Toyota’s C-HR concept managed to capture the attention of the Frankfurt show crowd with its radical design, and it seems that the Japanese car manufacturer wants the production variant to do the same.
Company CEO Akio Toyoda promised that future Toyotas will bring some “fun” along with them, and, apparently, the production variant of the C-HR concept will go beyond the Japanese car maker’s standard boundaries – they said the same about the new Prius.
Speaking with Top Gear, Toyota’s production car’s chief engineer – Hiro Koba – stated that in the upcoming crossover’s case, function follows form:
“There are now so many compact crossovers. Toyota is late. So we need to be distinctive. Customers for these vehicles want a crossover for style. They want to show individuality. They mostly travel alone or with one passenger, and don’t have much stuff with them. So I traded rear room and visibility, and luggage space, for style.”
So, arriving late to a specific segment does come with its advantages, as you’re required to think outside of the box in order to stand out from the crowd. In a sea of regular-looking “lifestyle” crossovers (yes, including the Juke), a car manufacturer has to be original, doesn’t it?
Still, we can’t imagine the final automobile looking a hundred percent similar to the concept, especially as we’re talking about a vehicle with design cues found only on concept-cars. But when asked if the production version will be a watered-down, diluted variant of the CH-R shown at Frankfurt, Hiro Koba replied: “If we do that too much we can’t reach the target customers.”
The magazine says that the vehicle’s powertrain will be a next-gen hybrid – with a more natural response to the accelerator than the current Toyota hybrids – and that a possible variant with electric drive to the rear axle can make it into production as Koba concluded: “We are thinking about that.”
Toyota C-HR pictured
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