Toyota’s Juke rival revealed
Yaris Cross will hit UK in early 2021, with hybrid power
● Hybrid and 4WD versions of new model in the pipeline
● Lines up alongside Yaris supermini and GR hot hatch in range
TOYOTA brought one of the first urbanfocused SUVs to market with the original RAV4 more than 25 years ago. But the Japanese brand has been slow to pick up on the emerging market for superminibased SUVs, led by the likes of the Nissan Juke, Renault Captur and SEAT Arona. That’ll change in early 2021 with the arrival of this new model: the Yaris Cross.
As its name suggests, the Yaris Cross is a close relation of Toyota’s recently launched fourth-generation supermini. It has the same wheelbase as that car, but gets longer front and rear overhangs (by 60mm and 180mm respectively) in a bid to deliver a little more cabin space and a bigger boot. The end result is a car that is a little longer than a Juke and only 6mm shorter than a Ford Puma.
The car’s name is closely linked to Toyota’s ambitious plans for its smaller models in Europe. The company believes that this car, the Yaris supermini and the GR Yaris hot hatchback can account for up to a third of its sales here. In addition, the Yaris name has now been adopted globally (replacing the Fitz in Asia, for example), so tying the SUV to that badge is considered a sensible way of building recognition further.
While there are cues from the supermini – notably around the C-pillars – the Yaris Cross is very much a mix of that vehicle and the larger RAV4. In particular, there’s a bluff front end, crisp side creases and squared-off wheelarches, giving this car far more of an SUV look (at least based on Toyota’s design language) than might have been expected. Chunky plastic mouldings at the bottom of the doors – with colour-coordinated inserts – help to further enhance the car’s SUV credentials, while reducing the visual depth of the metalwork along the sides.
There’s 30mm more ground clearance than in the Yaris supermini, and the new arrival’s roof is 90mm taller overall. It’ll sit on wheels that are up to 18 inches in diameter.
The Yaris Cross will be an interesting companion to the larger, more expensive and more style-focused C-HR SUV in Toyota’s range. Project leader Yasunori Suezawa told us: “The C-HR is 200mm longer overall than Yaris Cross. But if we look at the interior, the Yaris Cross is based on our ‘big small’ concept, so the cabin is actually bigger than in the C-HR.”
Like the latest Yaris supermini, the Yaris Cross sits on the latest GA-B version of Toyota’s New Generation Architecture, the common set of components that also underpins everything from the Prius to the RAV4. That means that electrification is stitched into the plan from the outset, so the vast majority of global Yaris Cross sales will be hybrids.
The SUV gets a similar system to the Yaris’s, mixing a 1.5-litre Atkinson-cycle
petrol engine with a 79bhp electric motor, lithium-ion battery and CVT automatic transmission. Total system power is rated at 114bhp, and although Toyota hasn’t announced any performance figures yet, we’d expect a 0-62mph time of around 10.5 seconds.
The Yaris Cross will be relatively unusual in its class because it will be offered with a choice of front or four-wheel drive. Both versions look efficient on paper, with CO2 emissions of less than 90g/km and 100g/km respectively. But these are NEDCcorrelated figures: the official WLTP numbers should be below 120g/km and below 135g/km. In this respect at least, the Yaris Cross is a notable step off the numbers achieved by its sister supermini.
Four-wheel-drive editions of the car will have double-wishbone suspension at the rear, while front-drive versions have a simpler torsion-beam layout. Toyota has declined to provide any official boot capacities, beyond saying that the floor will be adjustable, but senior officials admit that the rear motors do eat into the boot space a little in four-wheel-drive versions.
Even so, that big stretch in rear overhang should mean that the space on offer is closer to the 391 litres that you can have in a Captur than the regular Yaris’s merely respectable 281 litres.
Incidentally, as with the Yaris, there will be the option of a conventional 1.5-litre non-hybrid petrol powertrain – but Toyota GB has yet to make a call on whether to offer this variant to UK customers.
Inside, the Yaris Cross stays even closer to the recipe of its supermini cousin. There’s essentially the same dashboard, with a sensible (if conservative) mix of plastic finishes and a well positioned infotainment screen, high up and in the centre of the fascia. The infotainment set-up will be the same as the Yaris’s, then, with up to an eight-inch display and connectivity for both Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.
The Yaris Cross is scheduled to be built at Toyota’s factory in France, and it should reach British dealers in the first half of 2021. Toyota GB is being coy on pricing, but we’d expect it to have a starting figure of around £21,500. That’ll make it considerably more expensive on paper than the likes of the Juke – but pretty much a match for the likes of Ford’s mild-hybrid 125bhp Puma. And Toyota will hope that ever-strengthening residual values for hybrid vehicles will allow it to keep monthly PCP costs at a competitive level.
“Yaris Cross will be relatively unusual because it will be offered with a choice of front or four-wheel drive”
“There’s a sensible mix of finishes inside and a well positioned infotainment screen”