What’s Wrong with the 2017 Toyota Prius?

If any one thing can be certain about the green car market, it is that Toyota most certainly knows how to build a hybrid. Go back and forth on which brand you prefer and which type of electric assist fits your needs, Toyota has been the premier hybrid technology leader over the past decade and a half. It is no small feat that they’ve turned the Prius into a mainstream commodity in just a few years, a car that you’re just as likely to see in parking lots as F-150s and Altimas, from Maine to California. The arrival of the fourth generation in late 2015 marked an even bigger turning point for the hybrid leader. Toyota seems to want to make the car just as much of an everyday car as the Corolla or Camry, despite slapping it with the looks of a freshly caught tuna. But, with sales numbers not exactly setting the world on fire, what’s wrong with the 2017 Prius?

It is easy to immediately point out how strange the design of the Prius is. In fact, it might even be a bit too shallow of any of us to make that the primary reason why the car isn’t selling as well as it should. The new Prius is definitely not the worst-looking Toyota they produce. After all, this is the company that came up with the Mirai and the weird design language on the updated Yaris and Camry. Although the new Prius is a logical extension of each, at the very least, we’re getting a Toyota that seems to have a personality. From the inside, well, it is largely business as usual, and in my mind, it is a far more attractive and usable shape and feel compared to the outgoing model. So, no, looks aren’t everything. Unless we talk about the Prius Prime.

Launching at the end of 2016, the Prius Prime seeks to begin again where the Prius Plug-In left off. It is your usual mish-mash of batteries, electric motors, regen brakes and so on that you’ve come to expect for this growing segment, albeit with the Prime actually making some significant improvements over the outgoing Plug-In model. With double the range, and a relatively short charge time, and a drastically improved exterior, the Prime seeks to be a more affordable contender for the Chevrolet Volt that doesn’t distance itself too far from it’s Prius roots. But here’s the thing — If I’ve been a long-time Prius buyer, why would I pick up the 2017 model when I know a better one is coming out in the near future? One that isn’t as ugly, and in the end, may be a much more useful alternative day-to-day? Maybe that’s the key to the sales drop. If the Prime is only going to be a few thousand dollars more than a comparably equipped Eco, in the end, it may be a much better choice.

But, where I think a lot of people are missing the point is in the realization that the Prius just isn’t the value that it used to be. Much of that has to do with the price of gas and the shape of the market, but in a time where a $25,000 Prius was still a strong alternative to a $22,000 Corolla — that just isn’t the case anymore. Consider if you will two strong contenders on the Eco front these days in the market, the Hyundai Elantra Eco and Honda Civic EX-T. Both cars come with a wide variety of standard equipment that can rival much more luxurious models, and both can meet or exceed a 40 MPG rating on the highway. Previous generations of the Prius struggled greatly to manage highway rates in the low 40s, and even though the Prius Two Eco can manage up to 53 MPG, depending on your actual usage of the vehicle, that value scale can get shaky real quick.

Let’s cross-shop, for a moment, the Toyota Prius Two Eco and the Hyundai Elantra Eco. Both cars come with some pretty impressive fuel economy ratings, the Prius Eco with an average of 55 MPG and the Elantra Eco with an average of 36 MPG. “Great,” you might say, “Both cars look like smart buys on fuel alone!” But when you start looking into the details, the Hyundai is up for $21,000 with a wide variety of standard equipment that isn’t even directly comparable on the Toyota. Things like heated seats, Android Auto/Apple Car Play, and a variety of safety tech are all standard on the Hyundai, while Toyota gets to boast about 58 MPG in the city — all to the tune of nearly $26,000. Now, assume that you as an average driver put on 12,000 miles a year and that gas stays pegged around $2.50 a gallon — it would take a whopping 17 years to work off that difference in cost. Granted, you can make many more assumptions about the Toyota holding it’s value better and very likely being a more reliable choice in the long run, but are you really getting an extra $5000 worth of value at days end?

The compact market of 2016 is rife with the kind of competition that the Prius wouldn’t have expected in 2006. With the bar seemingly set at 40 MPG these days for almost all entries into the market, the foundation upon which the Prius had been built is no longer as solid as it once was. Although other hybrid options have routinely fallen by the wayside or not been nearly as successful as their brands had hoped, we’re still ignoring the potential growth in hybrid crossovers as the market continues to roll over and into those high-riding options. Perhaps with better looks, better value, and maybe better positioning in the market the 2017 Prius could have been a bigger hit out of the gate. Perhaps after the launch of the Prime shakes out things will pick up, but if one thing is for certain, I think it is a reasonable certainty that this generation of the Prius will spark a bit of a rethink in the near future.