Toyota To Make The Prius Look Less Like An Alien And More Like The Prime

The Toyota Prius was never considered by any means a beautiful car but you could say that the current generation really pushes the boundaries of weirdness in mainstream production cars.

Fortunately though, Toyota appears to have decided that the time has come to make the Prius less awkward to look at, planning a redesign that will borrow the more acceptable styling cues of its plug-in hybrid sibling, the Prius Prime.

According to a report from the Japanese CarSensor, the facelifted Prius will get a mild styling update for 2019, with the changes focused on the front and rear ends. The end result should make the Prius look better but not too similar to the plug-in hybrid and more expensive Prius Prime for market positioning reasons.

US Prius sales have dropped to almost exactly half of their peak in 2012, at just 108,661 cars, with many market analysts suggesting that the bizzare styling of Toyota’s green champion has played a role.

The front end is likely to adopt a more clean look, with reshaped headlights and fog lights, while the rear end might probably drop the huge vertical LED taillights for something more acceptable.

The same report goes on and says that the hybrid 1.8-liter powertrain will also receive a few mild updates to further boost the Toyota Prius’ fuel economy figures.

The 2019 Toyota Prius is reportedly going to make a world debut this December.

H/T to GreenCarReports!