Toyota Motor Corp. is wading again into one of the industry’s fastest-growing segments with another key model, this one with a familiar name and more traditional profile.
The North American version of the Toyota Corolla Cross, a subcompact crossover the Japanese automaker will produce starting this year at its new Alabama joint-venture plant with Mazda, has been spotted undergoing road tests in Colorado.
With the Land Cruiser large SUV ending after the 2021 model year, it will be Toyota’s seventh utility vehicle in the U.S., giving the company’s hot light-truck sales more momentum.
Toyota, like other automakers, is doubling up in the subcompact crossover segment, planning to sell the Corolla Cross alongside the C-HR — a vehicle more hatchback than crossover — at least for now. Toyota introduced a similar vehicle with the Corolla Cross badge in Thailand last summer, with plans to sell it in other markets, though the U.S. version is expected to be slightly different.
The subcompact crossover market is on fire and continues to attract newer entries such as the Chevrolet Trailblazer, Buick Encore GX, Kia Seltos, Mazda CX-30 and Hyundai Venue.
U.S. sales in the segment grew 4.8 percent to nearly 900,000 in 2020, when the broader market contracted amid the coronavirus pandemic, and 44 percent in the first quarter, making it the third-biggest utility segment — mass market or luxury — behind compact and large crossovers.
With car demand waning, subcompact crossovers have also become a key entry point for major brands.
It’s the second time in recent decades that Toyota has leveraged the name of its Corolla compact car, one of the industry’s top-selling nameplates of all time, on a new model. The company marketed the Corolla Matrix, a hatchback, starting in 2003 until output ended in 2013.
The Corolla Cross will be built on Toyota’s modular TNGA-C platform and be powered by a 1.8-liter inline-four engine paired to a continuously variable transmission, making an expected 140 hp and 129 pound-feet of torque.
A hybrid also is expected, considering the automaker’s pledge to offer a hybrid or all-electric version of each of its nameplates.
Toyota’s crossovers in the lower end of the utility space are miles apart in terms of popularity in the U.S.: Through April, Toyota has sold 155,150 RAV4s, up 37 percent, compared with just 15,643 C-HRs, an increase of 26 percent.