Toyota South Africa Motors has quietly axed the Prius from its model range, ending a 17-year local run for the brand’s pioneering hybrid vehicle…

Despite fielding a local line-up with more hybrid options than ever before (including a raft of dual-powered Lexus models), Toyota South Africa Motors has discontinued the vehicle that started it all. Yes, the Prius has quietly exited South Africa after 17 years on the market.

Since the original Prius – billed as the world’s first mass-production hybrid passenger vehicle at its launch in Japan in 1997 – wasn’t officially offered here in South Africa, the second-generation model marked the nameplate’s local debut way back in 2005.

The third generation touched down in 2009, with the fourth iteration following in mid-2016. A facelifted version was launched in South Africa in 2019, before yet more updates (including a generous addition of safety equipment) were rolled out two years later. The last list price we saw for the slow-selling Prius was R604 100.

Of course, in South Africa, this hybrid didn’t ever achieve the level of popularity it enjoyed in markets such as North America, where the original resonated particularly strongly with Hollywood stars keen to display their “green” credentials (a phenomenon that, in turn, influenced many an ordinary buyer in that country).

We sorted through sales figures submitted to Naamsa for the first eight months of 2022 and discovered just 11 units of the Prius were registered in South Africa over that period. While it’s not clear whether there is any remaining stock in Toyota SA Motors’ dealer network, the Japanese brand’s local divisionhas confirmed to Cars.co.za the Prius is no longer being imported.

The Toyota Prius: the outgoing model’s powertrain details

As a reminder, the latest XW50-generation Prius drew its urge from a hybrid powertrain comprising an electric motor, a battery pack and a 1.8-litre, 4-cylinder Atkinson-cycle petrol engine. Total system output stood at 90 kW, while Toyota opted not to list a combined maximum torque figure (though the petrol mill made 142 Nm and the electric motor generated 163 Nm). Drive was directed to the front axle through a continuously variable transmission.

Thanks to a dedicated EV mode enabling the Prius to operate under full-electric power, Toyota was able to claim a combined fuel economy figure of just 3.7 litres per 100 km, translating to a theoretical 1 162 km range from the 43-litre fuel tank.

As a self-charging hybrid, the Prius had the abilityto recuperate what would otherwise have been wasted energy during deceleration (including braking), storing it in the battery for later use. In addition, the petrol engine was capable of directly charging the battery pack in the absence of regenerative braking.

Though Toyota SA Motors has called time on the Prius, it still markets a range of hybrid vehicles locally, including the Prospecton-produced Corolla Cross hybrid as well as dual-powered versions of the Corolla sedan and RAV4. From what we understand, yet more hybrid options are on the horizon, too. The local Lexus line-up, meanwhile, includes hybrid versions of the UX, ES, NX, IS, RX and LS.

Buy a Toyota Prius on Cars.co.za

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