Toyota Century SUV will be the Rolls-Royce Cullinan of Japan

Toyota’s flagship Century sedan is often referred to as the Japanese Rolls-Royce, so the upcoming Century SUV will be the Japanese brand’s Cullinan.

The Toyota Century SUV the silhouette was reportedly teased in a new branding presentation Alphard and Vellfire people on the move, with an image published on auto spy.

There are similarities with the first SUV of Rolls-Royce. The block design features a vertical roofline and prominent shoulders, while featuring a thick, slanted D-pillar – even thicker than that of a Rolls-Royce.

However, the overall look is arguably more polished than those of the particularly upright Rolls.

We can also recognize the front and rear split lighting elements, previously seen on a spy prototypesimilar to the light of Genesis.

The spy shots also show the headlights with cube-like interior elements, again similar to the Genesis car.

Japanese shop Best Car Web report this early year Toyota is working on an SUV counterpart to its iconic flagship sedan, which could be unveiled this year.

It could be simply called the Century SUV, and sales will begin sometime in early 2024.

Best Car Web announced expected dimensions of approximately 5.2m long and 1950mm wide. Longest LandCruiser 300 . Series 5015mm long and 1990mm wide, while tundra-source Sequoia offered in North America is 5286mm long and 2022mm wide.

The outlet reports that the ultra-luxury Century SUV will be offered with a 3.5-liter V6 hybrid powertrain and “electronically-axle rear-wheel drive 4WD” (translation), suggesting it will use the device. set up eFour like all others – Toyota hybrid wheel drive like RAV4.

Like the RAV4, it will use forward-biased all-wheel drive and the engine is horizontally positioned, with output expected to be 220 kW from the petrol engine and 59 kW from each electric motor.

Toyota currently only uses a 3.5-liter V6 hybrid engine in the rear-wheel drive system Lexus LS500h And LC500hbut such a powertrain was previously used in front/all-wheel drive Lexus RX450h and foreign versions of Toyota Kluger.

Toyota also offers a 3.4-liter twin-turbo V6 i-Force Max hybrid engine in the Tundra and Sequoia with a capacity of 326 kW, while the new engine Lexus TX550h+ using a 3.5-liter V6 plug-in hybrid (PHEV) powertrain combined with a CVT and Direct4 all-wheel drive system, for a total system output of 299 kW.

In contrast, the Century sedan uses the same 5.0-liter V8 hybrid engine as the old Lexus LS600h and is only available with rear-wheel drive. All three generations of the conservative Century used rear-wheel drive.

While a front-wheel drive/all-wheel drive Toyota SUV with the Century badge would be a shocker, there is some precedent.

The Latest generation Crown debuted not as a traditional three-box sedan with rear-wheel drive, but as a high-rise fastback with all-wheel drive.

The Expanded Crown Family will continue to include a rear-wheel drive sedan, as well as a sports crossover and again, a wagon variant.

Toyota has also applied the Crown name to both the Kluger crossover and the Vellfire passenger car in China.

Best Car Web expect the Century SUV to cost around 10-15 million yen ($109-164,000). For reference, a Century in Japan starts at just over 20 million yen (AU$218,720).

The Century was sold exclusively in the Japanese market, where it was popular with high-ranking executives and government officials as well as the Emperor of Japan and was produced in limited quantities.

Offered only through select Toyota dealers, it is usually finished in black with wool upholstery.

Centennial generations tend to span several decades. The first Century, powered by a V8 engine, was sold from 1967 to 1997 and the second, upgraded to a V12 engine, was sold between 1997 and 2017.

A Century SUV isn’t the only time an automaker has leveraged age-old passenger car nameplates for an SUV, with Ford Mustang Mach-E and Rumored, Corvette SUV coming soon are other examples.

Manufacturers that have long offered only sports cars have also ventured into the SUV market, including Ferrari, while well-known luxury brands such as Bentley and Rolls-Royce have also developed SUVs.