Format C-HR or Corolla Cross?
Toyota has a taste for it. Shortly after the presentation of the all-new Prius, the brand is once again attracting attention. We are introduced to the Toyota bZ Compact SUV Concept, a preview of an electric crossover that is a size smaller than the already well-known bZ4X.
The bZ umbrella under which Toyota hangs its models that have been developed as electric cars, currently keeps two cars dry from petrol or diesel: the Toyota bZ4X and the bZ3. You can’t buy the bZ3 in Europe, but you can of course buy the bZ4X. That SUV seems to get a smaller electric model next to it in the foreseeable future. Toyota is launching a new study model into the world that listens to the name Toyota bZ Compact SUV Concept. A preview that is as relevant as its name is long.
For the time being, Toyota is only releasing an extensive series of photos of its interesting electric harbinger. We see a compact crossover with a relatively sharply sloping roofline that Toyota combines with a strikingly rising shoulder line. As with the new Prius, Toyota has hidden the rear door handle in the C-pillar. At the front, the bZ Compact SUV Concept has the now well-known C-shaped headlights that are completely Toyota new style to be. This design language is not reserved for Toyota’s bZ line, because the Prius also has a similar design on its snout.
The rear lights are remarkably flat and sleek and are to some extent connected to each other, although the buttocks of the study model remain free of a thick red LED bar. At the top of the fairly flat rear window is a roof spoiler with two longer parts. We find a vertical LED strip in the center of the rear bumper.
Recognizable bZ elements, but otherwise very minimalist.
Also striking is the interior of Toyota’s electric harbinger. The Toyota bZ Compact SUV Concept has a minimalist interior with only a large infotainment system, a digital instrument panel and a center console that contains little more than a start button and a control element to choose the direction of travel. The ‘yoke’-like steering wheel with which the Toyota bZ4X is available can also be found in the bZ Compact SUV Concept.
In December, Toyota will release more information about the bZ Compact SUV Concept.
What will it be?
In December, Toyota pulled out an extensive range of study models, although the brand did not discuss any of them in detail. The bZ Compact SUV was actually already among those new show cars, although there seemed to be no interior in the version shown at the time.
Particularly at the rear, the study model resembles the still unknown Toyota on the previously found patent image, which we suspect is the new C-HR.
In September AutoWeek could show you patent plates of a new and probably electric Toyota. That as yet unrevealed car shows some similarities with the bZ Compact SUV Concept. Both cars have flat taillights, a flat rear window with a roof spoiler above it with two prominent parts and a sloping roofline. The still unknown Toyota in the photo, however, has to do without the strongly rising shoulder line.
The question is just what the bZ Compact SUV Concept will be exactly. Should we bet on an electric SUV in the Corolla Cross segment, or is the bZ Compact SUV Concept a harbinger of the successor to the C-HR?
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– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl