Toyota’s wacky, boxy TJ Cruiser concept crossover could get the green light for production if reaction at the Tokyo auto show and other forums is positive.
Although it rides on a longer wheelbase than the current RAV4, it is shorter in overall length, width, and height. Those dimensions are more in line with a Honda HR-V.
Another reason for fast-tracking the TJ Cruiser: Toyota does not sell the RAV4 in Japan anymore. It needs a small SUV for its home market dealerships to attract young buyers, said Mai Takeuchi, a Toyota product planner who was part of the concept’s development team.
“We still need to know how marketable and usable the TJ is,” Takeuchi said through an interpreter at an event on the eve of the Tokyo Motor Show. “We have no type of car for young, active people. They love the Land Cruiser. They just can’t afford it.”
Designers developed the TJ Cruiser with the TNGA platform in mind as its underpinnings, said Hirokazu Ikuma, Toyota’s lead designer on the project.
Whereas a few ideas are created as whimsical flights of fancy, the TJ?S layout quick changed into ?To give you a layout that changed into very real so that if the organisation desires to construct it, we can placed it into manufacturing in no time,? Ikuma said.
Ikura points to the element of the TJ?S B-pillar. Most whimsical concept cars have a B-pillar this is just for show, if it exists in any respect. But the idea TJ?S B-pillar is a sculpted piece of assist structure. The layout team worked with both product planners and engineers inside the development feasibility of the idea?Inclusive of regarding the scale of the wheels and tires, the width of the automobile, and its load peak whilst thinking about a capacity hybrid variant, Ikura said.
Whether the TJ might make it to American dealerships continues to be undetermined. One issue is whether or not American buyers could embody the second one-row sliding doorways, a hint that might not be changed for specific markets, Ikuma stated.
But Americans would possibly appreciate the ?Device field? Practicality of the TJ?S indoors?From it?S capability to in shape a nine-foot ladder to all the tie-down hooks positioned during the shipment area and 2d-row seats. Neat little touches exist, inclusive of the the front seat?S potential to fold flat for lengthy cargo and the slender gaps in the load ground so that a bicycle can healthy standing up without having to do away with its tires.
How quickly would possibly it arrive in showrooms? It took Toyota two years from pen hitting paper to the rollout of the concept vehicle, Ikura stated, noting that the TJ has now not but obtained the inexperienced mild from the board.
Creating a production-ready design, once approved by Toyota’s management, would take the better part of a year, perhaps less. From design freeze to Job 1 usually takes two to three years. But Toyota also has been known to rush cars into production; the original Scion tC made it from design freeze to Job 1 in 13 months.
The post TJ Cruiser Could Enter Toyota Lineup appeared first on Motor Trend.
From automobile feed http://ift.Tt/2zA0H9A
Post a Comment
Post a Comment