Toyota Grand Highlander expands hybrid crossover lineup

CHICAGO — Toyota Motor is increasing its segment-leading, three-row crossover lineup with the brand new 2024 Grand Highlander, together with two gas-powered hybrid choices.

The automaker revealed the automobile as an even bigger sibling to the Toyota Highlander midsize SUV/crossover on Wednesday night time. It’s longer and wider than the Highlander and offers 13.2 cubic toes of extra cargo quantity, based on Toyota.

The automobile is the most recent instance of automakers making an attempt to go larger and test their pricing power as shoppers spend document quantities on new autos. The common value paid for a brand new automobile to start this yr was practically $50,000, as automakers prioritize high-end fashions over entry-level fashions amid ongoing, but enhancing, provide chain issues.

Toyota didn’t announce pricing for the Grand Highlander, nevertheless analysts anticipate it to be above comparable common fashions that begin between $36,000 and $51,000. Will probably be supplied in three trim ranges when it arrives in dealerships this summer season.

The common value paid for the present Highlander was greater than $46,600 — $48,801 for the hybrid — in the course of the fourth quarter of final yr, based on Edmunds.

The Grand Highlander provides to the rising three-row midsize crossover section within the U.S., which has expanded from 12 nameplates in 2018 to 16 autos for 2023, together with the Grand Highlander, Edmunds studies. Different latest additions embody the Jeep Grand Cherokee L, the Hyundai Palisade and the Kia Telluride.

The Grand Highlander will compete towards these autos in addition to the Ford Explorer, Chevrolet Traverse and different standard bigger midsize SUVs/crossovers. Such autos have turn into more and more standard — with gross sales up 4% from 2018 to 2022 — as Individuals have moved away from massive sedans and different autos.

Ivan Drury, Edmunds’ director of insights, mentioned shoppers are more and more taking a look at three-row crossovers as options to minivans, that are ergonomic however have confronted stigmas of being uncool.

“All people desires a minivan however no one desires to confess it,” he mentioned. “Folks need third rows even when they do not use it.”

The Grand Highlander was revealed in connection to this week’s Chicago Auto Present. A number of auto manufacturers akin to Jeep and Volkswagen are anticipated to disclose specialty fashions that may doubtless push up costs.

The Grand Highlander, whereas larger than the usual Highlander, will likely be smaller than Toyota’s Sequoia SUV, which is produced by way of a truck-based, or “body-on-frame,” course of. That meeting gives higher utility however much less on-road consolation than a “unibody” course of utilized for automobiles and crossovers just like the Highlander fashions.

“The present Highlander is somewhat bit smaller than the Palisade or the Traverse,” mentioned Stephanie Brinley, principal automotive analyst at S&P World Mobility. “You have received area for this. It is also not as ‘truckie’ because the Sequoia.”

The Highlander was considered one of Toyota’s best-selling autos final yr, at nearly 223,000 vehicles sold. It was solely outsold by the Toyota RAV4 small crossover and Camry sedan. Brinley does not anticipate the Grand Highlander to be a significant quantity product, however mentioned it “rounds out” Toyota’s crossover lineup and provides clients extra choices.

Edmunds studies the Highlander was the best-selling three-row midsize crossover/SUV within the U.S. final yr, beating out the Ford Explorer, Grand Cherokee L and Toyota 4Runner. It is also one of the cross-shopped autos by shoppers within the section, based on Edmunds.

Toyota says the Grand Highlander will supply a set of lively security and comfort options in addition to 13 cupholders and 7 USB-C cost ports throughout the automobile’s three rows.

The SUV will likely be supplied with three totally different engines, together with two hybrids — setting it aside from lots of its prime rivals. The entry-level four-cylinder turbo gasoline engine and V6 hybrid are presently accessible on the Highlander. The highest-end V6 Hybrid MAX will produce 362-horsepower and 400-pound toes of torque, Toyota mentioned.

The hybrid Grand Highlanders observe Toyota’s general technique of providing a mixture of traditional gas engines, hybrids and all-electric vehicles because it pushes towards carbon neutrality by 2050.

“This three-row mannequin takes the Highlander legacy to a completely new area whereas additionally conserving our promise to ship on electrification,” Lisa Materazzo, group vp of Toyota advertising, mentioned in a launch.

Toyota’s U.S. automobile lineup contains 10 hybrids, two plug-in hybrid electrical autos and the all-electric bZ4X and the gasoline cell-powered Mirai.

The Japanese automaker has been criticized by some buyers and environmental groups for not shifting to all-electric autos extra shortly. The corporate has argued that not all shoppers will transfer to EVs on the similar time and that it could produce dozens of hybrids with the identical quantity of carbon emissions as one all-electric automobile.

Toyota plans to take a position roughly $70 billion in electrified autos, together with $35 billion in all-electric battery applied sciences, over 9 years. It plans to supply about 70 electrified fashions globally by 2025.

Toyota — the world’s largest automaker — plans to promote about 3.5 million all-electric autos yearly by 2030, which might quantity to solely a 3rd of its present annual gross sales.