Toyota unveils the new Yaris Cross, a segment B urban crossover built on the Japanese manufacturer’s Tng-B platform. The new crossover has been designed and developed for the European market, in particular to meet the needs and preferences of those who want to choose a B segment SUV. The Yaris Cross will be produced from 2021 at the Toyota plant in France together with the new Yaris. The car’s styling process has brought together the expertise of a large design team in both Europe and Japan.
“When we started this project, we realized that while styling is the number one buying motive in the B-SUV segment, customers were also keen to have a high level of practicality. Things that are not easy to reconcile, especially in a compact car,” says Lance Scott, Design General Manager at Toyota’s EDD studio in Nice, headed by Ian Cartabiano. The design teamd followed the concepts of robustness and minimalism that would express the compactness, agility, robustness and strength of a new SUV. For the exterior, the designers were inspired by the iconic shapes of a diamond.
“We then coined the phrase diamond agile to express the gem’s hard, strong, premium image combined with the agile personality and driving fun that we believed the car should convey,” continues Scott. Starting with the plan view, the overall design of the bodywork was derived to give the diamond shape that would allow the designers to highlight the fenders. “These diamond lines of the bodywork, combined with the four bold fenders, gave us an energetic, strong and sophisticated shape at the same time.
Making an impact front was another of the objectives. “We wanted to maintain the strong DNA of the Toyota SUV line, starting with the Rav4, but also give the Yaris Cross an identity of its own. At the rear, we focused on giving the car a good position with square fenders to give it width and tonnage. The design of horizontally developed taillights, and the rear window descending to them, as well as the interior, clearly show the stylistic familiarity with the Yaris hatchback.
