Remember the Scion xD? This is its successor in Europe.
- Toyota has a new EV in its lineup.
- After the bZ4X crossover, Toyota debuted the Urban Cruiser.
- A compact electric crossover, the new model is built alongside the Suzuki e Vitara in India.
Quick history lesson. Ill-fated car brand Scion sold the xD in North America for about six years before being discontinued in the second half of the 2010s. It was a subcompact crossover that was little more than a rebadged Toyota Ist. The Ist was also sold in Europe as the Urban Cruiser. All were powered by small gas engines and slotted below the Rav4.
Well, the Toyota Urban Cruiser nameplate is back, at least in Europe, after an eight-year hiatus. This time around, it’s once again a badge-engineering job, but in the form of an all-electric compact crossover that gets its design inspiration from last year’s Urban SUV concept.
Measuring 168.7 inches long, 70.8 inches wide and 64.5 inches tall, and with a wheelbase of 106.3 inches, the all-new Toyota Urban Cruiser is larger than both the Yaris Cross and C-HR hybrids, but smaller than the bZ4X electric crossover. It’s also the same car underneath as the recently revealed Suzuki e Vitara–same platform, same battery, same electric motors and even the same interior. They’re also built in the same factory in India.
Let’s talk about the powertrain, then. Like its Suzuki counterpart, the Toyota Urban Cruiser is available with either a 49- or 61-kilowatt-hour battery. Both versions are of the lithium iron phosphate (LFP) variety. The small pack is only offered in conjunction with a front-mounted electric motor making 142 horsepower and 139 pound-feet of torque. The large pack can be had with either the 142 hp front motor or a dual-motor all-wheel drive setup that’s good for a total system output of 181 hp and 221 lb-ft.
Toyota didn’t say anything about the driving range. It did, however, mention that all versions of the Urban Cruiser come as standard with a heat pump and a manually operated pre-heating option for the battery, which should improve efficiency and lower charging times in cold climates. That said, we don’t know how much it would take to recharge the Urban Cruiser’s battery.
The front-wheel drive version gets a Snow Mode to help reduce wheel slip when driving on snow-covered roads, while the all-wheel drive version comes with Downhill Assist control and a Trail Mode which should detect when a wheel is spinning and send torque to the opposite wheel that has more traction.
Standard equipment also includes a pre-collision system, adaptive cruise control, lane departure alert and lane keep assist. On the dashboard, there’s a 10.25-inch digital instrument cluster and a 10.1-inch infotainment touchscreen.
We’ll know more about the new Urban Cruiser after Toyota officially unveils it at the 2025 Brussels Motor Show in January.
