Toyota has sent out media invites to Indonesian media for a launch of a new product on May 15, 2023, which is next Monday. The media invite mentions the world premiere of “Toyota’s New Urban Cruiser Icon”.
We believe this is most likely a new B-segment SUV to slot in between the Toyota Raize (A-segment/Perodua Ativa) and the Toyota Corolla Cross (C-segment) products. It might be called the Toyota Yaris Cross, but it will have no relation to the Yaris Cross being sold in Europe, instead it will be built on the same DNGA platform as the Toyota Vios (called the Yaris Ativ in Thailand).
We know that there’s another DNGA platform product that’s in the works, close enough to launch that it has undergone crash testing, but yet to be launched. This is because a table included in the Daihatsu ‘notchgate’ press release mentions one model in development that has not yet been launched but has undergone crash testing.
We also know that Perodua is working on a product codenamed the Perodua D66B, which has long been rumoured to be a larger SUV than the Perodua Ativa. Renderings of a ‘Perodua Nexis‘, which is one of the names that Perodua has trademarked in the past went viral sometime in late 2022, and was done up by @idiyaz.cg based on a Euro/Japan market Toyota Yaris Cross.
So what will be launched on Monday is likely a new B-segment SUV product from Toyota, based on the Daihatsu DNGA platform, that will be sold by Perodua as the Perodua D66B sometime in the future. The Perodua D66B might also be the first Perodua with mass sales availability of the e-Smart Hybrid system used in the lease-only Perodua Ativa Hybrid.
As mentioned earlier, Toyota already has various B-segment SUV products used in different markets:
1) Toyota Yaris Cross
This is the European market Toyota Yaris Cross, which won the 2022 World Urban Car of the Year award. It is an expensive “first world” Euro/Japan model that is based on TNGA-B instead of DNGA-B.
2) Toyota Urban Cruiser HyRyder
This is B-segment SUV sold in India, but it is neither based on DNGA-B or TNGA-B. Instead, this is built on a Suzuki platform shared with the Suzuki Grand Vitara.
When will the Perodua D66B be launched?
This could be anyone’s guess. If we look at the last DNGA-based SUV launch timeline, the Toyota Raize was launched in Japan at end 2019, but the Perodua Ativa was only launched in March 2021, so that’s about a 1.5 year gap between the launch timing of the two products. However, the new 2023 Perodua Axia was launched around the same time as its Daihatsu and Toyota cousins.
In any case we don’t think the Perodua D66B will be launched this year as two new models in a year isn’t likely for Perodua. In the meanwhile, if you have a bit more budget than what a Perodua Ativa will take up, you can look forward to the Honda WR-V instead.
Tags: Perodua D66B
Research Toyota Cars at 
Source: Read Full Article