Re-badged Toyota Ist
Inititally we hinted at the possibillity that Toyota was aiming to introduce the Scion brand to the European market, but Automotive News has just refuted that and claims that Toyota will add a new small SUV to its European line-up, situated under the RAV4, instead.
Toyota wants to sell 1.3 million cars in Europe (including Turkey and Russia) by 2009, last years sales have reached 1.09 million units. The new small SUV, based on the Japanese Toyota Ist and indirectly the American Scion xD, should help Toyota reach this ambituous target. In 2006 Suzuki outsold Daihatsu Terios in the small SUV market with both its established Jimny and brand new SX4.
“Toyota will import from Japan a heavily rebodied variant of the Ist,” Thierry Dombreval, chief operating officer of Toyota Motor Europe, told Automotive News Europe. Toyota dominates the medium size SUV segment with its RAV4.
The new small SUV will be launched at the Geneva Motor Show in spring 2008 and go on sale shortly after.
