The Toyota Prius has long lead the way in the green movement when it comes to cars, now it appears the newest Toyota line will work harder at fitting in with bigger families.
If there has been one drawback of the first Toyota Prius models it is that they don’t seat that many people very comfortably. They aren’t ridiculously small by any stretch but they aren’t all that big and if a family truly wants to get serious about going green they need a bigger car that can still reach somewhere near the same gas mileage. It appears that Toyota has finally broached that problem with the launch of their new five and seven seat models.
While Toyota has officially launched these new models, it is still going to be quite a wait before customers can actually get their hands on them. In Japan, drivers won’t be able to get their hands on these wheels until spring of next year and there is no telling exactly when those of us overseas will be able to lay eyes on the vehicles. The new Prius A, (known as the Prius V in the United States and the Prius + in Europe) will be released as a five seat vehicle while the Prius Alpha will hold seven seats. The new models will cost anywhere between the Japanese equivalent of $29,000 and $40,000.
The five seat Prius A will actually be two rows of seats while the seven seat Prius Alpha will be three rows. The Prius A features a Nickel-Metal Hybrid battery compared to the seven seat Alpha which will have a Lithium-Ion battery that should work just as well but will be in a slightly different spot (in the middle console between the driver and the front passenger.)
Both the Prius A and the Prius Alpha will still get better mileage than comparable cars, though they won’t be approaching some of the odder green vehicles such as a “Green Motocycle“, or a Solar Car, their size and shape will almost certainly create a little more drag on the mileage than the original Prius. Exact mileage figures have yet to be released but we should hear more about these vehicles in the coming months and years.
Via: Akihabara News
