New Toyota Prius outed

Toyota's all-new Prius has been exposed by an underhanded transport worker while the car was apparently in transit to its world debut in Las Vegas next week.

These two images first appeared on the Prius Club of Malaysia's Facebook page, showing two examples of Toyota's fourth-generation hybrid icon being air-freighted in the hold of a cargo plane – perhaps a discounted Malaysia Airlines flight between Japan and the US ahead of its global reveal on September 8.

Either way, the images show both the front and rear of the Mk4 Prius completely undisguised for the first time, corroborating the shape seen in the most recent spy shots in July and the radical new design revealed in leaked brochure images earlier last month.

Due on sale in Australia in the first quarter of next year, the redesigned hybrid hatchback will be the first production vehicle to ride on the world's largest car-maker's new billion-dollar Toyota New Global Architecture (TNGA) platform.

As such it will be lighter, and was also expected to be lower, wider and sportier looking, although as these images show, the next Prius will retain the model's familiar, aerodynamic profile comprising a rounded roofline, slab sides and a chopped rear.

That said, new surface details include edgier frontal styling inspired by the Mirai hydrogen fuel-cell car, a rising concave rear shoulder line and wild boomerang-shape vertical tail-light graphics.

However, according to Autonet – the Taiwanese website that leaked the brochure images – the new Prius will measure 4550mm long, 1770mm high and 1490mm wide – making it the same width as the current car, but longer (+70mm) and taller (+25mm).

The TNGA platform is not only expected make the new Prius more than 100kg lighter at 1280kg and therefore quicker and more efficient – thanks in part to a revised Atkinson-cycle four-cylinder petrol-electric powertrain with combined output up by 10kW to 110kW – but more dynamic.

That's because it has a lower centre of gravity and is between 35 and 60 per cent stronger than the current car's underpinnings.

Toyota has previously indicated its third-generation petrol-electric powertrain will make the new Prius at least 10 per cent more efficient, but according to Autonet it will sip as little as 2.5L/100km – more than 1.0L/100km less than the current model, which consumes 3.9L/100km on the ADR Combined cycle.

The new Prius could also be cheaper to buy. Using the new global platform is said to make Toyota hybrids of the future 40 per cent cheaper to develop. Toyota says it plans to reinvest 75 per cent of that saving back into making the car better than its opposition. The MkIII Prius currently stars at $32,490.

Toyota has promised the larger new Prius cabin will offer improvements in "design, layout and ease of operation" and, like the model it replaces, it's expected to be available as a conventional hybrid when it goes on sale globally in early 2016, followed by a plug-in hybrid version.

It remains to be seen whether the existing Prius PHEV's more advanced lithium-ion battery pack will replace the standard model's cheaper nickel-metal hydride batteries, or whether the plug-in version will finally be sold in Australia.

Toyota has sold more than five million Prius vehicles globally since 1997, and sales remain steady in Australia at just 300 to July this year.