Next Toyota Aygo Might Use Hybrid Powertrain As Full Electric Isn’t Viable For Its Size

Toyota isn’t ready to give up on the success of the Aygo just yet, despite more and more car makers bailing out on the small city car segment.

The decision to keep the Aygo alive for a third generation shows that Toyota isn’t facing the same pressure with other manufacturers to improve their fleet average CO2 emissions, thanks to its already established hybrid model lineup.

Toyota Europe CEO Johan van Jyl confirmed to Autocar that the next generation of the Aygo will be designed and engineered in Brussels, Belgium, and produced in Czech Republic.

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The Japanese automaker will take full ownership of the Kolin factory in Czech Republic by 2021, buying out PSA’s stake in the facility which currently produces the Toyota Aygo, Citroen C1 and Peugeot 108. Unlike Toyota, PSA is not planning to replace its small models.

Toyota said in the past that the Aygo remains a profitable business for them. “We have an awful lot of equity in Aygo,” Toyota Europe’s Vice President Matt Harrison said. “We’re selling 100,000 a year.”

“I understand other manufacturers have not been able to make a successful business out of [the] A-segment and, with increased technologies, they only see it getting worse. But we see it as an opportunity to go further, not pull back,” Harrison added.

The next Toyota Aygo will most likely adopt an electrified powertrain instead of a fully electric one, as the “business equation isn’t quite there yet” for small electric models, according to Harrison. “We can take a little bit more time to wait for the maturity of the tech and the business equation and see where consumer demand is shifting,” he said. However, given the model’s entry-level status, the new Toyota Aygo will be launched with a normal petrol engine as well, in order to retain its affordable price point.

“The small car segment is all about affordability,” said Harrison. “We don’t see that as being optimal for full electric. When you look at the price of a Peugeot 208 EV, it’s way outside the B-segment and that doesn’t fit our customers’ requirement of affordability.”

There’s also the chance of the new Toyota Aygo to adopt a crossover-styled bodywork, capitalizing on the market trends, featuring an elevated seating position and increased ground clearance like the Suzuki Ignis. The new generation of Toyota’s small city car is not expected to show up up until 2021 or 2022 however, so stay tuned.