Fronx will make its South African market debut next week, whereas the Urban Cruiser Taisor remains unknown. Image: Suzuki.
Toyota has seemingly ended months of speculation surrounding the name of its version of the Suzuki Fronx, following the discovery of a trademark application in India for the moniker Urban Cruiser Taisor.
Rumoured for unveiling at the Delhi Auto Expo in February that subsequently never happened, the Taisor name first came to prominence at the end of last year when it become known that Toyota was looking into producing a replacement for the “normal” Urban Cruiser.
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Known internally as the YTB, the Taisor name, although not officially acknowledged by Toyota, became universally accepted in spite of little continuing to be known about it.
Discovered in a submission to India’s Intellectual Property office on Friday, Autocar India reports that the filing for Urban Cruiser Taisor took place on 8 August at the behest of Toyota’s India under the description of “automobiles and structural parts thereof”.
A decision made in likely response to the popularity of the Urban Cruiser name, the new prefix follows the same route as that of the Urban Cruiser Hyryder that does without the hybrid denoting suffix in South Africa.
Tipped to differ slightly both inside and out from the Fronx, which will debut in South Africa next week, the Urban Cruiser Taisor is widely believed to replace the previous Urban Cruiser outright in spite of exceeding the sub-four metre regulations.
While prior reports have speculated that the Indonesian-market Yaris Cross could be rebadged and assembled in India as the Urban Cruiser Icon, therefore serving as the original Suzuki Vitara Brezza-based Urban Cruiser’s direct successor, Toyota has seemingly had other ideas after announcing last year that won’t be using the new Brezza as a base for a second generation Urban Cruiser.
Instead, the bigger Urban Cruiser Hyryder is based on Suzuki’s C-platform that underpins the Grand Vitara, comes with a selection of Suzuki engines and is built by Toyota at its Bidadi Plant in the state of Bengaluru.
Reportedly on course to debut around November before going on-sale in 2024, the Urban Cruiser Taisor is expected to offer the same engine options as the Fronx, namely the normally aspirated 1.2-litre petrol engine that makes 67kW/113Nm and the three-cylinder 1.0 Boosterjet rated at 74kW/148Nm.
Reportedly, specification is also set to be similar, meaning the standard inclusion of the Head-Up Display, nine-inch touchscreen infotainment system and the 360-degree surround-view camera system on higher-end derivative.
Still unconfirmed for South Africa, a decision on the Urban Cruiser Taisor only expected once the wraps come off three months from now.
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