With a busy five months behind its back, Toyota South Africa (TSAM) still isn’t finished, and the company plans to roll out at least one more vehicle before 2023 concludes.
This year already, the country’s favourite car manufacturer gave us the updated Fortuner, the high-performance GR Corolla, a manual GR Supra, the new Urban Cruiser, and a replacement for the entry-level Agya badged the Vitz.
Looking ahead, there is an incredibly exciting entry on its way, a vehicle that has never before been sold in the country.
What’s coming
The Toyota Crown was planned to land in showrooms in the first quarter of the year but its launch date was pushed out by a few months.
This will be the first time the Crown nameplate is being sold in the country and it is coming our way in crossover guise with a 2.5-litre, hybrid drivetrain featuring a “newly-developed bipolar nickel-hydrogen battery.”
This is similar to the one in the RAV4 E-Four, consisting of a 2.5-litre petrol powerplant working in conjunction with an electric motor on each axle and a continuously variable transmission (CVT).
The internal combustion engine delivers 139kW which adds to the electric units’ 89kW and 40kW for a total system output of around 175kW, and this is sent to all four wheels.
Fuel consumption for the semi-electric Toyota is also touted as being below 5.0l/100km and it will offer a pure-electric drive mode in which it won’t burn any petrol.
TSAM has kept mum about the rest of the Crown’s specifications but from closer inspection of the pre-homologation unit, we expect the crossover to offer fitments such as heated, ventilated, and electric leather seats, dual-zone climate control, an around-view camera system, a digital instrument cluster, a touchscreen infotainment system, keyless entry and start, an electronically-adjustable steering column, and a sunroof.
The four-door is also quite sizeable, measuring 4,930mm long, 1,840mm wide, and 1,540mm tall, meaning it’s actually 135mm longer but 15mm narrower than the Fortuner.
There are already at least two examples of the Crown on local soil wrapping up testing phases and with its imminent arrival, we’ll likely start seeing more of them on the roads very soon.
After 2023
After 2023, TSAM has a lot in store for the domestic market, especially on the new-energy vehicle (NEV) front, including mild-hybrid (MHEV) variants of the Hilux and Fortuner, at least six traditional hybrids (HEV), three plug-in hybrids (PHEV), and two battery-electric vehicles (BEV).
In 2024, the company confirmed that it will launch a mild-hybrid version of the evergreen Hilux bakkie as well as the Fortuner SUV.
After these have made their debut, there are plans to introduce four more traditional hybrids with a focus on entry-level segments, in addition to plug-in-hybrid models of the RAV4 and Lexus RX and NX.
Toyota believes that plug-in-hybrid powertrains are the best choice for local motorists in the global shift to NEVs as they offer both the ability to use them as battery-electric cars during your weekly commutes and long-distance vehicles over the weekend without range anxiety being a constant concern.
On top of these hybridised models, TSAM will also debut its first all-electric car in the country in Q1 2024 in the form of the Lexus RZ, and after that, the emission-free Toyota bZ4X is slated to come to town sometime in late 2025 or early 2026.
Toyota Crown crossover
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