► Toyota’s building a new A-segment car
► Spy shots of new car spotted
► Will remain with an engine for now
Toyota has made it official – it’s building a new city car replacement for the Aygo in Europe. The new model will use the brand’s TNGA architecture – specifically the GA-B platform used by the latest Yaris.
Given other manufacturers are slowly killing off their city cars (Ford’s Ka+ and Vauxhall’s Viva are long dead) or having to shoehorn in electric powertrains to make them emissions-compliant (like the VW Up/Seat Mii/Skoda Citigo trio), Toyota’s heavy reliance on hybrids means its CO2 fleet average is low enough to be able to still maintain a combustion-engined city car. Toyota says choice of powertrain and accessibility for the new model are key to its success.
Matt Harrison, executive vice president of Toyota Europe, told CAR: ‘It will remain the entry point into the Toyota brand, and it will remain very accessible. This car is combustion-engined, but in a new and exciting way.’ Given the platform’s ability to house hybrid powertrains in the Yaris, don’t rule out an electrified-but-not-electric engine variant.
Spy shots of the new Aygo replacement have been around for months, so Toyota’s official announcement isn’t exactly earth-shattering. Those images show rounded edges to the front fascia like the Yaris Cross, and a soft-top roof – implying there’ll still be a roll-top version to compete with the electric Fiat 500.
It’s also worth pointing out that Toyota bought out Citroen and Peugeot’s share of the plant that builds the current Aygo/C1/108 trio in Czechia, implying that there won’t be a replacement for the Citroen and Peugeot models in their current form.
Stay tuned for more info.
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