All-new Toyota family SUV confirmed
Hi-tech new eight-seater Toyota and Lexus SUV twins green-lit; right-hand drive not yet locked inToyota has just dropped a cool billion dollars ($US803 million) upgrading facilities at its Indiana car factory in the US to prepare for two all-new SUVs – one a Toyota, the other a Lexus.
While details of the two new family-friendly SUVs expected to lob in 2023 are scarce, the global car giant confirmed both models will be three-row, eight-seater SUVs with high levels of autonomous driving tech.
Given that Toyota has also just spent $US710 million (circa $A550m) purchasing US-based ride-sharing company Lyft’s autonomous vehicle operations, it would stand to reason these vehicles will benefit from the new acquisition.
Toyota says the all-new three-row SUVs are “designed with the active Gen-Y American family in mind” and will include advanced automated driving systems “which will allow for hands-free driving in certain conditions”.
Other confirmed tech for the big SUVs includes a remote parking system “allowing the driver to park and unpark from outside the vehicle using a smartphone”, says Toyota, along with the introduction of ‘digital keys’ allowing for the driver’s smartphone to replace traditional keys.
Engine types are not yet clear but some sort of electrification is all but certain, most likely a petrol-electric hybrid set-up.
At this stage there are no plans for the new SUVs to head to Oz, but if they are earmarked as global models for export Australia could be in the running.
“We currently don’t have plans to bring something like that to Australia,” a Toyota Australia spokesperson told carsales.
“If something like that does become available globally we would need to study its suitability for our local market.”
Top 10 Toyota GR models coming
The growth of Toyota’s SUV range comes hot on the heels of two other significant portfolio expansions – the Japanese car giant’s Gazoo Racing (GR) high-performance sub-brand (GR Supra, GR Yaris, GR Corolla, etc) and its recently announced bZ or ‘beyond Zero’ EV sub-brand.
The brand’s first mainstream electric vehicle, the bZ4x, will be coming to Australia later in 2022 but it will be expensive the car-maker has warned.
Toyota plans to have 15 EVs on sale by 2025. It’s not clear if the new eight-seat SUV will be one of them.
No names for the new SUVs have been floated although there has been talk of the Grand Highlander moniker. The Highlander is essentially a Kluger, so if the SUV does come Down Under, it could be called the Grand Kluger.
However, given the Toyota LandCruiser and Prado account for a large amount of Toyota’s Australian three-row SUV sales, the chances of the new SUV coming here are slim.
The Lexus could be more likely, however.
SUV Image: Nikita Chuiko
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