What to know about the upcoming Toyota Yaris Cross
Toyota’s all-new compact crossover is due to go on sale in 2021. In this short article we’re going to give you a brief rundown of everything you need to know.
Toyota is a brand well known for its hybrid powertrains but the Yaris Cross seems to have taken this a step further by sporting a design that’s the blend of two of Toyota’s existing models. Look closely towards the front end and you can see a lot of the Rav4’s angry robot face and its squared off wheel arches. Head towards the back and you’ll see that there’s the larger Toyota Yaris type feel to it especially when you look at the C-pillar design and the rear lights. This mini-suv look is completed thanks to loads of chunky plastic cladding around the arches and sills, contrasting roof and alloy wheels up to 18inches in diameter. The wheelbase is the same as the Yaris but the Cross gets bigger overhangs which makes it 240 millimetres longer overall. It’s also a tiny but wider and 19 millimetres taller than the Yaris. A third of this height increase comes from the jacked-up suspension.
Move into the cabin and you’ll find that it’s a carbon copy of the Yaris up front. This isn’t a bad thing at all because it means that you get a very neat dashboard layout with simple ergonomics and a large infotainment screen plonked on top of the dash. Better still is that Toyota’s own clunky software is backed up by both Apple Car Play and Android Auto. The increased dimensions on the outside means that this car is much more spacious than the Yaris on the inside and it’s even roomier than the larger Toyota CH-R too. Unfortunately, there’s no official word on the boot space as of typing but nifty little features like foot operated auto tailgate and elastic strapping should make it pretty useful. The Cross rides on the same GA-B platform as the Yaris which itself is a shortened version of the Toyota Rav4 and loads of other Toyotas and models from Lexus.
Toyota has had the hybrid thing nailed for quite a while now so it’s no surprise to learn that the Yaris Cross will draw on both horses and watts to pull it along the road. A 1.5 litre three cylinder petrol engine with a 40% thermal efficiency is teamed up with an electric motor. Together they make 114 bhp (brake horse power) but even on its own the electric part can stump up 79 bhp. This is handy because around town Toyota reckons it’ll be doing around 80%of the work while the 1.5 unit puts its feet up. Depending on the market, a more affordable non-hybrid 1.5 litre unit will be available too but this hasn’t been confirmed for the UK as of typing. The range kicks off with a front-wheel-drive model but there will be a four-wheel-drive version too which will send electric drive to the back axel. The result of all this hybrid cleverness is that the front driven Yaris Cross emits just 120g/km of Co2 on the WLTP cycle and 135 for the four-wheel-drive version. Without going fully electric these are class-leading numbers indeed and will be important in such a busy segment. Pretty much every manufacturer makes a compact cross-over these days and if the Yaris Cross is to make it to the top then it will need to match the larger Skoda Kamiq for practicality, the Ford Puma for fun and the Renault Captur for….well about everything really.
