How Toyota almost killed the Prius in Europe itself

If everything about the new Toyota Prius goes according to plan, you will see it on the road in the Netherlands in six months. And maybe a whole year from now a lot more often. One thing is certain: with its sleek design, it will offend a lot less potential buyers than its predecessor. ‘No more boring cars!’ called Akio Toyoda a few years ago, but we expect Toyota to do well to draw its new Prius a little less intensely than the outgoing model.

Still, the upcoming Toyota Prius is certainly not boring: the car’s fine-looking proportions in the photos give the somewhat stocky liftback a much more dynamic appearance than any previous Prius. Not only in terms of overall shape, but also in terms of details, the new one is completely up to date. That starts with the light areas: at the back we find a sleek light bar, sharply cut at the front and C-shaped daytime running lights – which, together with the sheet metal in between (on which the logo adorns), creates a resemblance to the nose of the Ferrari SF90 .

C-shaped headlight units, in between plate brand with a logo with continuous lines on both sides over the front cover;

Furthermore, the fairly flat windscreen is visually connected to the rear window by a black roof with a tinted but optional glass part, and we find the handles for the rear doors at the C-pillar. All in all, the design of the new Prius is not as spectacular, but a lot more appealing than that of the outgoing generation. But is that enough for a sales success?

Four predecessors

Previously, the Toyota Prius in the Netherlands was a mixed success. It has been available every year since 2000 and in some years hardly sold at all, but also has two significant sales peaks. It started at the beginning of this millennium with the first generation Prius, a hybrid sedan that was delivered in Japan since 1997. For the market introduction in the rest of the world – in 2000 – the design was slightly updated. Nevertheless, the first generation quickly disappeared from the showrooms in 2003. Less than 500 copies found an owner in the Netherlands during that period, making an original Dutch first-generation Prius truly a rare appearance.

It was the second generation that put the model name on the map. It introduced the characteristic liftback with two-part rear window: an element that was used again in generations three and four. With its hatchback, the second Prius was a more practical car than the saloon that was the first, but that wasn’t the only improvement. Toyota had further developed its hybrid technology, making the second Prius a lot more economical than the first. The design also got more hands on each other. The first was quite (or very) common, the second was distinctive.

The, from left to right, the first four generations of the Toyota Prius.

The Prius XW20 – as the second iteration was internally called – came on the market in 2003, but deliveries in the Netherlands only really started in 2004. The success story could start cautiously: in 2004, Toyota Netherlands registered more than 1,000 Priuses, more than twice as much as the first generation in four years. A year later there were even more than 2,700, and in the following two years also more than 2,000.

The success years

But then it was 2008, the year in which lower addition percentages were introduced for business drivers for more fuel-efficient cars, including the Prius. There was a real run on cars with low theoretical consumption and the range of economical petrol cars was still quite small at the time – the somewhat comparable Honda Insight Hybrid, for example, was not yet available. Not that its market launch in 2009 could stop the Prius. Toyota sold a total of more than 22,000 Prius units in 2008, 2009 and 2010. The brand also helped itself by introducing a completely new one: from 2009 it was time for the third generation Prius.

That one, like the second one, did pretty well. The sales numbers fell from 7,858 to 3,357 from 2010 to 2011, but due to revised addition rules for 2012 and the introduction of a plug-in-hybrid variant, another revival took place in that year. However, that was short-lived. From 2013, the second generation Toyota Auris was well and truly available, and it became very popular – also as a station. Toyota already sold more Aurissen in 2015 than the 8,326 copies of the Prius in its peak year. And there was another blow for the Prius, in 2014 (286 sales versus 3,730 in 2013): from that year the hybrid became less attractive from a tax point of view. Still: the death knell for the Prius mainly came from our own home. Toyota now also had the Auris in its range. It was more conventional, more practical as a station and almost as economical, so that suddenly hardly anyone bought a Prius anymore.

From 2019, Toyota delivered this Prius: the fourth-generation facelift.

The fourth-generation Prius introduced in 2015 (and facelifted at the end of 2018) could not turn the tide. The car had an even less common appearance, which was not well received in Europe. For Toyota itself, that was not necessarily a bad thing; for those who thought it was an ugly thing, the brand now had more common-lined hybrids. It did, however, put a noose around the Prius’s neck. In 2016, the first full year in which the fourth Prius was on the market, Toyota sold 663 more. The following years it was really over – and in recent years completely. In 2020, 2021 and 2022, Toyota sold less than 100 units per year in the Netherlands, while its Corolla Hybrid is doing well at the same time. Another important competitor came from our own home.

Only as a plugin

Nevertheless, Toyota is now also introducing a fifth generation in the Netherlands. That is a car that initially only comes with a plug-in hybrid powertrain. The first two Toyota Prius were only available as conventional hybrids, the third and fourth also came as a plug-in – with the fourth as such even given a significantly different appearance. The new Prius, on the market from next year, is completely up-to-date with a fully electric driving range of roughly 75 kilometers and more than 200 hp.

But whether that, in combination with the previously described appearance, will ensure a resurrection of the Prius? We cautiously predict that this will not be too bad. For business drivers, a fully electric car is in any case still more interesting from a tax point of view up to and including 2025. However, for the time being – also for private individuals – a halved MRB rate applies to plug-ins, because in theory they often emit less than 50 grams of CO2 per kilometre. In 2025 you will pay 75 percent of the MRB for a car that emits less than 50 grams of CO2, and from 2026 the full pound.

Still: in terms of specifications and electric driving range, the new Prius offers a very decent package. Most of its competitors make do with less. We still have to wait for the price tag that Toyota hangs on the fifth generation. If all goes well, the car may offer quite a few consumers a solid intermediate step before they switch to fully electric driving. Toyota also has to pay attention to the position of its Corolla Hybrid: it is still doing quite well in the Netherlands, so the Prius should not become much more expensive than its hatchback or station brother to attract some buyers with its plug-in hybrid powertrain. to be able to snack.

The new Toyota Prius.

Number of Toyota Prius sold per year since 2002.