New Toyota Urban Cruiser review

Like Jurassic Park, Matlock and Star Wars, the new Toyota Urban Cruiser is a reboot of something that’s come before. However, while the previous Urban Cruiser was a fairly underwhelming SUV, this rebooted version is a bang up to date electric SUV. 

One big difference is that the new Urban Cruiser is closely related to the Suzuki e Vitara. It wears Toyota badges but the two are identical underneath, with the same underpinnings, battery and motors. 

The Urban Cruiser – which is smaller than the Toyota bZ4X and the upcoming Toyota CH-R+ – will have its work cut out if it’s to stand out in a crowded class. Rival electric SUVs include the Ford Puma Gen-E, Jeep Avenger Electric, Kia EV3 and Smart #1.

So how does it fair against those rivals and more? That’s what we’ll find out in this review, as we test the new Toyota Urban Cruiser in everything from ride comfort and performance to practicality and interior comfort.

There are two versions of the Toyota Urban Cruiser available, one with a 49kWh battery, the other with a larger 61kWh one. So far, we’ve tried a pre-production version with the 61kWh battery. 

That version is the most powerful of the two, with a 172bhp electric motor on the front axle. It’s worth noting that, unlike the Suzuki e Vitara, the Urban Cruiser won't be available at launch with four-wheel drive but Toyota hasn’t ruled out making it available later.

Regardless, the Urban Cruiser can officially sprint from 0-62mph in 8.7 seconds, giving you plenty of oomph when you need bursts of pace around town. Power starts to tail off as you approach motorway speeds though, where the Ford Puma Gen-E and Kia EV3 Standard Range feel noticeably stronger.

We haven’t tried the smaller, 49kWh battery version yet, but with 142bhp and a 0-62mph sprint of 9.6 seconds, we suspect it’ll feel quite sluggish for anything other than pootling around town or on country roads. With an official range of 214 miles, that’s probably the environment it’s best suited to.

Officially, the 61kWh Urban Cruiser boosts the range to 265 miles, meaning it should travel further than the Puma Gen-E and Jeep Avenger Electric but not quite as far as the EV3 Standard Range. The EV3 Long Range beats them all, with its official range of up to 375 miles.

As is the case with the e Vitara, the Urban Cruiser’s soft suspension soaks up imperfections and potholes very well, only ever giving a small thud through the largest holes in the road. The softness means body control isn’t as good as in the firmer Puma Gen-E or EV3, but the Urban Cruiser never gets too wayward or floaty over undulations. 

Given the bias towards comfort, it probably goes without saying that the Urban Cruiser isn’t particularly fun when it comes to handling. Indeed, when you corner with speed there’s some body lean, and the light steering doesn’t really give you much feedback about what the front wheels are up to. The Puma Gen-E is more fun and much more capable.

That’s not the point of the Urban Cruiser though. Instead, it proves itself to be easy to drive, with more than enough grip to give you confidence at normal speeds and steering that makes weaving through town or parking a doddle. 

Unlike some electric cars the Urban Cruiser doesn’t have a one-pedal driving mode. Instead, the Urban Cruiser has three levels of brake regeneration but none of the settings are particularly strong. Luckily, the brakes themselves feel very natural when you use the pedal so stopping smoothly isn’t an issue.

On the subject of refinement, wind and road noise are both unnoticeable at slow speeds, but at motorway speeds there’s a fair amount of wind noise from around the wing mirrors.

"While there’s no four-wheel drive version at launch, Toyota hasn’t written off the chance of one appearing in the future. That version would cut the range slightly but should be faster and give you more confidence in slippery conditions." – Dan Jones, Senior Reviewer

It’s easy to get comfortable in the Toyota Urban Cruiser thanks to a driving position that lines you up nicely with the steering wheel and pedals. Exact equipment levels have yet to be confirmed but the mid-spec Design version we drove had electric front seats, making it easy to find the ideal driving position.

While the Kia EV3 places you slightly higher above the road, the Urban Cruiser sits you high enough for great all-round visibility. Indeed, at the front you have a good view out over the bonnet and the slim windscreen pillars mean you can see plenty at junctions.

The rear pillars are quite wide but the large rear side windows go back far enough that you still have a good view over your shoulder. Our only real demerit is that the back window could be bigger, to help when reversing.

To make parking easier, we expect every Urban Cruiser will come with a rear-view camera, while top-spec versions will upgrade that to one with a 360-degree view. For a great view at night, bright new LED lights have been fitted to the Urban Cruiser. The top-spec trim will take things one step further with an adaptive system so you can leave the lights on full beam without dazzling anyone.

The interior is sensibly laid out, with everything exactly where you expect it to be. We particularly appreciate that the steering wheel has proper buttons and you get some physical controls for the air-conditioning.

