The G Sports version of the Aqua, which is what Toyota calls the Prius C in its home market of Japan, retains the standard model's full hybrid powertrain adding numerous styling bits and a re-tuned suspension into the mix.
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Apparently, Toyota feels the same way about its line of Prius hybrids. Therefore, despite being on track to set record sales, the Japanese carmaker is mulling whether to continue with the aerodynamic, wedge-shaped styling, which truth be told, has been around for a while, for the next generation models or try something completely new.
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Unfortunately for Toyota, the product-testing magazine asserted that the Prius C is not good enough to be recommended.
"This subcompact hatchback, which is related to the lackluster Toyota Yaris, suffers from a stiff ride, very noisy cabin, slow acceleration, and cheap-looking interior trim," said Consumer Reports.
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The Prius C / Aqua is manufactured exclusively in Japan at Toyota's Iwate plant. While in 2007, the plant exported around 60 percent of its output, that number has now been halved to 30 percent.
Therefore, the bad news is that despite Toyota's boasting about the fact that it only took three days for the Prius C to sell more units than the Nissan Leaf and Chevrolet combined in one month, the Japanese automaker may not be able to satisfy demand for its hybrid model in the U.S. market.
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In its first three days on the market, the Prius C sold 1,201 units, with Toyota making it a point to note that it surpassed the combined sales of the Chevrolet Volt and Nissan Leaf for the entire month of February. In other related news, our local grocery disclosed that it sold more apples in an hour than Prius C in a day.
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The subcompact hatchback will arrive at Toyota dealerships in March 2012 with prices starting from $18,950, not including a $760* destination, processing and handling fee that puts the total to $19,710.
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The move has proved to be successful with Toyota revealing that it sold 8,399 units of the Prius V from the last week of October (that's when it arrived in dealerships across the States) through the end of December 2011, according to Carly Schaffner, a spokesperson for the automaker.
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The Prius C is the most compact member of the Prius Family, which also includes the third generation Prius Liftback, the new Prius V minivan and the Prius Plug-in Hybrid that will arrive in early 2012.
About the same size as the latest Yaris, Toyota's new dedicated hybrid model is a sub-compact five door hatchback that measures 157.3 in. long, 56.9 in. tall, 66.7 in. wide and tips the scales at 2,500 lbs (1,134 kg) or 542 lbs. less than the regular Prius.
"It will take about four months to receive the car once an order is placed," Toyota managing officer Koei Saga told reporters during a media briefing earlier this week.
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On the same day that the regular Aqua went on sale in its home market, Toyota's TRD racing and performance division announced a slew of tuning upgrades for the sub-compact hatchback.
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However, at the Tokyo Motor Show, the Japanese company came out of its shell introducing several bespoke models.
Aside from the Toyota Century-based FS Hybrid concept that we showed you earlier today, Kana Auto Works also displayed two prototypes of the newly presented Toyota Aqua hybrid, which will be marketed under the Prius C brand name outside of Japan.
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Besides the name, there's nothing else different about the Aqua that made its world premiere this week at the 42nd edition of the bi-annual Tokyo Motor Show in Japan.
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With the Prius C, Toyota expands its lineup of Prius-badged hybrid models that already includes the regular Prius, the new plug-in Prius PHEV and the Prius V minivan. The new five-door hatchback model takes its place as the base model of the Prius family.
At 3,995mm (157.3-in.) long, 1,695mm (66.7-in.) wide, and 1,445mm (56.9-in.) tall with a wheelbase of 2,550mm (100.4-in.), the Prius C is marginally bigger than the latest generation of the Yaris (153.5" long, 66.7" wide, and 59.4" tall with a 98.8" wheelbase).
The Prius C features a compact and lightweight hybrid system that combines a 1.5-liter gasoline engine with a high-output electric motor.
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But today, thanks to a tip from a Carscoop reader in Japan who goes by the nickname "i-Ryuji", we can show you the actual production version of the Prius C through a plethora of scanned images from a leaked brochure.
With a big stretch of imagination, you might see the resemblance between the concept study and the production variant of the Prius C that evolves the design language of the regular Prius liftback.
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