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The 2016 Toyota Prius will be bigger outside and in, with a sleeker look and improved fuel economy: probably 55 mpg combined, giving it the auto industry’s “highest MPG without a plug,” Toyota says. Toyota even promises the new fourth generation car will be sportier and more fun to drive. It will be on sale in the US early in 2016.

Toyota unveiled the 2016 model at a high-profile bash at the Linq hotel in Las Vegas Tuesday night, hoisting the car high in the air on a series of cables. If the unveiling was high on showmanship, Toyota is saving some of the specifics on the Prius for the Tokyo Motor Show in October, including the exact mpg rating.

Details on the car

The outgoing 2015 Prius measures 176″ L x 69″ W x 59″ H. Toyota says the 2016 Prius will be 2.6 inches longer and 0.6 inches wider. It will also be 0.8 inches lower for better handling and less airflow swirling under the car. It will still be a hatchback design, this time even more aggressively styled, meaning it’s a good thing Toyota has a rear camera for backing up and parking. Toyota says the design evokes the shape of the Toyota Mirai fuel cell car, especially in the rear.  The Prius was already one of the most easily recognized cars on the road.

The drivetrain — Hybrid Synergy Drive — has a new engine able to achieve more than 40% better thermal efficiency under some conditions. The battery pack will be smaller and lighter with greater energy density. If that’s not enough, Toyota will have a a Prius Eco version with even more efficiency. It’s possible this would be the first non-plug-in / non-EV to hit 60 mpg. As for the sporty handling part, the new Prius will employ a new suspension and improve body rigidity through stiffer and presumably lighter metals.

More tech for safety, higher ASPs

Inside, the Prius picks up some styling cues from Mirai. There is a pod at the top of the dashboard, centered, at the base of the windshield with with vents flanking a color LCD. Below that is a second LCD in the more traditional location near the top of the center stack.

Toyota says the Prius will be “among the first US models” offering Toyota Safety Sense (TSS), a safety package that provides driver assists to make the car, if not self-driving, capable enough to mind the road for you on long trips. It will also help increase the ASP, or average selling price. Toyota years ago found that some of its buyers were not cost-constrained; instead they checked every options box offered. TSS includes:

• Pre-Collision System with Pedestrian Detection
• Automated pre-collision braking
• Lane Departure Alert with Steering Assist
• Full-Speed Dynamic Radar Cruise Control
• Automatic High Beams

Toyota projects a 10-percent improvement in fuel efficiency for the base model; that would mean going from the current car’s 50 mpg combined to 55 mpg combined.

Will cheap gas prices affect Prius sales?

Toyota is launching the Prius at a time of very cheap gasoline prices. The US average for regular gas is $2.38 a gallon, the lowest it has been in more than half a decade. Whether it’s low gas prices or end-of-life sales fatigue, Prius sales volume (all models in the Prius family) fell 17% this year through the first eight months, to 125,830. Still, Toyota has sold more than 3.5 million since the first Prius launched in 1997. The success of Prius also masks a challenge for other automakers: Toyota sells so many Priuses that it’s hard for other automakers to gain efficiency of scale.

The outgoing 2015 Prius is rated at 51 mpg city, 48 mpg highway, and 50 mpg combined. Thus the 10% claimed improvement would place the Prius at 55 mpg combined. The Eco model might even hit 60 mpg.