Frankfurt motor show: Toyota holds fire on Qashqai rival but delivers on Prius

Toyota will, next year, have a new rival to the Nissan Qashqai in its ranks. The Japanese giant isn't quite ready to show it to us yet, partially because it doesn't want to steal the Frankfurt show thunder of its new Prius and the Mirai hydrogen fuel cell car, which is about to go on sale in selected European markets, though not Ireland.

The Prius, however is on the way and is the first Toyota to be built on its all-important new TNGA modular chassis.

The new Prius will, obviously, be donating its hybrid drivetrain to that new model, but Toyota is still keeping schtum on the actual performance figures for its new hybrid icon. Much of the new Prius' styling comes from the Mirai hydrogen car, but underneath it's using much the same 1.8-litre petrol engine with hybrid electrical boosting as before. Toyota is claiming though that it's as much as 18 per cent more efficient and that the thermal efficiency of the engine (a measure of how much energy it extracts from its fuel, as opposed to how much is wasted as heat) is now up to 40 per cent – a figure Toyota claims is world-leading.

Although the Prius is sticking, for now, with old-fashioned nickel batteries for its hybrid system (more modern lithium-ion ones are on the way apparently) the battery stack has been made smaller and lighter without sacrificing any actual power.

On the outside, it’s 20mm lower than before, but Toyota says it’s just as roomy thanks to the greater efficiencies of the TNGA chassis that it’s built on. The cabin is very similar in style to that of the outgoing Prius, with a slim digital instrument pack mounted high up on the dash and a central console featuring a new Toyota Touch infotainment screen.

There's also our first sight of the new RAV4 Hybrid on the Toyota stand, which comes in both two-and-four-wheel-drive versions. The 4WD model uses, as does its larger Lexus SUV cousins, an electric motor to drive the rear wheels, removing the need for a heavy propshaft or transfer box. Toyota claims the front-drive model has 57mpg fuel consumption and 115/gkm Co2 emissions.