Toyota's baby SUV delayed

Monday, 9 March 2020

Toyota's all-new Yaris packs some big technology into a small package.

Toyota New Zealand's hopes for a big boost in the small SUV segment this year with the arrival of a Yaris-based crossover have been dashed with the news that the baby SUV is now unlikely to go on sale until 2021.

Whether that specifically means for Europe, which is where the comment was made to media - and is also the only location outside of Japan where the car will be built (in France) - or every market is not clear.

Either way, it would hardly seem to be good news for Toyota New Zealand, which in January indicated a variant set to slot under the just-refreshed C-HR was expected to follow, by a matter of months, the Yaris hatch that is launching here around June in petrol and hybrid forms.

The teaser image of the new Yaris-based SUV, which won't be 'just a Yaris with body cladding and raised suspension.'

Chief operating officer Neeraj Lala was firm then that the Yaris-based crossover, which was also set to be available as a hybrid, would be introduced in 2020. Lala was unavailable to offer comment to the delay.

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The car was certainly going to be the centrepiece of Toyota's Geneva motor show stand and marked the brand's entry into a booming segment. However, the Geneva show was cancelled at last moment after the Swiss government banned gatherings of 1000 or more people in a bid to halt the spread of the coronavirus.

Makers planning product introductions and concept reveals were forced at very short notice to make alternative arrangements for revealing those wares. Many chose livestreams but Toyota opted out, for reasons that remain unclear.

Last year 1.9 million small SUVs were sold in Europe, up 20 per cent on the year before, according to market researcher JATO Dynamics. Toyota is expected to steal a march by making its product available with four-wheel drive, a rarity in the segment.

Toyota Europe senior vice president, Mike Harrison, raised excitement about what is coming in an interview in January.

He assured the model, whose lines were hinted out with the pre-show teaser image, won't be 'just a Yaris with body cladding and raised suspension' but will an entirely new distinctive model 'with a compact, dynamic design and a personality all of its own.'

All proportions are slightly larger than for the new Yaris hatch and it is on an extended wheelbase.

Yaris powertrain options will be used, which means the hybrid unit Lala believes will elevate the Yaris hatch's potential on merit of its market position and thrift.

Overall economy of just 3.3 litres per 100km from a 1.5-litre three-cylinder engine matched to a lithium ion battery is a talent expected to see it be an even more conducive lightning rod than product that has driven a 151 percent increase in national Toyota and Lexus hybrid volume since 2018.