Not one to miss out on the blacked-out special-edition trend, the 2022 Toyota Prius Nightshade Edition becomes the 11th Toyota model to infiltrate the market in dark guise. It is the first hybrid model in the Toyota lineup to get the bold Nightshade styling treatment, too.
The Nightshade appearance package adds blacked-out wheels, headlight accents, mirror caps, door handles, and badges. The special edition package is available on standard front-wheel-drive or AWD-e Prius grades with a choice of three exterior colors: Midnight Black Metallic, Super White, and Silver Metallica. Front-drive models ride on 17-inch wheels, while the all-wheel-drive Prius sits on teeny 15-inch wheels.
On the inside, black SofTex upholstered seats are power-adjustable and come heated; in the FWD Prius, they are eight-way adjustable, while the AWD-e layout gets six-way units. The SofTex-trimmed (think faux leather) steering wheel is also heated, and other interior touches include a semi-gloss black center console and chrome door handles. With the rear seats folded, the Prius offers a staggering 50.7 cubic feet of storage space, perfect for when you need to go into nomad mode.
A 1.8-liter naturally aspirated four-cylinder coupled with two electric motors propel America's top-selling hybrid that everyone loves to hate. The Prius AWD-e has an EPA-estimated 51 mpg city, 47 mpg highway, and 49 mpg combined, whereas the front-drive Prius improves fuel economy to an EPA-rated 54/50/52 mpg.
Standard equipment on the Nightshade Edition includes a 7.0-inch touchscreen, a six-speaker JBL sound system, Android Auto and Apple CarPlay. Additional tech features consist of Alexa compatibility, a wireless phone charger, an integrated backup camera system, advanced voice recognition, and Siri Eyes Free. Customers receive a one-year complimentary subscription to Toyota Safety Connect and a 10-year Service Connect trial.
The sportier-looking (but no more sporty) Nightshade Edition comes equipped with Toyota Safety Sense 2.0 and the Star Safety system. Safety features include bicyclist detection, lane departure alert, a blind-spot monitor with rear cross-traffic alert, a pre-collision system with low-light pedestrian detection, and intelligent parking assistance.
Regular Priuses—or Prii, if you will—in L Eco, LE, LE AWD-e, XLE, XLE AWD-e, and Limited trim levels gain a new standard Rear Seat Reminder, which will inform the driver whether a child or pet is about to be left behind in the back seat. The protocol kicks in when the car is stationary and in park and turned off. New fog lights with LEDs are new to the 2022 Prius XLE and Limited variants, as well.
Now in its fourth generation and 6 million strong in sales worldwide since debuting in 1997, the outfitted fuel-efficient hatchback is sure to attract more haters in the fast lane. The 2022 Toyota Prius Nightshade Edition arrives this fall, and at $30,470 to start, its pricing falls between the XLE trim and that of the fancier Limited. Full pricing for the 2022 Prius lineup below:
This story was originally published May 27, 2021, and has since been updated to reflect the 2022 Prius lineup's overall changes, as well as pricing for each trim level.
