The Future of Toyota: A Closer Look at the C-HR GR Sport

Design, Length, Wheels

There's one vehicle at Toyota that has always split opinions and that is the Toyota C-HR. Some love it, some hate it, here it is in the all-new generation with AKMotoblog.

Here is the first vehicle for today in this golden or orange alike color. We already know it from the all-new Prius, for example, very interesting. And here you have this very sporty honeycomb mesh alike, but we're soon also going to show the GR Sport version with an even sportier look, but definitely a very aggressive look here already in front. Also how the headlamp unit is curved in here with the daytime running light. Look at the turning indicators all the way across, very spectacular, and the main headlamp unit is optionally available as matrix LED.

The length at 4 meters 36 or 172 inches, not a big change here in the dimensions or so on. However, there's a wider track, and also the center of gravity has been made lower for better driving dynamics.

Wheels start 18-inch, these here are 19-inch in the middle, soon I'll show you the biggest. As you can see here from the design, you can have a contrasting roof and then this C-shape is being built here.

For the first time, they also use flush door handles, you can also manually fold them out like this or with the key and so on.

I mean design-wise it looks cool, but I'm more of a fan of normal door handles, what about you? Toyota has also reworked suspension, steering, and brakes. We'll find out more when we can drive it. What we can already see right here. Wow, totally redesigned rear and with beautiful horizontal stress of the tail lamps. And when you open or close the vehicle, then you also have this welcoming light signature here in the middle part, the Toyota CHR logo. This will be deactivated while driving because that's not allowed, at least not in Europe. The turning indicators here in the rear, well, very simple, rather basic, and not as spectacular as in the front. And what I want to show you in the cutaway model here from the exterior, is a unique color body. You can see this would be the base version and there will be three versions.

This one, the whole color, the whole vehicle, then the black contrasting roof, and then the third version, the vehicles we've seen earlier than with this, not only the black roof but also the black area here. So, which one would you prefer?

Interior: key, doors, comfort

This is the key fob and then when I open it like this, then they come towards me. The door closing sound is not good, honestly. Then, inside of the doors, this trim here, we have yellow contrast stitches, this is in a microfiber. Here, inside of the doors in the front, it's a somewhat soft touch and also with a nice structure. New and more sustainable materials also for the steering wheel, are animal-free now, and the same durability testing methods are being applied Toyota says it is even more durable than animal leather, very interesting.

As for the seats, this is the very only animal skin option. All other seats are animal free. Seating position with 189 or 6'2", here underneath the panoramic roof, still leaves a lot of headroom because that's a fixed panoramic roof. Soon, more details to that and so far, it's actually a cool position here because the seats, also work for taller drivers indeed. Steering wheel up and down, in and out. Yeah, here, the stalk columns, move a little bit while adjusting the steering wheel. It might be because of the early prototype phase, but it might not. We'll find out then when we can drive the car if that stays that way.

Here we can see the fabric seats. They are already in the sporty seat form basically but then it's a different fabric grade, a little bit higher up the middle trim. You get a different fabric than on the inside here, for example, some contour stitching. This is then a higher grade. Here you have microfiber applications, leatherette applications, really soft, and then let's say a stronger fabric on the middle part. So, all choices look quite cool but of course, this one looks the fanciest. Pretty cool design detail here, these turbine vents. Yeah, it looks fancy, doesn't it?

But controlling them, opening and closing, that feels a little bit off. Cockpit overview Interior cockpit overview, here the steering wheel still has real buttons, I like that. Instruments, 12.3-inch digital and also 12.3-inch infotainment system. The smaller one would start 8-inch. And what I also appreciate here, is the climate control up and down, physical also here for the seat heating or below for the steering wheel heating, straight forward. This is an inductive charging pad.

In the middle console, here these cup holders are not adaptive. This is the shifting lever, classic as we know it. It has this step design still like this. Driving mode selector and then you can lift up this. Well, it's not entirely hard at least and here underneath, USB-C charging. The rear mirror is either a standard one or you can have this rear view camera with an additional camera at the top. At the moment, you see only a white studio.

