The teaser pic suggests a more classic SUV design for the Toyota FT-AC concept.
Toyota and its high-line Lexus brand will be putting the spotlight on SUVs at the upcoming LA Auto Show – to no one’s surprise considering utes now account for half of the overall American new vehicle market.
Lexus has already given us a hint of its new RXL, a three-row version of the ever-popular RX line, and now it’s Toyota’s turn to tease us, the Japanese giant releasing this carefully lit front view of what it has dubbed the FT-AC.
Short for “Future Toyota Adventure Concept,” it picks up where Toyota left off last April with the FT-4X concept, and the retro-styled FT-AC appears to signal what may be heading our way to fill the slot left open by the demise of the old FJ Cruiser.
(Click Here for a preview of the new three-row Lexus RXL.)
We’ve tweaked this image ever so slightly in Photoshop to bring out a few more details of the Toyota FT-AC. What this reveals is a design that mixes modern and retro elements.
There appears to be a fairly upright front end with what look to be twin LED headlamps framing a large grille. The center of the Adventure Concept’s face has been blacked out so it is difficult to see if it picks up on the FT-4X’s billet-like crossbar. Directly beneath the headlamps are 6-six foglight clusters.
The Toyota FT-4X concept was revealed at the NY Auto Show last April.
The nose-on teaser also hints of a fairly sharp windshield rake and while there are fairly aggressive wheel flares, they’re nowhere near what we saw on the New York concept, the FT-4X appearing to lift its wheel arches out of the Jeep Wrangler handbook.
One of the more unusual details that could be easily missed in the FT-AC teaser pic is the oddly knobby shape of the sideview mirrors.
We’ll look forward to learning whether the new Toyota concept is as boxy, overall, as the FT-4X, which clearly was meant to follow up on the design of the FJ Cruiser, itself aimed at those who liked the more classic, truck-trucky shape of a Wrangler.
We’re confident the new Adventure Concept will come up with some intriguing features, however, perhaps an update of the Multi-Hatch rear that could open up either barn door-style, or like a more traditional liftgate.
Some tough guy details, such as tie-downs and even tow hooks would seem to be a given, meanwhile.
(Hyundai to launch eight new SUVs by 2020. Click Here for the story.)
The old Toyota FJ Cruiser.
Toyota is clearly looking to find new white space to enter as it – like pretty much all of its competitors – tries to take advantage of the massive shift from passenger cars to SUVs and CUVs. While much of the movement has been to car-based crossovers, there’s a sign of renewed interest in more traditional products. Ford, for one, is hoping to tap that with the soon-to-be-revived Bronco. And, of course, Jeep is getting set to weigh in with an all-new version of the classic Wrangler line.
But, as with the FJ Cruiser and the FT-4X, we expect the FT-AC to target Millennials and other urban adventurers who want something hip and flexible for around-town driving while also capable of a little bit of back-country adventuring on the weekend.
A hybrid powertrain very well could be in the mix, though Toyota is yet to talk about what’s under the hood.
Odds are the new FT-AC is the work of the Toyota advanced U.S. design studio, or CALTY, which also penned the FT-4X. We’ll find out more when the concept is formally unshrouded at the LA Auto Show on November 30.
(McLaren teases its new P15 hypercar. Click Here to check it out.)