2024 Toyota Prius makes a trio of tiny changes, including $200 price hike

The 2024 Toyota Prius is ready to enter its second year on the market, the latest generation another young member of Toyota's revamped hybrid gang. And as with the Crown, having hit the market last year as an all-new model, changes are minimal for 2024. There are exactly three revisions, the first being a new lock and unlock tone. The fourth-gen Prius and those before chirped a quick, high-pitched note when locking and unlocking the doors. The 2023 Prius introduced a new and more mellow tone that sounds like a digital chime, or an intercom alert in some swank, vibey office. We're not sure what the new alert sounds like on the 2024 Prius, Toyota only saying it was "created by sound engineers" to be "pleasant, and distinct while indicating door lock and unlock." No Norwegian death metal riffs just yet, then. Owners can also adjust the volume of the chime, suggesting this might be a new frontier in vehicle interaction.  

The second adjustment is the new Integrated Streaming feature in the multimedia system that enables occupants to port their Apple Music and Amazon Music playlists through the car’s infotainment system.

The third is a nominal price hike of $200 across the lineup. MSRPs for the 2024 Prius after the $1,095 destination fee are:

• LE: $28,745 
• XLE: $32,190 
• Limited: $35,760 

Adding AWD adds $1,400 to the price.

Toyota's hitting its modest U.S. sales goals for the Prius so far, the automaker saying at the end of last year it expected to move about 35,000 annually — a number that includes the Prius Prime. Through the first three quarters of the year, nearly 29,000 Priuses have driven off dealer lots, putting the model on track to match last year's total U.S. sales of 36,919 units. These numbers are down from 2021 U.S. sales of 59,010 sales. More and better hybrid competition — Toyota's lineup now includes 25 hybrids, plug-in hybrids and EVs — as well as increasing EV options, the flu in the sedan/fastback segment, and the runaway success of the RAV4 Hybrid and RAV4 Prime could continue to suppress Prius numbers; the RAV4 twins, for instance, have moved around 122,000 units just through the first three quarters of this year.

Info and pricing for the 2024 Prius Prime hasn't been released yet.

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