-Has been in production since 1955
-Moves to TNGA platform
-Showcased as the Crown luxury concept in 2017
-Flagship sedan for Toyota
-Debut vehicle for Toyota’s new connected car technologies
The 15th generation Toyota Crown has been released for the Japanese market. It’s the largest car that Toyota makes and features a radical new design to bring one of Toyota’s most famous badges into the modern age of luxury cars. The car was showcased as the Crown luxury concept in 2017.
This flagship model shares much of design with the latest generation Lexus ES sedan and despite being a Toyota has a unique badge to convey its position at the top of Toyota’s sedan hierarchy. There’s no lack of sporty sedan feel in terms of the exterior thanks to the stance and just the right amount of spoiler on the boot lid.
Inside, as one would expect there’s large swathes of leather, chrome and two large screens to control all the functions while the rear appears to be quite spacious. What this car bring new to the table are a host of connected car technologies that range from car maintenance packages to even something called the Toyota connected car insurance plan. This rewards safe drivers with discounted insurance premiums. In addition the car also gets ITS connect which allows the car to interact with infrastructure around it and improve the driving experience.
Providing motivation are three sets of engines. There a 2.5-litre hybrid, 3.5-litre hybrid as well as 2.0-litre direct injection turbo petrol. The 2.5-litre hybrid 140bhp electric motor while the 3.5-litre unit gets an 180bhp electric motor.
The Crown may never to come to India but we can be sure that whatever technologies that we see in it today are systems that will make their way to more budget oriented vehicles in the Toyota family over the next few years.
