For the first time in history, Toyota has rolled out an SUV bearing the illustrious Century name. Making its world premiere in its home country of Japan, the Toyota Century SUV sits at the very top of Toyota’s utility vehicle line-up, and promises the kind of luxury the world has come to expect from renowned luxury marques. With the SUV, Toyota has attempted to retain design and styling cues that have come to be associated with the iconic Century sedan, and placed emphasis on upgrading rear seat comfort to a level unseen in any Toyota model up until now.
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Century SUV appears a lot like the Rolls-Royce Cullinan, when viewed in profile.
Built on the Toyota New Global Architecture (TNGA) base, the Century SUV measures in at 5,205 mm in length, 1,990 mm in width, and 1,805 mm in height, with a 2,950 mm wheelbase and 185 mm of ground clearance. Compared to the sedan, it’s shorter in overall length and has a shorter wheelbase, and at 2,570 kg (kerb), weighs 200 kg more. Design-wise, it adopts the conventional SUV silhouette, with the upright front-end featuring a quad-headlight arrangement and a partly-sealed honeycomb grille bearing the signature engraved ‘Phoenix’ emblem.
Quad-tail-light arrangement mirrors the quad headlight layout.
The Century SUV rides on large multi-spoke alloys and has a dual-tone paint scheme, with the lower half of the SUV finished in a contrast tone. It is perhaps in profile that the Century is reminiscent of the Rolls-Royce Cullinan, which it will inevitably be compared with. At the rear, the tail-light setup mirrors the headlight layout with its quad-lamp arrangement.
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The Century SUV has two individual rear seats with ventilated and massage functions.
As you’d expect, the real points of interest with the Century SUV are on the inside, and particularly in the rear passenger compartment. The standard rear doors can open up to an angle of 75 degrees, with a powered side step automatically lowering as soon as they’re opened.
The Century SUV has two individual rear seats separated by a wide console, which features removable 5.5-inch touchscreens (housing vital controls), rotating retractable tables and can also be equipped with a mini refrigerator.
With the front passenger seat moved and tilted forwards, the rear seat passenger can truly stretch out.
There are 11.6-inch displays for each rear passenger, and the seats themselves are the party piece, featuring ventilation (cooling and heating), memory function and a massage function. They can also be reclined nearly fully flat (to 77 degrees), and a powered leg rest folds out so the chauffeur-driven can catch up on sleep even when on the road.
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Boot space is rated at 340 litres; Century SUV has a powered tailgate and a glass separator between the luggage area and rear seats.
In a bid to further quieten the experience for the rear passengers, Toyota has fitted a clear glass panel to separate the 340-litre luggage space. Other highlights include an 18-speaker Century Premium sound system (honed by a ‘musical instrument manufacturing master’ to recreate the sensation of a live performance), electrochromic glass for the rear windows and a panoramic sunroof.
Landscape-oriented touchscreen and 12.3-inch digital instruments display dominate the dash.
The dashboard features a landscape-oriented touchscreen infotainment system, as well as a 12.3-inch full-digital instruments display. The wide centre console houses a number of buttons to control rear seat functions, and the driver also has a three-spoke steering wheel with a heating function, a colour head-up display and satin-finish paddle shifters.
Twin 5.5-inch touchscreens incorporated into the rear centre armrest house vital seat and car controls.
Under the bonnet of the Century SUV is a 3.5-litre petrol V6 engine, which, in conjunction with two electric motors, puts out a peak combined output of 406 bhp. Thanks to the onboard battery, the Century SUV also has the ability to be driven purely on electric power, with Toyota claiming a pure-electric range of up to 69 kilometres. Charging the battery will take anywhere between 3 hours, 30 minutes to 5 hours, 30 minutes, depending on the outlet used. At the unveiling, the Century SUV was also previewed in sportier ‘GRMN’ form, with black wheels and red brake callipers, but no more details on this variant have been shared at this time.
Sportier GRMN version at the showcase was fitted with an optional powered sliding rear door.
Interestingly, the Century SUV also features four-wheel steering for added agility, as well as the Toyota Sense suite of advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), including adaptive emergency braking and lane change assist, among others. Also a part of the Century SUV is fully-automated parallel parking, which uses the 360-degree cameras and sensors to detect any movement around the vehicle and park accordingly.
Toyota is targeting sales of at least 30 units of the Century SUV every month.
The Century SUV will be produced at Toyota’s Tahara plant, in Japan, with the company targeting sales of at least 30 units every month. Toyota also hinted at the possibility of creating an open-top version of the Century if there’s customer demand for such a model. A whole host of customisation options will be on offer, including colour and trim schemes and the option of having a powered sliding rear door. In Japan, the Century SUV costs the Indian equivalent of Rs 1.40 crore.
There is no word on if the Century SUV will be available outside of Japan, but given the increasing appetite for high-riding vehicles worldwide, it is quite likely that the Century SUV will make it to other markets in the time to come.
