The Toyota Prius has been a smash success by any measure. Given this, it is odd the company has never expanded on it. Now it is with a Prius Minivan. 

Toyota was once known as the pre-eminent automaker in the world. My father used to buy his new Forerunners without even seeing the car or driving it. Such was Toyota’s reputation for quality, but also for consistency in car design. Well, this decade has seen Toyota’s reputation treated like a buxom blond in a slasher flick. It ain’t been pretty. The company may be the biggest car company in the world, but one has to think twice about buying its offerings now. That is, of course, with the exception of the Prius.

The Prius is an amazing car and a typical Toyota offering. The company hit on something big and has applied its usually development philosophy to it – don’t change anything! Oh, the “new” Prius has some minor tweaks here and there, but it is still the same basic car that the company launched so many years ago. This philosophy has worked with other models, so why change it? Toyota isn’t, but they are adding to it. 

What if you could have all the benefits of a Prius, but more room as well? Toyota is banking on the belief you would love it. The company is going to produce a Prius minivan. The official name as of now is the Prius MPV. It will come with a bigger gas engine [2.5 liter instead of 1.8], but will be based on the basic Prius chassis and power system. The vehicle is supposedly based on the basic concept of the Mazda 5 minivan. 

When will the launch date be? It is currently unknown. However, Toyota has been making noises about revealing its next Prius model in January. Most people assume this is when we will see something. Will the model be a major advancement in hybrid technology? No, that isn’t the Toyota way. It will be a solid hybrid minivan, one that is not particularly exotic, but very practical. Let’s just hope the quality control problems Toyota has been facing don’t transfer to this new car as well.