Toyota Prius Alpha, Prius Plug-in & Prius Concept at Detroit

December 24, 2010 By Cars UK

Toyota Prius MPV (Toyota Prius Alpha) Teaser

Toyota will be taking a quartet of Prius models to Detroit in January: 3rd Gen Prius, Prius Plug-in, Prius MPV (Prius Alpha / Prius-V) and a smaller Prius Concept (Prius-C).

Toyota has been threatening to build more versions of the Prius for a very long time. Almost as long as there’s been a Prius, in fact.

Until recently we thought that all Toyota Hybrids would be badged ‘Prius’. To be honest, we thought Prius would become either an eco-brand – just as Toyota has Lexus for the luxury stuff – or at the least as sub-brand (as in Toyota Auris ‘Prius’, for example). But it seems not, although Toyota are certainly heading down the road of more Prius models.

And the Detroit Motor Show in January is set to be something of a showcase for all things Prius, with not just the third generation Prius on the Toyota stand, but also the Prius Plug-in, the new Prius MPV (Prius Alpha) and a new Prius Concept 0Prius-C) scheduled for an appearance.

The third generation Prius and its plug-in sibling are old news, but the Prius MPV – Toyota Prius Alpha or Prius V – is scheduled for its first public outing. The concept we expect to be smaller than the current Prius and was dubbed Prius-C when the show cars were shown to Toyota dealers a few weeks ago.

We’re not sure we see the logic of all this, especially when Toyota are busy rolling out hybrid versions of many of the cars in its regular range such as the Auris hybrid and even have a Yaris hybrid planned. Still, maybe it’ll make more sense at Detroit.

Or not.