Autoblog

Jalopnik is reporting this morning that images published last night on the web of what appeared to be the next-generation 2010 Toyota Prius are, in fact, the real deal. Toyota PR reportedly confirmed to the website that what we're looking at is the same car that will be revealed in January at the 2009 Detroit Auto Show. We've also included some spy shots in the gallery below that would seem to corroborate this.

As Damon pointed out last night, the new design is an evolution of the current model that incorporates some recent favorite styling cues of Toyota designers like the bulbous badge housing up front. The interior, however, is a marked step away from the current model's spaceship controls, and thankfully eschews that car's dash-mounted shifter for a new one properly placed on the buttressed center console. Mechanically speaking, the new Prius is expected to arrive with a more powerful gas engine, bigger electric motor and, despite continuing to use nickel-metal hydride rather than lithium-ion batteries, improved fuel efficiency. It is the Prius after all.

UPDATE: Toyota has confirmed publicly on its Open Road Blog that these shots are indeed the 2010 Prius.


[Source: Jalopnik, Thanks for the spy pics, Jason and Merritt!]

New spy photos of Toyota's next-gen Prius have surfaced on the web, and for the first time we're looking at an actual prototype rather than a mere mule built out of pieces and parts from the current-gen Prius. The new spy shots reveal that the 2010 Prius will indeed retain the current five-door hatchback shape of the current model but will grown in both length and width. While NextAutos is reporting that the Prius will become more powerful with a larger engine (Car and Driver reports that a 1.6L Atkinson four-cylinder will replace the current 1.5L from the old Echo), we're hearing that it will continue to use nickel-metal hydride batteries rather than newer lithium-ion batteries. Toyota is, after all, building a whole new factory in Japan to produce more nickel-metal hydride batteries that should be operational in 2010. Even with the larger engine, the new Prius will get better gas mileage than the current model, and the Prius range is expected to grow at some point with new models like a station wagon and convertible. The next-gen Prius that will kick things off is expected to debut at this year's Detroit Auto Show in January

[Source: NextAutos]