Coming soon: Toyota’s new (mostly) electric stars

Where once Toyota would have competed for headlines against other brands at traditional motor shows it now holds its own private one for the press in Brussels, known as the Kenshiki Forum. And there’s tons to see, whether it be quirky side-projects like the UK-built hydrogen powered Hilux pick-up prototype through to the latest concepts. Some of these we’ll be driving in the coming year as finished production cars, others look a little further ahead into the future. But from vans to family SUVs and sports cars to luxury crossovers the direction of travel is clear, that being electrification through battery power or Toyota’s ongoing commitment to hydrogen fuel cells.
Here are the highlights of what we saw, some of which may be coming to a Toyota dealership near you soon, some you may have to wait a little longer for...

Remember the Urban Cruiser? Probably not, Toyota’s compact SUV swiftly disappearing without a trace despite seemingly have pre-empted our current fixation with small city cars that think they’re hulking great SUVs. One of six – count ‘em! – new electric Toyotas due in the first half of 2024 the production version of this car will sit alongside the hybrid Yaris Cross and enter an increasingly competitive sector against the likes of the Volvo EX30 it somewhat resembles in its chunky looks. Against this, the related Smart #1 and aggressively priced models from Chinese brands like BYD, MG and others Toyota will need to keep affordability in mind. To that end two batteries will be available, the smaller one helping keep that all-important entry cost down.

Due in 2025 but on show at Kenshiki after an earlier presentation in China first impressions of the Sport Crossover Concept are of more than a little Ferrari Purosangue in its curving nose and raised-but-sporty stance. Which is not something we’d ever have expected to say about a new Toyota. Nor would we have anticipated it would be built in partnership with a Chinese firm. But in a sign of how fast things are changing in the automotive world the production version of this car – due in 2025 – is being developed as part of a new collaboration between the two brands that has already seen a Chinese market saloon combining bZ4X foundations with BYD’s ‘blade’ battery tech. While promising ‘maximum comfort and generous space’ Toyota executives freely admitted to us this new crossover puts style before function and, if the finished product looks anything like the concept we saw, makes a bolder statement about looks than we’ve perhaps associated with the brand before

If the concepts Toyota showed off at its Kenshiki forum all looked good the names were rather more confusing, tending to seemingly random combinations of letters and numbers. In this case ‘FT-Se’ actually stands for ‘Future Toyota Sports electric’, the GR being the brand’s Gazoo Racing division responsible for road cars like the GR86 and GR Yaris as well as motorsport programmes in rallying, endurance racing and more. So that’s the context. In the metal the FT-Se has more than a little Lotus in its proportions, which is perhaps a quiet nod to the fact the British brand has for years been using Toyota engines in its cars. There’s no supercharged petrol motor in the back of this one, though, and any production version of the FT-Se would be purely battery powered. The yoke style steering ‘wheel’ is meanwhile similar to that seen in the Le Mans hybrid racer parked nearby and – we’d speculate – enabled by the innovative One Motion Grip system we’ve already tried in prototype form in the Lexus RZ450e electric SUV.

Another concept and more seemingly randomly chosen letters and numbers to describe it, the FT-3e presents a more practical, crossover-inspired counterpart to the FT-Se sports car. While busy with getting the promised six new electric cars to market in the coming year Toyota is, of course, looking beyond that and to its next generation of models, and the engineering that will go under them. And that’s what we have here, the FT-3e longer and wider than the existing bZ4X but significantly lower, thanks to promised improvements in next-generation batteries. Beyond that there’s little concrete to report in terms of what this will involve, though in another presentation Toyota was talking about so-called ‘solid state’ batteries and the potential for increased range, reduced weight and faster charging they represent. Put two and two together and you get … FT-3e. Possibly.

In parts of the world where reliability and dependability are a matter of life and death not mere inconvenience the Toyota Land Cruiser in its many and various forms has been the go-to vehicle of choice. Unpicking that formidable legacy within the context of different generations of Land Cruisers built for various markets around the world (some still sold alongside each other) isn’t easy, but this new one certainly looks the business and perhaps more stylish than any of its predecessors in all its blocky, utilitarian toughness. It even smells like a Land Cruiser inside, that traditional whiff of plastics and vinyl familiar to anyone who’s driven in one over the decades it’s been on sale. Tantalisingly Toyota lists ‘Western Europe’ as one of the markets for a planned diesel-electric hybrid version, though reading between the lines this will be the mildest possible form of electrification and probably still a committed choice even if it does make it to the UK.