Toyota Forced to Delay Production for Fourth Generation Prius

4th Gen Toyota Prius Concept (Credit: © Toyota)

There’s good news and bad news about the production of the all-new Toyota Prius, which will launch the next generation of the hybrid hatchback. The good news is that Toyota is working hard to make the new version of the car even more efficient than before. The bad news is that such perfectionism by Toyota will delay production of the car, and not by just a little bit.

Originally, the next generation of the Prius was going to start production in the spring of 2015. The delays have pushed that production launch date back to December of 2015, at the earliest, according to a recent report from Automotive News.

The exact reasons for the production delay aren’t really very clear. The sources that spoke with Automotive News gave conflicting information. The most credible information indicated that Toyota is working hard to improve the car’s fuel economy, with aerodynamics and the suspension tuning cited as problem areas. The issues might be stemming from the fact that the next generation of the Prius will be based on the New Global Architecture created by Toyota, which is a modular design that will allow the automaker to cut costs. The new Prius is the first model to use the new architecture, which makes it the experimental guinea pig that is uncovering all of the new problems.

The story is even worse for the plug-in version of the next generation Prius. Its production launch has been slated for October of 2016, putting it at a disadvantage as the new Nissan Leaf and Chevrolet Volt are expected to launch earlier.