Brazil closing Toyota Etios chapter as retooling starts for Corolla Cross

With production in Indonesia having stopped in 2017 and in India in March this year, the Sorocaba Plant near Sao Paulo in Brazil has announced that it will be ending production of the Toyota Etios in order to make room for the new Corolla Cross.

According to motor1.com Brazil, the third and last Etios plant will be retooled as part of a R $1-billion (R3.1-billion) investment into producing the TNGA underpinned Cross, which is expected to enter production in March or April next year for not only Brazil, but also other markets in South America.

Based on unnamed source familiar with the move, the Brazilian made Cross will be “very similar” to the global model made in Thailand, although it is expected to have a different choice of engines in order to run on both petrol and/or ethanol.

The departure of the Etios, which in South Africa was sourced from the Bidadi Plant outside Bangalore in India, will leave the recently updated XP150 Yaris as Toyota’s smallest hatchback in Brazil as no direct replacement is being considered unlike in South Africa, where it will be succeeded by the revived Starlet based on the Suzuki Baleno.

Introduced eight years ago, the Etios’ ending in Brazil comes a month after Toyota afforded it with a features upgrade in the form of an Apple CarPlay and Android Auto integrated touchscreen infotainment system on the top-spec X Plus.

Likely to be on the run-out, the current six model Etios range starts at R191 800 for the 1.5 Xi hatch and rounds off with the Cross priced at R221 500 while in Brazil, the range kicks-off at R $ 55 390 (R171 865) for the 1.3 X hatch and tops out at R $72 690 (R225 544) for the 1.5 X Plus sedan fitted with the four-speed automatic gearbox.

Toyota Corolla Cross

Whereas all South African-spec models are powered by a 66kW/132Nm 1.5-litre engine paired to a five-speed manual box, two drivetrains are offered across the eight models in Brazil; a 1.3 that punches out 72kW/128Nm in the hatchback only X, and the 1.5 rated at 79kW/144Nm in the X Plus hatch, as well as the X and X Plus sedan. The standard transmission is a six-speed manual with the aforementioned automatic being optional across the range.

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