to minimize the aero turbulence coming from the wheel arch area. Although 19’s might seem excessive on such an aero-driven car, having bigger but narrower wheels maintains the contact patch size while allowing a narrower cross section. The BMW i3 pulled this exact same move.

Comparo3

We’ve still got the trademark cut off tail, but it’s much less abrupt now and more smoothly integrated into the shape of the rear three quarters. A gentle flaring of the sheet metal over the rear wheels adds a little more of a coupe style, and the way the surface of the tailgate wraps over into the bodyside above the back wheels and provides a nice home for now more sophisticated full width taillights is really considered.

What’s going on with what looks like the central reversing light, I’m not sure. It’s in some rear images but not others, which means either a late pre-production change or it’s a legislative thing [Editor’s Note: Maybe it’s the rear fog light required in Europe? -DT]. Again, lighting is a specialist area which I’m not an expert on, but it does look like there are small clear sections in the lower rear reflector/fog clusters so until we get more press images or look at the actual car we won’t know for sure (there’s very view images in the media pack, which is odd for such a big release).

Front Callouts

 

Speaking of lights, yeah the front light graphic looks to be stolen from the Ferrari SF90 (but if you’re gonna steal, do it from the best?) [Editor’s Note: Do we really think the Prius stole design queues from Ferrari? -DT]. What I like here though is the way the black horizontal infill panel between the front lights gives Toyota a neat hiding place for what is probably the Active Cruise sensor.

Being a designer means nit picking is my middle name, and I do have a couple. Well, really only one as the other is more of a pet-hate. It’s not a case of being critical for the sake of it – give me (or any other professional) an hour or two with a real car and we’ll show you where the compromises are. The creative process is never done, and there’s always something you know could have been better. In the case of the new Prius, it’s the door mirrors.

Mirrormess

 

These days you have essentially two ways of mounting the mirrors. Either on a vertical stem mounted on the door skin, or on a horizontal stem that attaches to a sail panel – a black triangular trim piece in the corner of the DLO where it meets the A-pillar. The door skin method is more straight forward, but requires a certain amount of profile in the metal. Because the doors are pretty flat where the mirror needs to be mounted, Toyota have opted for the latter method. The base of the A-pillar is has been pulled so far forward (to get that laid back rake) the mirror itself needs to be positioned further rearwards in relation to the door glass. So if you did fit a sail panel  it would be huge and create a massive blind spot. So they’ve made a sail panel that’s quarter height – which means to avoid an unfortunate step when the side glass is lowered they’ve split the glazing, giving a smaller window opening.

I think this part is a bit of a mess, and really the only way around it would be to bring the lowest point of the DLO graphic down, to make room to mount the base of the mirror stem entirely within that dip. This would have been perhaps too big of a change, and remember the body-in-white is one of the first things to be signed off, so there’s usually not much scope for altering it once the early design gateways are passed. I thought maybe the mirrors were shared with another model (as this can sometime force compromise in this area) but this doesn’t appear to be the case, so the mirror stem itself could have adopted a more helpful shape in getting the mirror glass into the right position. Nearly every other Toyota has door skin mounted mirrors, so I suspect it was done on cost grounds or more likely, they ran out of time.

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Regular readers will know one of my biggest pet-hates is black wheels. One of my other pet-hates is hidden rear door handles. Why do they cause me to spit out my espresso in a rage? Because they’re totally dishonest and fooling no one. There’s a bloody great shut line there – nobody with eyes is ever going to mistake this for a two door car, so why do it? Good design is nothing if not honest, and this is some Discovery 5-offset-tailgate level of design treachery.

Comparo4

The most beautiful modern European sedan ever made, the Alfa Romeo 156 had gorgeous delicate chrome push button handles on the front doors. They were truly a tactile and visual work of art. On the rear doors? Cheap and nasty pull flaps hidden in the rear DLO trim. It drove me nuts, but it didn’t quite stop me from owning one.

So even if it’s a bit of a pet-hate, it definitely doesn’t ruin the new Prius, which actually looks great.

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100 thoughts on “Here’s What A Professional Car Designer Thinks About The Stunning New 2023 Toyota Prius

  1. It looks fine. Good, even. But how much of the praise the new Prius is getting is due to the shall-we-say unfortunate appearance of the previous generation? It’s clearly a massive improvement over the 4th gen, but some of the adjectives being thrown around to describe the 5th gen’s appearance seem a little excessive. It’s stunning in a relative sense compared to what we’re used to, but when what we’re used to is something that could be used to frighten small children, the end result could be merely mundane and still feel like a revelation. I feel like that’s kinda where we’re at here—it’s a good-looking car, a better-than-average-looking car, but it’s not a gorgeous, superlative tour de force of automotive design or design or anything.

