The little C-HR will be back in LA wearing a different badge than it bore at the 2015 show.
We got a first look at the little C-HR concept vehicle at the 2014 Paris Motor Show, and it has bounced back and forth across the Atlantic a number of times. But the production version is finally set to make its debut at the 2016 Los Angeles Auto Show two weeks from today.
Expect to see a few key changes from the original show car. Some of the radical angles and edges are likely to be softened a bit. And it’s not clear whether there will be a hybrid drivetrain available, unlike the original concept which was said to share the familiar Prius Hybrid Synergy Drive.
But the most significant change – at least for the U.S. market, might take a sharp eye to spot. When the C-HR concept landed at the 2015 L.A. Auto Show, it was wearing a Scion badge. With that youth-oriented brand now tossed onto the automotive scrapheap, the little crossover now will be wearing the Toyota logo all over the world.
(Say Scion-ara to Toyota’s youthful Scion brand. Click Here for that story.)
The Japanese giant isn’t saying much about the production model, other than to issue a tightly cropped teaser image and a terse statement suggesting that, “The compact crossover game is about to change at 12:45 p.m. PST, Thursday, November 17.” It also noted it will have a livestream of the reveal at: https://livestream.com/Toyota/LA2016.
The Scion badge shown on the nose of the C-HR concept in L.A. in November 2015.
There was little surprise when the first concept version of the C-HR made its debut. After all, such pint-sized CUVs have become one of the fastest-growing global product segments, and even in the U.S., they’ve been rapidly gaining momentum, as the broader utility vehicle market hits record levels.
But for the States, Toyota initially decided that the C-HR could help revive the once-popular Scion brand which, by 2015, had seen sales tumble by nearly two-thirds from its 2006 peak. Along with a first-ever sedan, the iA, the Scion C-HR was expected to become the brand’s “next icon,” replacing the boxy xB.
“Scion is known for doing things differently, and maybe even being a little weird,” Andrew Gilleland, who wound up being the brand’s last vice president and general manager, declared during a 2015 L.A. Auto Show preview. “This C-HR Concept embraces that idea and wears it like a badge of honor.”
It wasn’t to be. This past February, Toyota announced it was pulling the plug on Scion, though several key models, including the FR-S sports car and the production C-HR, would stay in production, albeit swapping logos.
The most recent version of the C-HR was seen at the Geneva Motor Show last winter.
Just a few weeks later, we got another look at the global Toyota C-HR at the 2016 Geneva Motor Show, and if you liked it in an earlier incarnation, the good news was that the crossover-utility vehicle on display hadn’t changed all that much.
It looked almost like it had emerged from one of the “Transformer” movies, with a slit of an upper grille and wraparound headlamps framing the familiar Toyota logo. Bulging front wheel arches flowed into a crease stretching the length of the CUV. The roof featured a coupe-like curve and the upper portion of the C-pillar was blacked out, making it appear like that roof was floating above the body.
The odds are solid that we’ll see few, if any, significant changes in the Toyota C-HR coming to Los Angeles.
(Mazda teases new CX-5 ahead of LA debut. Click Here for a sneak peek.)
Globally, Toyota is promising three powertrains will be available, including what appears to be a hybrid system shared with the fourth-generation Prius. It pairs a 1.8-liter gas engine with an electric motor to produce a combined peak 121 horsepower. Whether that will be offered in the U.S. is uncertain considering cheap gas has taken the wind out of hybrid sales.
The C-HR is the poster child for Toyota CEO Akio Toyoda's call to put "passion" into the brand.
Toyota also plans to offer a 2.0-liter inline-four making 145 hp through a CVT, and a turbocharged 1.2-liter four that turns out around 113 hp. The latter can be paired with a six-speed manual or the CVT, and should be available in either two- or all-wheel-drive.
Expect to see the new Toyota C-HR take aim at competitors like the Honda HR-V, Mazda CX-3 and Nissan Juke, and even more upscale mini-utes like the BMW X1.
Production is set to begin in Japan shortly, but we won’t be getting the little crossover in U.S. showrooms until sometime in the new year, the maker noting that it will be officially labeled the 2018 Toyota C-HR.
(Toyota makes push into car-sharing. Click Here for more.)