New prius announced!

[Phase]

They just say the new combined mpg is 57 for the new Prius. If it had more drag, I wonder if the highway mpg is even worse now than the last prius, but the city driving had gone up into the 60s because of the better battery?

[Nathan jones]

For it to handle at speed, ride height had to be lowered and downforce increased. Reducing the air viscosity will increase total drag and lower mpg. Sports cars are sports cars and eco cars are eco cars, there is no in between.

Increased battery transfer efficiency will not counter by a very long way

Also likely won't have boron steel chassis like the first two models which they lost money on

[Nathan jones]

Plus in uk it's only a plug in thats available so will be +10mpg worse than old models

[freebeard]

Sports cars are sports cars and eco cars are eco cars, there is no in between.

Karmann Ghia? Fiero?

[Nathan jones]

Karmann Ghia .37 with the windows up. Rather hideous for it's frontal. There are no exceptions

The new prius is not being sold in the uk at all. Most users here are keeping the old ones. £4-10k a pop

[Cd]

Originally Posted by Nathan jones

Karmann Ghia .37 with the windows up. Rather hideous for it's frontal. There are no exceptions

The new prius is not being sold in the uk at all. Most users here are keeping the old ones. £4-10k a pop

Correct me if I'm wrong, but my understanding was that frontal area had nothing to do with cD.
That number is the cDxA figure.
BTW, I always thought of the Karmann Ghia as a tiny car.
That was until I got a scale model of one and a Golf.
The two cars are about the same size.

Regarding the high drag figure on the new Prius, I'd like to ask what you all think is the cause.
Sure the fenders are flared, but not enough to disrupt attached flow.
The wheels are larger, but air curtains and lots of attention to the area can fix this. ( Thinking back once again to the 81 Camaro tested at A2 wind tunnel at .201 cD. The open wheel area was absolutely massive )
Is it that twisted beltline ?
I just don't get it.
Good aero is a bragging point on the Prius, and I would have thought Toyota would have got that figure down to something respectable.

[Hersbird]

I don't think aero was as important as improving how it looked for the 2023. The 2022 Prius was hideous. I can only assume it looked that bad for some reason.

Originally they made the Prius look different because it was a signal you were better than everyone else, you drove a hybrid. Honda had plenty of hybrids and even other Toyotas that were hybrids didn't sell as well because you couldn't easily tell as the average Joe, that driver was better than you, they drove a hybrid. Now you have to drive a BEV to be better than everyone else so might as well make the hybrids look normal.

[freebeard]

Originally Posted by Nathan jones

Karmann Ghia .37 with the windows up. Rather hideous for it's frontal. There are no exceptions

Galloping goal posts. A 45MPG sports car doesn't exist?

The Fiero got 50MPG highway,

The Hot VWs Mileage Motor (40MPG at 65MPH in a Beetle) was based on a Karmann Ghia that had a 50lb crankshaft pulley that got a [claimed] 50MPG.

Remember your history -- Crosley won the LeMans Index trophy.

Regarding the high drag figure on the new Prius...

s1.cdn.autoevolution.com/images/news/gallery/2016-toyota-prius-gt300-racecar-debuts-in-tokyo-as-otherworldly-as-expected-video-photo-gallery_4.jpg

[JSH]

Originally Posted by Hersbird

I don't think aero was as important as improving how it looked for the 2023. The 2022 Prius was hideous. I can only assume it looked that bad for some reason.

Originally they made the Prius look different because it was a signal you were better than everyone else, you drove a hybrid. Honda had plenty of hybrids and even other Toyotas that were hybrids didn't sell as well because you couldn't easily tell as the average Joe, that driver was better than you, they drove a hybrid. Now you have to drive a BEV to be better than everyone else so might as well make the hybrids look normal.

The 2016 - 2022 Prius looked the way it looked because Toyota's CEO Akio Toyoda delayed the launch to have it restyled. The new design was styled for Japanese tastes and was very successful in Japan. Prius sales jumped from 74K in 2015 to 250K in 2016. The Prius was the best selling vehicle in Japan in 2016, 2017, and 2019.

[Phase]

Originally Posted by Cd

Correct me if I'm wrong, but my understanding was that frontal area had nothing to do with cD.
That number is the cDxA figure.
BTW, I always thought of the Karmann Ghia as a tiny car.
That was until I got a scale model of one and a Golf.
The two cars are about the same size.

Regarding the high drag figure on the new Prius, I'd like to ask what you all think is the cause.
Sure the fenders are flared, but not enough to disrupt attached flow.
The wheels are larger, but air curtains and lots of attention to the area can fix this. ( Thinking back once again to the 81 Camaro tested at A2 wind tunnel at .201 cD. The open wheel area was absolutely massive )
Is it that twisted beltline ?
I just don't get it.
Good aero is a bragging point on the Prius, and I would have thought Toyota would have got that figure down to something respectable.

New prius actually doesn’t have air curtains. Which is what’s weird