Toyota has introduced a mild off-road variant of the Prius C for Japan – but it doesn’t seem as though it will arrive in North America.
The tougher Prius C, which is called the Aqua in Japan, is distinguished by a different grille, plastic body cladding, roof rails, a cosmetic front skid plate and different front and rear fascias. There’s also unique 16-inch aluminum wheels.
When asked to comment on whether or not the slightly chunkier Aqua for Japan will arrive in North America or other outside markets, Toyota said it couldn’t comment on the possibility of future product.
In addition to the off-road version, Toyota also introduced small updates for the Aqua in the way of a new front bumper, different headlights and taillights, different fenders and a new hood. Both models will get subtle changes inside as well, with a new standard digital TFT instrument cluster and new color options.
SEE ALSO: 2017 Toyota Prius Prime Plug-In Review
The Prius C/Aqua’s 1.5-liter hybrid powertrain remains mostly unchanged, however engineers did toy with things a little to squeeze even better fuel economy out of it. The hatchback now returns 38km/L (about 89 MPG US), while the beefier crossover gets 34km/L (about 80 MPG US).
The standard Aqua is sold in Japan for ¥1,785,240 ($16,000 USD), while the crossover will cost a bit more at ¥2,062,800 ($18,500 USD).
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