Toyota Signs Century SUV Emergence, Introduced On September 6

Teaser Toyota Century SUV. (Doc.Toyota Global)

JAKARTA - After rumors broke out some time ago, Toyota finally announced that it would launch an SUV version of Toyota Century in the near future. The launch of this luxury model is scheduled for September 6, 2023.

This official announcement was made through the Toyota Global page on Wednesday, August 30, which was also accompanied by a teaser that teased the latest Century. Although Toyota has not explicitly named the model, the image provides strong clues about the emergence of the latest Century.

In the teaser released by Toyota, you can see the back of this car with an elegant exterior coating in black, decorated with chromo accents on the body, LED lights, and designs that resemble the leading luxury brands like Rolls-Royce.

Details such as embedding lights and luxury elements in the D pillar, as well as a strong elegant character, make Century SUV have similarities in design language with Rolls-Royce Cullinan.

Rumors about this super luxury SUV have been circulating for a long time, and Toyota's Chief Branding Officer, Simon Humphries, has provided previous clues about this latest Century.

"I hope to have the opportunity to share the results of the story with a new addition to the Toyota driver series. This will certainly be an impressive step in our mission to change the future of the car," Simon said in June.

The car will be built on the TNGA-K architecture, a platform used for large Toyota vehicles such as Toyota Highlander, Lexus TX, Toyota Alphard, and Toyota Vellfire.

Although previously rumored to be adopting a V8 engine, the latest rumors say that Century will use the same engine as TX 550h+. This means a 3.5 liter plug-in hybrid (PHEV) V6 engine that produces 406 dk of power with eight acceleration transmissions and an all-wheel drive system.

With this step, Century SUV will be part of Toyota's broader electrification strategy to support environmental sustainability. Furthermore, it is estimated that Century will come with a two-line seat configuration and have a wheelbase of 50 mm longer than Lexus TX.

Positioned above other luxury crossover segments such as the Land Cruiser, Century SUV is expected to have a reasonable price of around 15 million yen or around IDR 1.57 billion.

Toyota Century itself made its debut in 1967 and has come in three generations. The latest generation, G60, sold around 20 million yen or around IDR 2 billion.