    Mind you, if this heralds an overall shift in Toyota’s design language to something cleaner and simpler, that would be pretty big news in its own right. Most Toyotas are currently quite ugly. I’d be happy to see some nicer designs on the road for some of America’s most popular vehicles.

    1. Agreed, it’s not a staggering design masterpiece, but more a well considered, handsome restrained design. What makes it shocking is that a) it’s from a company not really known for its aesthetic efforts and b) it’s such a step change to what has gone before.

      Some of the reaction on the internet has been a bit hyperbolic but that’s because it’s caught people by surprise.

    2. A decent design on a great car can lead to some hyperbole. Yes, the Prius has been boring when it comes to driving, but it’s also been ugly. Now it seems like it might be a bit more exciting, but it’s a hell of a lot better looking. So, huge improvements get big praise.

    3. While I understand your point, I see another reason for all the praise: we’ve been inundated with SUVs, CUVs, pickup trucks and all kinds of high seating position vehicles lately. So such a sporty-looking hatchback – even when its actual handling might leave a lot to be desired (though one can hope…) – has hit a soft spot with auto enthusiasts who may miss the times when boxy SUVs weren’t dominating the roads.

  2. The best door handle is no door handle. I say this as a former owner of a Citroen AX 3-door and an S1 Lotus Elise.

    Honorable mention to the mk1 CRX with the vertical handle on the trailing edge of the door, a feature the 350Z murdered horribly.

  3. Nice modern design, without too much crazy Fu Manchu design going on.
    Like a Tesla model 3 but without looking like a piece of soap. Good going!

    But they should have given it a more modern name. Something people really can relate to. How about p’X-3z_?

  4. In regards to the rear door handles, aero? I can see regular handles introducing more turbulence than the hidden kind. On a car tweaked to the nth degree aerowise for efficiency purposes, the choice may make itself.

  5. Hey Adrian, do you know anyone over at Toyota? I know some people in the big three, and Honda, but nobody over in ‘yota land. Would be really curious as to what happened, as Toyota’s design language for the past 15 years has either been bland or terribly incohesive/busy/random garbage. Seeing them come out with something decently attractive is… like…. how? Was there a major changing of the guard in the design department? Did they open a new studio? I’d like you dig into this, and see what you could find out, would love to know a bit more behind the scenes on how a company producing some of the most terrible looking vehicles produced was able to accomplish this.

    1. I don’t know anyone there, although I do know people with other Japanese OEM experience. I try to keep my articles accessible and not get too much into insider baseball, but if people would like me to do this then mention it below and I’ll bring it up at the next board meeting (just kidding. We throw our pitches into the article wok, stir it around and then Torch closes his eyes and picks something out).

        1. There maybe is a story here. Some of the EV concepts were cracking (especially that little EV off roader the name of which escapes me). I’ll do some research when I get time.

  6. That header rail makes the new Prius look like an old woman who has pulled her hair back into a pony tail, so hard, for so many years, that she is rapidly going bald. With the resulting tension on the skin of her forehead leaving her eyebrows arched into a permanent expression of shock and surprise.

  7. Adrian, I have to agree totally with your assessment. Right down to the rear door handles. I suppose I’m just as surprised as you are. Now, if the performance improvements are as they hint at, it’s ,gonna be a winner. It’ll still handle like crap, and brakes may be sketchy as the steering. They needed to up their performance game to compete with BEV short term. It remains to be seen. It looks good, though.

  8. The high point in the roof being so far back makes me think I’m never going to fit in one (unless I’m in the back). At 6’6″/198cm tall, I don’t fit in a Tacoma or almost anything with a sunroof.

    1. Had the exact same thought at 6’2″, the side view made me wonder where my head is supposed to go. There are a surprising number of “big” vehicles where my head hits the ceiling

  9. I have long been on record that the Prius is fine “for thee, but not for me.” I admire the Prius as a transportation appliance for people who don’t care about cars, but I have absolutely loathed the driving experience of any Prius I’ve had the misfortune of driving. I don’t like the feeling that I’m merely giving the car suggestions how and where to go rather than being the one in control.

    However, this is an attractive looking car and it looks like they have brought performance specs into a range that makes it intriguing while maintaining the traditional excellent fuel economy. Don’t get me wrong, the car guy in me says if I’m looking at a Toyota product I’d much rather have a GR Corolla or Lexus LC500; but if I were actually in the market for a daily driver and they could hold decent trim level versions under a $30k price point I would have to give the plug-in version some really serious thought and take a test drive. Kudos to Toyota.

