Toyota Century SUV Arrives As Marque’s First Ultra-Luxury SUV

Toyota Century SUV debuts as Toyota's first-ever ultra-luxury SUV flagship

Toyota has finally broken into an untapped market today, as the Japanese marque unveiled its first-ever ultra-luxury SUV model, the all-new Toyota Century SUV. This ultra-luxury SUV continues the long legacy of Toyota Century limousines that started way back in 1967, offering equally luxurious cabin amenities and equipment in a new tall-riding form.

Visually, the Century SUV boasts the typical boxy SUV silhouette, featuring several similar styling cues as its saloon twin, the G60-gen Toyota Century limousine. This includes the two-tone exterior finish, dual-stacked headlights and taillights, as well as the signature phoenix emblem that is meticulously hand-crafted by experts.

Derived from the Sinospheric mythology, the phoenix symbol, also known as Ho’o or Fushicho, is used to represent the Imperial House of Japan – signifying the highness of the Century’s stature.

The Century SUV gets more luxurious four-seater layout instead of five in its sedan twin

On board, the new Century SUV manages to retain the high luxury standards set by its saloon predecessors, featuring a bevy of luxury amenities laced by a few modern tech equipment as well. Unlike its sedan counterpart, the Century SUV features a four-seater layout, which coupled with the larger SUV footprint, provides much better comfort for the passengers with some added practicality too.

Getting in-and-out of the Century SUV is quite easy too, thanks to its wide 75-degree door aperture. Aside from this conventional door, you can also customise the Century SUV with an optional powered sliding door version a la Lexus LM luxury MPV. Upon entering the Century SUV, passengers will be greeted by Century-engraved metal door sill plates with automated built-in side steps. Here, they will be seated on fully-reclining seats with individual ottoman support, wrapped in exquisite and plush leather upholstery.

Aside from the standard massage and ventilation functions, said seats also come with built-in speakers that work in-tandem with the rest of the car’s audio system to provide a noise-cancelling feature to the cabin. Elsewhere, the rear passengers also get their own dedicated infotainment display controllable via the tablet-style control panel, as well as chilled storage space for their Champagne, located behind the seats’ central armrest.

While the car is designed around the ‘chauffeur-driven’ concept, Toyota engineers have not neglected the driver’s compartment entirely. Up front, drivers will get a pretty well-laid out cockpit design, with most of the controls located on either the steering wheel and floating central console – both within the driver’s arm reach. Elsewhere, the cabin is also laced with other modern amenities like central infotainment display, digital instrument cluster, ambient lighting system, and many more.

The Century SUV gets the same PHEV powertrain setup used on the new Lexus TX PHEV

Unlike its V8-powered saloon twin, the Century SUV boasts a plug-in hybrid (PHEV) powertrain setup with a 3.5-litre nat-asp V6 core – making it the first partially-electrified Century model. Derived from the Lexus TX 550h+, this PHEV setup is mated to a CVT gearbox and Toyota’s proprietary E-Four all-wheel drive (AWD) system, granting the Century SUV with a total system output of 406 HP.

Like in many other PHEVs out there, the Century SUV offers an all-electric driving mode, which provides smoother and comfier ride for passengers. Unfortunately, we’re still left in the dark pertaining to the battery pack capacity or maximum EV range of this PHEV setup.

Aside from the new PHEV setup, the Century SUV also comes with Toyota’s new ‘Dynamic Rear Steering’ system that provides easy handling at low speeds and seamless, natural handling at medium to high speeds. For better comfort, there’s also the new ‘Rear Comfort’ mode that tweaks both the SUV’s damper and braking systems with the latter help to suppress braking jolts, allowing for better riding comfort for rear passengers.

To further enhance the car’s NVH and comfort levels, the Century SUV also comes with clear laminated glass that is used on the cabin side of the cargo space to properly separate the cabin from the cargo area. Aside from that, the car’s TNGA underbone has been specifically tuned not only to provide better driving dynamics, but also improved ride comfort for passengers.

Set to go against the likes of Rolls-Royce Cullinan, Bentley Bentayga, as well as the Mercedes-Maybach GLS in the burgeoning ultra-luxury SUV segment, the all-new Toyota Century SUV is now open for order in the Japanese market. Starting from JPY 25 million (RM792,356) excluding options, the Century SUV is tagged slightly higher than its sedan counterpart, which is still on sale from JPY 19 million (RM602,501).