Toyota’s Answer to the Honda HR-V and Mazda CX-3 Coming

What Toyota needs to jump into the newly evolving sub-compact crossover segment is a vehicle that melds the best elements of the Honda HR-V and the best of the new Mazda CX-3. The name is already part of both. Toyota’s five-door concept is called the C-HR. This is the second version of this concept crossover. The first version was a three-door design, which would not sell in the real world.

Toyota seems serious about the new C-HR. The company says the vehicle is a response to the “increasingly homogenous marketplace.” Laugh if you choose to at Toyota calling out a segment for its homogenous look (same look), but as the sales leader in pretty much every important car and crossover category, Toyota’s cars don’t look like competitors. The competitors’ vehicles look like Toyotas.

The new concept C-HR has moved to the Toyota New Global Architecture (TNGA). Like all automakers, Toyota standardizes the parts you don’t see on its vehicles to keep development and production costs low and prices low as well. This also helps Toyota to develop more niche vehicles. This car is presently slated to be a hybrid with better than 40% thermal efficiency, something Toyota is the only car company capable of actually selling right now (Prius).