  10. I understand the hidden handles because it would be difficult to mount handles on that big flare on the rear without it looking weird. That said, the front door handles also look weird, because they’re far forward making the entire car look out of balance. So I’d suggest putting the front handles on the pillars like a ’90s W-body Coupe.

  11. What happened? Isn’t ugly supposed to be baked into the Prius brand? Did Toyota lose all of it’s stylists to COVID and have to hire a whole new team? Or maybe they have those people working on different projects and didn’t want to spend their ugly stick on this one.

    1. This is the main thrust of what I was trying to say. Toyota has recognised the Prius name carried a lot of baggage so was determined not to make another eco-weenie mobile, and instead come up with something really desirable (that happens to be a bang up to date PHEV).

  12. You know what I just noticed? No hybrid badges! The current Prius Prime has giant PLUG-IN HYBRID badges on the fenders (regular models say HYBRID, of course), this has nothing on the sides.

  13. Has Toyota poached designers from Tesla? To my untrained eye, the new Prius appears to be a dead ringer for a Model 3. I like the styling of the Model 3 so that isn’t necessarily a criticism, but I can’t help but feel I’ve seen this car before.

        1. We’re still talking Toyota vs. Tesla here. One of these companies had cars with bumpers falling off and hardware store materials found inside, and it wasn’t Toyota.

    1. It’s aerodynamics. This, the Model 3, 2nd gen Volt are all similarly sized. You want a box that’s X wide by Y high and Z long to have low drag? Your computer will spit out this shape.

      As Mr. Incredible said: “Math is Math!”.

      1. Honestly, your reply kind of ruins my day. Based on your statement, there are two options:

        1. Toyota shamelessly ripped off the Model 3 because it is a nice design and they wanted to design a nice vehicle
        2. Toyota and Tesla independently designed the same vehicle because those designs are aerodynamically optimized, and all vehicles will ultimately look like the Tesla Prius Model 3

        I think you are probably correct. It seems vehicles have evolved to a point where designs are optimized for efficiency to a point where they can no longer be distinct and interesting. I’ve made that argument before, but I have been trying to convince myself I am wrong. Shitbox showdown in 2050 could suck. I’m not looking forward to a matchup between a 2037 Generic Transport Box and a 2034 Standardized Passenger Convenience Device.

        1. I don’t think it’s as simple as that. Manufacturers are always looking for ways to be unique; the new Ioniq 6, despite being very streamlined, is pretty far removed from a Polestar 2 or a BMW i4. I personally don’t see the Model 3 in this Prius either, the Prius is much more of a ‘one-box’ Citroen Picasso type shape whereas the Model 3 tries to be a ‘sedan’ with a longer hood shape.

          There is always the case of we’re particularly entuned to the cars of our ‘era’, so to speak. I (controversially) think most ’50s American cars look pretty much the same with their fins and angry grilles, or ’80s shitboxes being largely identical with their unpainted plastic grilles and rectangular shapes. Every era has its own generic, and it’s up to us enthusiasts to pick out the interesting bits and commend good design when it shows up.

    2. I think the 2023 Prius looks quite a bit nicer than a Model 3. The featureless duck nose of the model 3/Y just does not work for me. I much prefer the rakish front of the current Model S. The new Prius feels a little bit more like that. A true EV version would be great!

      1. Never was a big fan of the Model 3 front until I realized where I’d seen it before: Renault Caravelle. Of course the French did it better, but it’s an interesting cue nonetheless. Works less well on the tall and ugly Model Y.

    3. Wow. It looks nothing like a Model 3. They share similar attributes in that they’re both aero optimised 5 door hatches, but that’s where the similarity ends. This is much cleaner and more modern.

          1. The Prius might have more wedge and may be lower (added wedgeivity and lowness, I guess?), but I’m still underwhelmed. We have all seem this car before.

            Ten days later, I still think this Prius isn’t novel or interesting. Adrian, you know the new Prius is a Model 3 drawn by a Tesla designer who’s contact lens prescription is mildly out of date.

      1. I looked at a few more pictures of the new Prius and the Model 3. While I’ll admit the vehicles have a lot of dissimilarities when viewed side by side, I still see the Model 3 when I look at the new Prius. If the similarities were limited to a shape designed to optimize aerodynamics in a 5 door vehicle, why do vehicles like the Leaf, the Ioniq 5, and the Taycan Cross Turismo look distinct? Couldn’t at least one of those vehicles be reasonably described as an aero optimised 5 door hatch? I don’t think the similarities between the Prius and the Model 3 can be entirely chalked up to the vehicles being in the same general class.

        I’ve spent too much time considering this issue (hence the random reply two days later), but after further consideration, I still think these vehicles look a lot alike.

