Toyota Crown’s new global appeal to invigorate Japanese production

Toyota has confirmed the revamped 16th-gen Crown range will go on-sale in the US. The first new Crown to hit American shores is the Crossover, a lifted four-door sedan not unlike a sized-up Polestar 2.

The Crown nameplate emerged in 1955 and has been synonymous with luxury ever since, especially in its home market of Japan.

Unlike previous Crowns, the new four-prong Crown range will also target export markets, as evidenced by the Crown Crossover's expected late-2022 North American launch. Other expansion markets have yet to be confirmed, but it's likely the Crown will also head to China.

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Broadening the appeal of the Crown series will boost profitability and production numbers at Toyota’s flagship Motomachi plant. The Crown range will be constructed alongside the new BZ4x and Lexus RZ electric SUVs.

In an interview with Automotive News, chief engineer of the Crown series, Akihiro Sarada, confirmed that the new lifted Crown four-door will effectively replace the Avalon in the US.

Production of Toyota’s new Crown sedan began on the first of September this year.

Toyota has plans to export the Crown series to over 40 countries and regions with an annual sales target of 200,000 units across four variants.

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The renewed global focus for Crown should hugely bolster production at Toyota’s flagship plant that only managed to turn out 45,000 new cars in 2020 – a far cry from its 1990 peak of 445,000.

Australia will not be part of the Crown’s 40-country expansion initially, with a Toyota spokesperson telling Wheels in July this year it has “no plans” to introduce the Crown range.

What is the Crown?

Toyota has begun streamlining its model lines globally. Yaris has spinoffs – hatch, sedan and cross – as does Corolla. This is the plan employed for the flagship Crown range, but it’s yet to be enacted across the Camry and RAV4 size class.

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The Crown range will comprise four body styles initially, all of which were shown off in July this year. There is potential for electrification too, with the Crown Athlete/Sport Type also debuted at Toyota’s EV showcase in December 2021.

The first car to launch, the Crown Crossover, will sit on Toyota’s TNGA-K platform, shared with Kluger and Camry.

In Japan, the Crown Crossover will be available with two powertrains: A familiar self-charging unit with 2.5-litre petrol engine and two electric motors.

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A new ‘Hybrid Max’ powertrain is available, too. This pairs a 2.4-litre turbo-petrol four-cylinder (otherwise found in the Lexus NX350) with two electric motors for 254kW of power.

Whether Toyota’s Crown range will be bolstered by pure electric models in the future is unconfirmed, but Sadara did say: "We don't know about the timing, but we were thinking about the future and about multi-path carbon-neutral solutions".

Of the four models that were teased in late-2021, Sadara suggested to Automotive News that the next most-likely Crown for export to the US would be the large SUV.

There’s also the potential the Crown Athlete, dressed in coupe-SUV bodywork, could prove successful in North America and Europe, where it would rival the Audi Q5, BMW X4 and Mercedes-Benz GLC.