Barely a month after our first test drive of Toyota’s Prius A prototype, Toyota invited us today to the official launch of its new Seven Seater known overseas Prius V in North America and Prius + In Europe.
So what’s new here? Well actually nothing really, today’s car is actually technically and physically the same as the prototype we tested last month, the only difference here that we finally have an official name for it for the Japanese market: Prius A (Alpha) and a price list!
The Prius A will be available in Japan in several configuration with either a 5 seat of 7 seat version of the car divided in six different grades with a market price starting at 2,35 to 3,305 Million Yen.
The Prius A (Alpha) was originally schedule to be available in Japan at the end of April, but due to what happened here and even if today’s is the official launch date of this new Hybrid “People Carrier” Japanese customers won’t have the chance to get their car before April 2012! Yep an 11 month delay is to be expected if you were to place your order today this mainly due to back-orders and strong demands due to the March 11 Earthquake.
Identical technically speaker, the 2 row (5 seats) Prius A and 3 row (7 seats) Alpha features however one difference on its “Hybrid” part where the 5 seats version comes with a Nickel-Metal Hybrid battery, while the 7 seats version comes with a more compact yet as powerful Lihium-Ion battery that will be place in the central console between the driver and its passenger.
Bottom line the Prius A is could be compared as a “Wagon” version of the actual Prius with a slightly decrease fuel efficiency due to the overall shape and passenger capacity of this new car.
For our first impression Hands-on here just after the break on this new Prius A