Toyota Innova HyCross launch timeline revealed; end of diesel era is here!

Toyota recently stopped taking the bookings of the diesel variants of the very popular Innova Crysta, which raised many eyebrows. Rumours are spreading that Toyota has discontinued the Innova Crysta, however, that’s not all true. If reports are to be believed, the Japanese carmaker is going to launch an upgraded version of the MPV, the new Innova Hycross. The model has already been spied undergoing trial runs on the Indian roads and will have its global unveling in November 2022.

After the global unveiling of the new Toyota Innova Hycross in November 2022, the MPV will go on sale in January 2022 in global markets, including in India. The carmaker is currently geared up to launch the new Urban Cruiser Hyryder, which will be launched before the festive season. Toyota is heavily promoting the Hyryder as the beginning of the hybrid electric era in India. From early indications, customers too are considering the Strong Hybrid Hyryder as an alternative to diesel engines. Early bookings of both Hyryder, and its sibling Grand Vitara, indicate strong demand for the strong hybrid variants.

To free up some space for the production of the new SUV and citing the arrival of the new Innova Hycross next year, Toyota might have stopped making the Innova Crysta’s diesel variants. The petrol version of the Innova Crysta, however, was always available only on a pre-order basis.

Talking about the new Toyota Innova Hycross, it will have slightly bigger dimensions, a more premium aura and redesigned exterior and interior over the current Innova Crysta. In some of the markets, the MPV will be known as Innova Zenix and not Innova Hycross. Unlike the current Innova Crysta, the new Innova Hycross will ditch the ladder-on-frame chassis for a more modern monocoque construction, which should make it a lighter MPV in comparison. It will also come with a front-wheel drive configuration, unlike the rear-wheel drive setup in the Innova Crysta. The new Innova Hycross will share the TNGA-C platform, which also underpins other global Toyota products including the new Corolla.

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Toyota to drop diesel egines

The Toyota Innova Hycross will commence a new era for Toyota as the new MPV will be ditching diesel engines altogether. The new MPV will be available with a petrol-hybrid powertrain, much like the upcoming Urban Cruiser Hyryder. However, given the larger size of the Innova Hycross, the engine will be based on a larger 2.0-litre petrol engine, which will see heavy localization levels to keep the production costs in check.

What about the Innova Crysta diesel?

Given that the current-gen Innova Crysta is still popular among fleet owners, Toyota might resume taking its bookings at a later stage. So no, the Innova Crysta diesel may not disappear. However, to justify the premium positioning of the Innova Hycross, Toyota might restrict the availability of the Innova Crysta to lower and mid-spec variants. Note that this is our guess, and we have not heard officially from Toyota about their plans for the Innova Crystal diesel yet.

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