Instruments, you can pick between three different main styles here. For example, this analog view, so to speak, or then this more classic double analog view. On the left side, you can see more of the recuperation or as we've seen initially, this more reduced view like this. There we go. That's right. And the C-HR also now features a head-up display

The infotainment system and the software are held pretty simple actually. Here, the energy flow meter is when the car is running and it also features a car's internal GPS. It's also more responsive and better usable than before. However, most use cases will be Apple CarPlay, Android Auto, both wired or wireless is available and here's the optional JBL sound system and that is a nice punch considering it's a compact vehicle. We now also find ambient lighting in a Toyota.

You can even adjust the color. Yeah, actually, a lot of different colors are adjustable and it's not only here but also at the inside of the doors. This vehicle here has the optional panoramic roof and they say actually that the sun rays from the outside are kind of filtered so it doesn't get too hot on the inside but in wintertime, supposed to be not too cold so not too much warmth gets lost from the inside. Let's see if that works when we test the vehicle outside.

Rear seats

The rear, yeah, has always been critical with the C-HR. It's a compact or small SUV or crossover and inside of the doors in the rear here, that is then hard pack then in this case. Well, and then let's get inside, and see how much space I really have. I carry the light with me. That's at least, you know, a little bit light up here. Yeah, I mean, it works so this is the driver's seat I would be driving, it directly fits them for four tall adults and headroom-wise is actually also no problem at all so I still have some room over my head. So, yeah, I sit relatively low and you can see here the angle, not ideal but it's not too bad so surprisingly good actually. Yeah, didn't expect that we do have some space also for tall adults in the rear.

Trunk/boot

Trunk or boot area already put a suitcase in there and it's very interesting because this is here a meter or 40 inches in width and you can see it goes a little bit narrow there and a little bit wider up here. Underneath, you can see still some storage left and to fold the seats, we have to go around. Normal length is about 80 centimeters or 31 inches, and when we slide all the way through, then it's about 160 meters or 63 inches.

GR Sport trim in Silver

And here, we have another silver vehicle for you, once again with this double contrast roof plus the C-span here. So far, only available in the launch models. We'll see if that's also possible later on. Here, 20-inch wheels, are the biggest ones because this is the GR Sport model. Not only features the biggest wheels but also a special front grille, we can see it here in the lower part. You have this fine mesh grill for an even more aggressive look and I think that works quite well with the vehicle actually because the very aggressive design also plays together with the GR Sport model.

Would you prefer this one or the other one?

Tell me in the comments. And also in the rear, the styling differs a little bit here in the GR Sport model, get the badge right here, but definitely the front contrast is bigger. And the GR Sport interior, you can see the steering wheel with the badge in the lower part, red contrast stitches on the inside, and the outside part also has a perforation. Then, the floor mats feature the GR logo for the Gazoo Racing, the Toyota Racing team, and the seats, they are even sportier here with microfiber on the inside and leatherette on the outside.

This is also all animal-free, the seat, and by the way, everything in the fabric is 100% recycled. Here, the microfiber is three-quarters of the recycling share. And definitely, both the fabric and also here the microfiber seats, are more comfortable in the one animal skin option because the surface is softer, the very surface, adapts more to your body and also you have a better grip basically here. So, yeah, this GR interior, it's really cool. I actually would prefer that one.

Engines: HEV or PHEV

Engines, all four cylinders, either a 1.8-liter hybrid with around 140 horsepower or a 2-liter hybrid with around 200 horsepower. The latter one will be the more efficient one. That one can also be bought with an electric all-wheel drive and you get an electric motor at the rear axle. And then, there will be the plug-in hybrid version, also 2-liter of displacement, then with 220 horsepower. That one then gets a new bigger battery, 13.8-kilowatt hours gross figure, however, and we expect a real-world pure electric range of around 50 kilometers or 30 miles. And as for battery placement, very interesting here in the cutaway model, this is the plug-in hybrid and there you can see you have the battery in the lower central part of the vehicle that will also affect the driving dynamics. And when you have the built-in hybrid, then the battery is placed right here, not that centralized, however, Toyota says that it will not influence the height of the seat bench, supposed to be the same for both the in-built hybrid and the plug-in hybrid.

Launched in which markets?

I just love these light bars. Well, this is here in the European model, it will be primarily for the European market, however, I also heard that they're going to sell this new generation in Australia as well. Well, if you can't get this one on your market, maybe you want to be joining us for the Toyota Corolla Cross Review or the Toyota Yaris Cross.