True, you need to use the 10.1in infotainment touchscreen to make finer changes, but having a proper button to control the fan speed and temperature goes a long way in making it a less distracting process than in the Ford Puma Gen-E.

Speaking of screens, every Urban Cruiser has a 10.3in digital driver's display as well as the main infotainment screen. Both have crisp displays that are easy to read, but the infotainment system on the prototype we tested was let down by its near glacial response to inputs. Hopefully production cars won't be so bad. 

You can bypass the Urban Cruiser's built-in infotainment by using the standard wireless Android Auto and Apple CarPlay smartphone mirroring. They both allow you to use your own apps on the infotainment screen and are much quicker. 

It’s fair to say that the Urban Cruiser’s entirely black interior feels pretty drab, especially when compared with the visual flair of the Smart #1. Even the Suzuki e Vitara – which shares the same interior – gets some brown leather inserts to help liven things up a bit.

However, Toyota says the interior might change on production versions, so hopefully things will improve. That's good news because, while the interior feels sturdy in its construction, a quick prod around reveals that almost every material is a hard and scratchy plastic.

"I really hope the infotainment system is worked on before the official launch of the Urban Cruiser because at the moment it’s one of the slowest I’ve used." – Dan Jones, Senior Reviewer

A pair of six-footers will have no trouble getting comfortable in the front of the Toyota Urban Cruiser: it offers plenty of head, leg and shoulder room. 

There’s also loads of storage areas in the front of the Urban Cruiser, including door bins that can each hold a large bottle of water, two cupholders, a large cubby beneath the floating centre console, a spot for your phone at the base of the dashboard (which doubles as wireless phone-charging in top-spec cars) and a cubby inside the central armrest.

Rear space is pretty impressive too. Indeed, even someone 6ft tall will have no issues with head or leg room when sitting in the rear seats. Shoulder room will be fairly tight if you want to fit three adults across the rear bench, but the lack of a gearbox tunnel means they’ll have lots of foot space.

Handily, every Urban Cruiser comes with sliding rear seats that allow you to prioritise either rear leg room or boot space. Better still, you get versatile 40/20/40 split-folding rear seats, allowing you to load long items through from the boot without sacrificing one of the outer rear seats.

Speaking of the boot, you get either 238 litres or 310 litres of space, depending on whether you have the seats slid all the way forward or back. That's not hugely impressive when you consider that the Kia EV3 offers 460 litres and the Ford Puma Gen-E a mighty 523 litres.

In more relatable terms, the EV3 managed to swallow six carry-on suitcases in our tests. We’d expect the Urban Cruiser to take four or five.

"Unlike the Puma Gen-E and EV3, the Urban Cruiser doesn’t have a front boot. I always find that a shame, especially when the underpinnings have been designed specifically for an electric car." – Dan Jones, Senior Reviewer

UK pricing for the Toyota Urban Cruiser has yet to be announced but we expect it to be roughly in line with the Suzuki e Vitara. As such, it’s likely that the Urban Cruiser will cost you around the same as the entry-level Kia EV3 but more than the Ford Puma Gen-E and Smart #1. 

As mentioned, UK equipment and trim levels are still to be confirmed but there are likely to be three trim levels to choose from – Icon, Design and Excel. 

We expect Icon to get touchscreen infotainment and a digital driver's display, a rear parking camera, LED headlights and driving assist technologies, including adaptive cruise control and lane assist.

Design will add a heated steering wheel, heated seats and rear air vents. Top-spec Excel looks like it’ll get all the bells and whistles, including a JBL sound system, a panoramic roof, wireless phone-charging and adaptive LED headlights. 

With its maximum charging rate of 67kW, the Urban Cruiser is not very quick to charge up. It's likely to take 45 minutes to charge from 10-80% on a fast charger, against 30 minutes for the EV3 Standard Range and 25 for the Puma Gen-E.

The Urban Cruiser is too new to have been included in our 2024 What Car? Reliability Survey but both Suzuki and Toyota (who developed the car) performed well, claiming third and fifth place respectively out of the 31 included brands.

Better still, Toyota gives you a 10-year, 100,000-mile warranty with the Urban Cruiser, providing you service it regularly at an official centre. You get a separate 10-year, 650,000-mile battery warranty.

The experts at Euro NCAP have not tested the Urban Cruiser for safety yet, but we can tell that it's fitted with plenty of standard safety kit, including automatic emergency braking (AEB), rear cross-traffic alert, lane-departure alert and a driver monitoring system.

"If the Urban Cruiser's price is as we expect, its 67kW charging rate seems pretty disappointing, especially when you consider that most rivals have a rate of at least 100kW." – Dan Jones, Senior Reviewer

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