Toyota USA Teases Crown Estate Coming to America (Crown Cross?)
Something New — a mid-sized, all-wheel-drive, hybrid, 2025 Crown Estate or Crown Cross? — is Just Around the Corner.
As Toyota and Lexus have done multiple times this year, they’re rolling out Tuesday teaser images for at least one new model set to debut, we believe, ahead of the Los Angeles Auto Show next month. Last week, the front-end silhouette of what appears to be a sedan (above, bottom right) dropped along with the line, “Can you guess what’s on the horizon?” under the headline, “A New Dawn is Coming.” The hypothesis? 2025 Toyota Camry. Today’s teaser, however, shows off an SUV that may just be the Crown Estate or Crown Cross.
Pictured above left, the Toyota teaser featured the headline “Something New is Just Around the Corner” and —
With All-Wheel Drive, this hybrid electric mid-size SUV goes beyond what’s expected. C u … soon.
Looking at this image, one can clearly see the HEV AWD, which stands for hybrid electric vehicle and all-wheel drive. Beyond is a reference to Beyond Zero, “Toyota’s vision to reach beyond carbon neutrality with our products, services and operations, and find new ways to make a positive impact on our planet and society.” In other words, hybrid electric vehicles are part of a growing strategy that also includes battery, plug-in hybrid, and fuel-cell electric vehicles. But what about the C?
Crown Estate or Crown Cross
From left to right: Crown Crossover, Crown Sport, Crown Sedan, Crown Estate
The C is a clear reference to the name of the vehicle, which could be Crown, Corolla, or Camry. But the Corolla Cross is a compact SUV, so that’s not it. The Camry has never had an SUV variant, so it’s possible, but… head back to July 2022 on Toyota’s Global Pressroom website. Here’s a look (above) at the entire Crown family in Japan:
- Crown Crossover (came to the U.S. as just the Crown)
- Crown Sport (launched this year in Japan)
- Crown Sedan (rear-wheel drive sedan not coming to the U.S.)
- Crown Estate (launching in 2024 in Japan)
To my eyes, the placement of the letter C, the wrap-around taillight, the shape of the tailgate hatch, and the arch over the license plate are a dead match to what Toyota showed off last year in Japan as the Estate. So I think we’ve cracked this one, although we can’t be certain it will be called the Estate here. Case in point: the Crown Crossover in Japan is called just Crown in the U.S. So perhaps the Crown Estate will become the Crown Cross here to better line up with the Corolla Cross.
The North American Toyota Crown is available in three trims with two powertrains. The XLE and Limited feature a 236-horsepower 2.5-liter 4-cylinder Hybrid ECVT AWD system. It earns an estimated EPA rating of 41 mpg. The Platinum boasts a 340 horsepower HYBRID MAX 2.4-liter Turbo Performance AWD system. This one runs to 60 mph in 5.7 seconds and get 30 mpg combined. Pricing starts at $41,145 for the XLE and heads into the mid-$50s for the Platinum. Since we’re into the 2024 model year already, we expect both the Crown Estate (or Crown Cross) and Camry to be 2025 models.
Images: Toyota
