Toyota Crown grows into a family in China with a new SUV and van

Toyota Crown grows into a family in China with a new SUV and van

Toyota Crown is one of the brand’s luxury sedan offerings, below the Century and vaguely alongside the Lexus range. Though the run of the Crown in the Middle East was truncated decades ago, the marque still goes strong in many markets, including Japan and China. In China, the nameplate has now grown into a sub-brand kind of entity as they slapped the Crown logo on two more vehicles — a van and an SUV.

The new additions to the range include a Crown Kluger SUV and a Crown Minivan. Know that these vehicles are not built from the ground up. Instead, they are regular Toyota models, swathed in luxury. The Crown Kluger is a rebadged Highlander while the Crown minivan is the opulent version of the Vellfire, which already is a facelifted version of the Toyota Alphard. Most of the details are kept covered as of now, but it can be believed for sure that both these models will be the poshest of their kind, trumped only by the Lexus RX and Lexus LM, all based off the same bones below the skin.

The Crown Kluger uses the same hybrid 2.5-litre powertrain from the Highlander to produce 189 hp, 51 hp lesser than the Highlander sold in our markets.

The Crown Vellfire uses a similar 2.5-litre petrol engine hybrid system, good for 163 hp. The power delivery duties are handled by a CVT.

With the Crown Vellfire, Crown Kluger and the already existing Crown sedan, the Crown badge in China is now becoming a marque for the most luxurious vehicles from Toyota. The Lexus brand seems to have been forgotten in such a major Asian market, but don’t expect the Crown to come back to the Middle East any time soon.

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