Toyota’s Nissan Qashqai rival is set to go on sale early next year and will stick close to the C-HR concept’s polarising looks in a bid to break into the hotly contested category.
The C-HR was revealed at last year’s Paris motor show. It was distinguished by its heavily flared wheel arches, angular haunches and ‘floating’ rear light clusters, all of which gave it a notably broad stance.
Potential customers are said to have favoured the concept’s looks over more traditional interpretations of crossover themes.
The C-HR’s looks were created in response to a demand from company boss Akio Toyoda for Toyota’s designers to be more adventurous. Recent designs for Lexus, Toyota’s luxury brand, have shown the initial response to that demand.
The new crossover is expected to be revealed at the Geneva motor show next March. It is based on the Toyota New Global Architecture, the firm’s equivalent of Volkswagen’s MQB platform.
Toyota’s architecture has been designed to underpin everything from compact to large vehicles in front, rear and all-wheel drive configurations. By 2020, around half of all Toyotas will be based on the platform, with the next-generation Prius kick-starting use of the technology.
One of the most significant benefits of the platform structure is that it allows greatly enhanced interior space. The C-HR concept was said to have the interior space of a Qashqai despite having slightly smaller dimensions.
Toyota has also launched a move to upgrade the quality and functionality of its interiors, and this is set to be accelerated as new-generation cars come on stream.
Rumours suggest the crossover could be called Auris Cross, although there has been no official confirmation of this. It was first spied testing in Germany around 18 months ago and is expected to sit above the RAV4 in Toyota’s line-up.
New Toyota UK president Paul van der Burgh declined to comment on specific launch plans but said: “The high growth rate of sales of that sort of vehicle would be very good for us. The concept was excellent and the styling in particular stood out. If such a product were to launch, I’m confident it could be a best seller."
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