Toyota offers up a teaser silhouette of the C-HR concept crossover coming to the Paris Motor Show.
Toyota helped define the small crossover when it launched the original RAV4 two decades ago. Now it’s apparently getting ready to take things a step further with the “innovative vision for a compact crossover” it will introduce at the Paris Motor Show in less than a month.
The Japanese reveals the new model has been dubbed the C-HR, and it’s offering up this teaser silhouette image, but beyond a few gushing platitudes, it is providing few specific details.
Among other things, we learn from its news release, the Toyota C-HR marries “a new design language with an engaging driving experience and a hybrid powertrain.”
A replacement for the RAV4? Perhaps, as the C-HR appears to be targeting the same segment once derisively written off as the “cute-ute,” but which has become one of the fastest-growing niches in the global auto industry.
There are some indications that Toyota might actually be looking to offer two vehicles in the segment, at least in Europe, where a more expressive model could be aimed at Nissan’s more stylish Qashqai model.
In the U.S., one option would be to offer the new model through the Scion brand. The youth-oriented division has been struggling in recent years and is about to see a major model range realignment. Among other things, the boxy xB model is about to go away. A version of the C-HR just might be able to find a home with Scion.
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What we do know is that Toyota has been aggressively trying to shift its image as the producer of reliable but bland and boring vehicles. The 2015 Camry is an example, undergoing a major, mid-cycle redesign rather than the modest tweaks traditional midway through a product’s lifecycle.
Toyota is also trying to enhance its driving dynamics to attract buyers who demand more enthusiastic driving dynamics.
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As for the hybrid powertrain, well, no other manufacturer has been more successful in the gas-electric market, the Toyota Prius dominating all competitors. Whether the C-HR show car will introduce an updated version of the familiar Hybrid Synergy Drive system remains to be seen, but it just might. Toyota has traditionally put the focus on fuel economy above all else, while other makers – including Japanese rival Infiniti — have been using hybrids to boost performance as well as mileage.
The Toyota C-HR concept will make its formal debut at the Paris show on October 2nd. A production version, if finalized, would not likely reach showrooms until 2016, at the earliest.
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