The 4th gen Prius is Toyota’s first car based on its new TNGA architecture. TNGA is not a platform, or a modular kit. TNGA is a new production system, an assemblage of improvements and technologies that have been tested over the past years. They all come together in the new Prius. What follows are just the highlights. Describing all would amount to writing a car catalog, something I haven’t done for 30 years, and I won’t start again.
The Prius is powered by a re-engineered 2ZR-FXE 1.8-liter Atkinson cycle petrol engine. The new engine achieves a maximum thermal efficiency of 40 percent?the world’s highest level in a mass-produced gasoline engine, says Toyota. The engine competes in thermal efficiency with diesel engines, we heard today.