New Toyota Land Cruiser Arrives As A Retro-Tastic Hybrid SUV

The new Toyota Land Cruiser J250 (right), alongside previous-gen Land Cruiser 200 (left) and the iconic Land Cruiser 70 (centre)

Following its teaser last month, the next-gen Toyota Land Cruiser has finally made its global debut today. It turns out that all of the rumours are true, as the new Land Cruiser stood as a retro-tastic SUV with chiselled and boxy design, while hiding a hybrid powertrain under its hood.

Codenamed J250, this next-gen Land Cruiser shares the same TNGA-F underbone as its recently-launched upmarket twin, the Lexus GX. While not exactly similar in size, both models share the same retro-tastic boxy design that pays homage to their predecessors decades ago.

2024 Toyota Land Cruiser First Edition (left) & mid-specced 'Land Cruiser' variant (right)

Moving back to the new Land Cruiser, this rugged SUV comes in several trim levels, all featuring minute styling differences. For starters, all variants sport a chiselled front bumper design with rectangular grille opening that features Toyota lettering on it. For the baseline 1958 and the flagship First Edition guises, said grille is flanked by rounded LED headlights, while the mid-specced variant – aptly named ‘Land Cruiser’ – gets rectangular units a la FJ62 Land Cruiser model.

From the side you’ll notice that all variants of the new Land Cruiser comes with the typical boxy SUV silhouette, with its slightly flared-out fenders and prominent underbody cladding added some ruggedness to this model. Other than that, all models get 18-inch wheels as standard, while there’s optional 20-inch ones offered to the middle variant. Regardless of variant or wheel sizes, all of them shod in all-season tyres.

At the rear, all variants of the new Land Cruiser come with simple boxy taillights on the corners, giving a clean, simple look to the overall tailgate design. Elsewhere, the 250-series Land Cruiser also gets prominent low bumper garnish with its spare tyre snugged underneath them, while the rear hatch window can be opened on its own – another homage to the classic Land Cruisers.

On board, the new Land Cruiser features a simplistic yet functional cabin, primed with a slew of modern amenities. For the baseline 1958 variant, the cabin is equipped with an 8-inch central infotainment display, fabric upholstery with heated front seats and heated steering wheel, as well as a six-speaker audio system. 

Opting for the mid-specced and First Edition variants swap the small screen for bigger 12.3-inch ones, as well as faux leather upholstery for the former, and genuine leather upholstery for the latter. If that’s not enough, buyers can opt for the premium equipment package, which adds things like heated and ventilated seats, a head-up display, digital rearview mirror, a panoramic moonroof, as well as a 14-speaker JBL premium audio system.

In terms of seat capacity, the J250-gen Land Cruiser will only feature a two-row five-seater configuration, just like its predecessors from the 70s and 80s.

As for safety features, the new LC is primed with the latest Toyota Safety Sense 3.0 ADAS suite. This adds active safety functions like Automatic High Beams, Blind Spot Monitor (BSM), Full-Speed Range Dynamic Radar Cruise Control, Lane Departure Alert (LDA) with Steering Assist, Lane Tracing Assist, Pre-Collision System with Pedestrian Detection, Road Sign Assist, Proactive Driving Assist, as well as Rear Cross Traffic Alert.

While its upmarket twin gets a twin-turbo V6 mill, the US-spec J250 Land Cruiser harnesses an i-Force Max hybrid powertrain – the same setup found on the new Toyota Tacoma pick-up truck. This setup consists of a 2.4-litre 4-cyl engine that is mated to an integrated electric motor juiced by a small 1.87-kWh battery pack – delivering a total system output of 326 HP and 630 NM.

Being a capable off-roader, the new Land Cruiser comes with a full-time all-wheel drive (AWD) system that features centre-locking differential, a two-speed transfer case, as well as an electronic locking rear differential. Facilitating the power delivery from said hybrid powertrain to this AWD setup is an 8-speed automatic transmission, with no stick shift options offered.

The all-new J250-gen Toyota Land Cruiser is set to arrive in North America some time next year, with its price tag expectedly to begin from $50,000 onwards. As for its availability in other global markets, Toyota has remained tight-lipped about that, for now…