► We drive Toyota’s new Urban Cruiser
► Baby crossover twinned with Suzuki eVitara
► Needs to be cheap to feel competitive
The Urban Cruiser returns! Don’t remember that name? Probably for the best, and you weren’t missing much. Hopefully, though, Toyota might do a bit better this time with this compact crossover.
We’ve had our first taste via a prototype model – have you spotted the P R O T O T Y P E decals yet? – taking one on and off-road.
At a glance
Pros: Great steering, neat handling, flexible rear seats
Cons: Slow and annoying infotainment, slow charging speeds, doesn’t feel competitive against rivals
What’s new?
Essentially, the entire car is – even if the name itself isn’t. The new Urban Cruiser is a ground-up production, designed to sit in that most competitive of segments – what the industry calls the B-SUV sector of the market.
That said, it isn’t really that much of a Toyota ground-up production. The new Urban Cruiser, you may have guessed, looks a lot like the Suzuki eVitara… because it pretty much is. The two are non-identical twins, with the Toyota being a bumper-and-badge job of the Suzuki; the platform underneath is Suzuki’s Heartect-e architecture (an electric version of that used by the Suzuki Swift, for example) with Toyota’s engineers essentially influencing a couple of details like ride quality, some interior bits… and that’s about it.
For reference, Toyota is treating this as the electric alternative to the Yaris Cross – even if it is bigger in every way than the hybrid crossover. And, as much as Toyota calls this a prototype model, very little aside from some interior trim bits are expected to change when the car hits proper production.
What are the specs?
Unsurprisingly, a clone of those offered by Suzuki. Two lithium iron phosphate battery options are offered – 49kWh or 61kWh – with both front- and all-wheel drive options being offered in some markets. Unlike Suzuki, though, Toyota is only offering the front-wheel drive versions for the UK market for now.
The whole car’s powertrain range starts with a front-wheel drive 49kWh option with 142bhp available. Toyota claims a WLTP range of 214 miles for this version. You can step up to the 61kWh battery model, with the front-wheel drive option featuring 172bhp and a claimed range of 265 miles.
That top version we won’t get in the UK at launch, for reference, comes with 181bhp and a claimed range of 245 miles.
Trim levels aren’t confirmed yet, but we’d expect Toyota to keep it pretty simple and, again, broadly in line with what Suzuki offers with the eVitara.
As for charging, Toyota’s engineers tell us the Urban Cruiser has a peak DC speed of 67kW with a 10 to 80 per cent charge taking around 45 minutes – something that’s not all that special these days compared to the competition.
What’s it like to drive?
That Suzuki-based DNA hands the Urban Cruiser a sweet-steering platform. While it’s nothing to set your hair on fire, it’s a small and tidy out on the road. What’s most noticeable is the steering; there’s some satisfying weight to it that feels assured when you’re zipping around urban streets and helps to keep the car stable at higher speeds.
Performance is perfectly fine, with enough oomph to get out of your own shadow. Naturally that forbidden fruit all-wheel drive version is the quickest, with a 7.4sec 0-62mph sprint, but both front-drive versions clock in under 10 seconds.
At speed, the ride is plump and on the right side of firm for our liking, handling potholes and drain covers just well enough without being crashy. It settles down at higher speeds, but the introduction of some wind noise via the door mirrors at motorway speeds takes the edge off a bit.
We also went for a bit of an expedition off-road, down some dusty farm tracks at our launch location in central Spain. The tracks got tougher over time, with a few deep gulleys and big rocks – but the Urban Cruiser took them all in its stride. Helps that the car has the best ground clearance aside from the Jeep Avenger. Of course, pretty much no one will use it for this purpose – but good to know all the same.
What’s the interior like?
Overall, quite sensibly laid out. It feels built well enough, with some soft touch materials on the dashboard and a satin finish on the centre console (as opposed to the gloss black finish on the eVitara). There are some welcome physical controls for regularly used bits and pieces, and a good driving position for tall drivers.
Space, generally, is fine. The Urban Cruiser features rear seats that can slide, allowing you to prioritise boot space or legroom. At the seats furthest-back position, a tall adult can sit behind a tall driver.
The biggest snag is the infotainment – the same criticism we levelled at the eVitara. The whole system is frustratingly… irritatingly… bafflingly slow to use. A problem not helped, for example, by a clunky driver assistance menu that forces you to watch laggy animations for each safety system menu before you being allowed to change anything.
Other details are just plain weird – again, like the Suzuki. There is, for example, a physical button for the brake regeneration provided. But instead of subsequent presses allowing you to cycle through the options – i.e. off, low, medium and high (the latter not being one-pedal) – it simply turns the regen on or off. If you want to change how much you want, you need to sift through that annoying infotainment – and you can’t actually change the amount of regen *while* you’re driving. Computer says no.
There aren’t any shortcut options that we could find for turning off things like speed warnings and lane keeping, forcing you to sift through the infotainment menu on every drive.
Before you buy
The biggest question that remains unanswered is how much the Urban Cruiser will cost – the same one levelled at the eVitara. The snag is that the car feels very average, so needs to be keenly priced to feel a little more worth looking at. Suzuki is aiming for an entry price of the low 30s with the eVitara, meaning Toyota will likely price it somewhere similar.
If that’s true, the endless glut of rivals the Urban Cruiser will, in many ways, feel like better value. The Skoda Elroq is fantastically practical – offering more space than the Urban Cruiser – as is the Kia EV3. The Renault 4 is also an absolute steal for the money, offering similar performance and range with better practicality and much more charm. And let’s not forget new cars like the new Fiat Grande Panda and Vauxhall Frontera EV – both of which will almost certainly undercut the Urban Cruiser on price, even if they offer a smidge less range.
Either way, you’ll be waiting a while. Toyota UK says it won’t get its first Urban Cruisers until the first few months of 2026, with orders expected to open towards the end of this year.
Verdict: Toyota Urban Cruiser
Neat to drive, well-sized and comes with plenty of kit on board – our first taste of the Urban Cruiser has told us there are some good points about it. But it’s not that competitive in others (like range, performance, charging speeds, boot space) in the same way its Suzuki eVitara twin isn’t either.
It’s still early days, but Toyota will need to be keen with this one if they want it to sell – otherwise it may be an uphill battle.