2023 Toyota Crown flagships revealed, not for Australia

The flagship Toyota Crown has undergone quite the metamorphosis for 2023, becoming a range comprising four distinct body styles.

There’s the signature Crown sedan, aimed at chauffeurs. But there are three more members of the family called – in Toyota’s own parlance – Crown (Crossover type), Crown (Sport type), and Crown (Estate type).

Alas, for now none of the above will come to Australia, where Toyota already sells a vast array of products.

“No plans,” the company’s local division told us today, despite the fact the new series will be rolled out in a claimed 40 countries and regions – including a return to the United States.

While it hasn’t been sold in Australia since 1988, the Crown badge is incredibly important to Toyota. Only the LandCruiser matches its vintage.

It debuted in 1955, spans 16 generations, and was the company’s first mass-production passenger car created with its own domestic technologies.

“However, the times have changed… and the Crown has become unable to fully meet the diversifying needs of its customers, and its presence as a flagship vehicle has become less significant,” Toyota claims, hence its new tactic.

“In designing the new Crown, the development team thoroughly reexamined what ‘Crown’ is, and as a result… they have created four completely new models.”

The launch vehicle for the family and main focus here is the Crown crossover, which is effectively a high-riding sedan with fastback design language and elevated hip point.

The Crown crossover sits on the TNGA-K platform, familiar from the RAV4 and Camry, making it front-biased all-wheel drive – unlike traditional rear-wheel drive Crowns of yore.

Two hybrid options will be available with electric motor-driven AWD: a 2.5-litre naturally aspirated system, or a punchier 2.4-litre turbocharged petrol-electric system.

Toyota has not detailed a rollout schedule for the other three body styles.

That sedan looks a lot like the Mirai hydrogen FCEV, the high-riding estate looks ideal for Europe, while the sport-type Crown is clearly a sleek SUV that could be sold anywhere.

“Toyota Australia is continually studying the market for new opportunities to offer exciting new products to Australian customers. At this stage however, we have no plans to introduce the Crown model or any of it sub variants to the Australian market,” the company said.

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