Blessed by the Potato

The Prius V was unveiled recently, and I’m sorry for not blogging about it to you all. Here are some pictures from PriusChat.

It’s basically just a bigger Prius. If it was available at the time I got my Prius, it might have been in tough competition, because my Wayfare, she loves her some cargo space. I don’t want to comment too negatively just yet on the performance and fuel consumption figures since they’re very preliminary, but I don’t like the how much of a fuel economy hit this very marginal increase in size (and aerodynamics with the changed roofline) is rumoured to have cost. It’s also rumoured that the Prius V will be slower to get up to speed (which makes sense: it’s the same engine, motors, and I think batteries as the regular Prius). I find the Prius is quite reasonably powered: it’s no sports car, but if I need to accelerate, I can. But I don’t think I’d opt for much less power.

There is definitely an air of disappointment about this release: it was widely speculated that Toyota would be bringing in a 6- or 7- seater, either a minivan based on the Prius, or a station-wagon (or “MPV”) with fold-out jump seats for kids in the rear, like a Mazda 5, Ford Taurus X, Volvo XC90, etc. The new Prius V is still a 5-seater, just bigger. Though the rear seats do recline now, like a boss.