Toyota Raize compact SUV aims at Hyundai Venue

The wraps have come off the new Toyota Raize, a tiny urban SUV that looks a bit like a miniature RAV4 -- and it could come to Australia as a direct rival for the cut-price Hyundai Venue.

Unveiled in Japan, the all-new compact SUV is powered by a tiny 1.0-litre three-cylinder turbo-petrol engine (meaning it’s not a Kei car) matched with a continuously variable automatic transmission.

So it’s not a hybrid but the small city-SUV is a fuel-efficient machine, with claimed fuel economy numbers of 5.4L/100km for the 2WD models and 5.7L/100km for the AWD models.

Like similarly-sized competitors in the market it comes with decent safety equipment such as autonomous emergency braking with vehicle and pedestrian detection, adaptive cruise control and surround-view parking cameras, as part of Toyota's Smart Assist safety system.

So is it coming to Australia?

Toyota Australia's public affairs specialist for passenger vehicles, James Wang, said there are no plans to import the car to Australia "at this stage", but he didn't completely shut the door on the cut-price compact SUV coming Down Under in future.

"We wouldn’t rule it out entirely," he told carsales.

Toyota Australia has one compact SUV in its range at present – the upmarket C-HR, which is priced at the higher end of the market from $26,990.

The new Toyota Raize is priced at ¥1,679,000 in Japan, which converts to around $A22,000 and puts it within striking distance of the top-sellers in the category, the Mazda CX-3 ($22,710) and Mitsubishi ASX ($23,490).

With the arrival of the budget-priced Hyundai Venue (from $19,990), the Korean brand's cheapest model, the compact SUV segment has become increasingly competitive in the last 12 months.

Measuring just under four metres long (3995mm), the Toyota Raize rides on 17-inch alloy wheels and comes in front- and all-wheel drive flavours.

Visually it has plenty in common with the Toyota RAV4, the front-end's angular design reminiscent of the bigger SUV. Plastic wheel-arch mouldings and LED headlight clusters add a little boldness, and the Toyota Raize even features strobing LED indicators like high-end Audi models.

The Raize’s turbo triple is hooked up to a D-CVT, or dual-mode continuously variable transmission. In layman's terms the transmission uses belt (CVT) and conventional gear drives to deliver responsive low-speed acceleration and efficient high-speed cruising.

The suspension comprises MacPherson struts up front and, like the Venue, a basic torsion beam at the rear.

Also like the Venue, the compact SUV has a relatively large boot for its size, with a claimed 369 litres. Folding rear seats expand cargo room and Toyota says the car features several "highly convenient" storage cubbies.

The Toyota Raize is available with a 9.0-inch touch-screen infotainment system that has Apple CarPlay functionality. The instrument panel houses a 7.0-inch LCD screen with a digital speedo and four display settings including analogue, advanced, exciting and simple.