  14. Agreed. The side view looks a bit odd, as they often do, but 3/4 views are quite attractive. Given the 2″ reduction in height I wonder if it might be less practical than earlier generations.
    The side mirrors might not be an afterthought in this case given its importance on aerodynamics and drag. The third gen Prius had side mirrors mounted on vertical stems but still had small triangular windows. I wonder how they came to this particular solution, sure looks like a compromise.

    1. You sometimes end up with the small triangular windows, because a window the full length of the door wouldn’t have space to drop.

      You generally never see a car from a flat side view in real life, but they are useful in a discussion about design for pointing out certain things.

  15. One of my other pet-hates is hidden rear door handles. Why do they cause me to spit out my espresso in a rage? Because they’re totally dishonest and fooling no one. There’s a bloody great shut line there – nobody with eyes is ever going to mistake this for a two door car, so why do it?

    Drag reduction?

      1. Bean counting, or maybe to not force change on buyers who want the normal experience for the driver and don’t care about the backseat passengers.

        Cars have had stuff like heated seats only in the front or only the drivers seat for a long time for similar reasons.

        1. Possibly, although this is Toyota. Their studio coffee budget is probably more than Tesla’s entire design costs.

          Pop ups do bring other problems though, in terms of reliability and complexity. So they’re not a free lunch.

    1. I’d guess that they were used here because the side sculpting meant there was no way to get conventional rear door handles in any kind of logical visual alignment. On the Alfa, or for that matter the Chevy Sonic and Spark (that could’ve really used the extra glass area the hidden door handles preempted) which were much boxier, no, just no.

      The worst thing, and this ties in with the four-doorified ’60s muscle cars from yesterday, is when someone fills in the rear door handles (only) on a car that had four normal ones as factory equipment.

    2. The rear door handles on the 156 are perfectly explained by the unbroken flanks of the station wagon.
      The slightly heavy looking front handle is almost perfectly centered on the waistline. An exposed rear handle would wreck the balance.
      I have always thought the saloon was a little weak looking in the rear, but the wagon was simply stunning.

      1. I’m not sure I’d call the E170 and E210 Corollas “horrible looking shit.” Same goes for the Tacoma, Sequoia (though there’s a period that it looks like it was stung by a bee), and Tundra (I’m not a huge fan of the newest gen).

  16. I’m sorry your Alfa’s rear door handles felt cheap. If they’d felt like premium hardware, yet still remained in the same place, you’d probably love hidden door handles now.

    They have to work correctly every single time to be acceptable, and they have to feel good. But I love them hidden.

    Funny how one person’s pet hate is another’s favorite feature. I see door handles as a necessary evil, so it makes perfect sense to me to hide them.

    Hidden door handles are probably the only thing I consistently like about the hot rod and modified car culture.

    1. Same here – I love me some hidden doorhandles! Just makes it so much more crisp and sleek imo. I recall it was really one of the distinguishing features of the 156 – was that the first car to do this actually?
      But yeah – 2 doors > 4 doors all day.

      1. First time I saw it was the 4-door, First-gen Nissan Pathfinder. Which is an SUV I suppose, but it was trying to do a “this is actually a 2-door guys” effect too. I actually think it kinda worked there?

    2. Sorry, but I totally agree with Adrian. Hidden handles fool no one and it just make design less coherent. Why would the front door have handles and not the back one ? If you want to hide them, hide them all.

    3. I’m glad the new Prius has hidden rear door handles given how tricky it can be to make a substantially-higher-mounted rear handle look decent. The last two generations of Prius managed to pull it off, but as Citrus said, a rear door handle right on the new one’s ‘hip’ curve would probably look out-of-place.

      There’s no way they could fuck that pig worse than Nissan did with the current Altima, at least. Different heights, different angles… that’s how not to handle handles.

  17. One thing I had never thought of until just now, is how packaging of the rear door handles could be simplified by moving them to the back edge of the door. The door handle mechanisms having to wrap around the window glass channel adds a lot of complexity to the design, but also for installation on the line. Moving it all the way back behind the glass probably allows for a 1 piece unit instead of 2 pieces that link together.
    Not sure if there’s any aero advantage to their chosen design over carry the same handles over from the front, probably not. Unless the curvature of the door skin would have required a much deeper stamping to alight the handle correctly.

  18. Meh, it is not all that ugly, it looks sort of sporty even though it is not, it gets good gas mileage, or even daily plug in miles for the BEv crowd, without the range anxiety. The biggest question will be price. a current Prius base prices under 30K, I think 25K ish actually. can they do that here still while holding onto this current media blitz to remind people they even make those still?

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