To say that the Japanese love curry is an understatement. They consume so much of the stuff be it at restaurants, at home, or heck, via vendo machines, that it could be arguably called a national dish. The thing is, it didn’t originate from there, but from India. Only, it’s been changed and adopted so much to suit the Japanese palette that it doesn’t look, taste, or smell anything like the OG. It’s these adaptations that the Toyota Urban Cruiser could very well need.
The India reference here gives you a strong hint as to where the Urban Cruiser’s made. Ading-ding-ding. Yup, it’s made in India. Rather than being coy about it, it’s refreshing to hear Toyota admit that it’s built alongside the Suzuki eVitara (another BEV that’s heading our way) in Gujarat, India (even if the VIN number does indicate a “J”).
In photos, the Urban Cruiser is handsome enough to impress. The hammerhead front end styling and the coupe-like silhouette work to help it cut a different figure from the typical EV styling I’ve seen of late. There are also some thoughtful cues such as embedding three dots on the rear bumper to easily indicate where the tailgate button is.
In terms of the spec sheet, it reads like a modern day multi-hyphenated half-Pinoy/motoring journalist/celebrity/influencer/TikToker/Instagramer/advocate/animal lover. At P 2.135-million, its price doesn’t manage to undercut its main competition which are the Chinese BEV SUVs, but one could argue that you get what you paid for. It comes fully loaded with large digital screens, a panoramic sunroof, powered driver’s seat, a 9-speaker JBL sound system, and a full featured ADAS kit.
Having said that, reality bites hard for the Urban Cruiser when you hit the road. Instead of enjoying a mildly spicy driving experience, this one’s doused with tap water. Caveat: my time behind the wheel was short—barely 30 kilometers—but, boy, did it feel like an eternity. On smooth, uneven pavement, it just bobbed its way up and down much to the discomfort of my two passengers. Plus, if you want to keep your rear passenger’s head intact, you must consciously slow down when hitting road dips. At first, I chucked it down to a short wheelbase problem; so, I was surprised to learn that based on the spec sheet, it read 2,700 mm. It could either be stiff shocks and springs (likely to take on the weight of the large battery) or tire pressures which haven’t been properly adjusted.
I tried combing through the Urban Cruiser’s digital gauge cluster or infotainment for more info surrounding the tire pressures, but let’s just say, I would have held up the convoy. Both screens offered sharp graphics but were painfully slow to react. In the end, I gave up learning them altogether and switched over to Apple CarPlay for access to my maps (I didn’t want to get lost with less than 40 percent battery charge).
And on that note, the Urban Cruiser’s real-world range leaves much to be desired. I understand that there’s no way to check how previous groups drove it (and, for the life of me, I couldn’t figure out how to reset the consumption meter), but it showed a range of 4.9 kilometers per kWh. With a 61 kWh LFP battery, it equates to a range of just 300 kilometers, ways off Toyota’s projected 475-kilometer range. A proper CarGuide.PH test is required here.
In terms of pace, the Urban Cruiser is never lacking. If your companions are game enough to be pogoed around the cabin, there’s plenty of straight line pull courtesy of the 174 horsepower, 193 Nm front-mounted eAxle. True to its name, however, most of the available power comes in down low meaning at anything past 100 km/h, it starts to wheeze up. The steering too doesn’t weigh up at speed dropping driver confidence at higher speeds.
Stick to low or moderate speeds (aka the city), the Urban Cruiser shines. The steering is light and together with the excellent sightlines all around makes weaving through traffic or navigating through tight confines is a cinch. Although the back window view fills up quickly with passenger heads if they’re seated there, a 360-degree camera’s standard which helps you see around the car.
The Urban Cruiser’s interior is extremely well-made and usable. It doesn’t depart from the typical blueprint used by countless other manufacturers with the visually joined screens, buttons for the climate control and volume, and a rotary gear shifter on the center console. But at least, everything is exactly where you expect it to be. The two-tone colorway and the variety of playful, textured finishes are great in distracting you from the otherwise hard, plasticky interior.
Front seat space is no issue for the Urban Cruiser, but those in the rear may find the headroom a bit lacking. Plus, the narrowness means that three typical motoring journalists will not fit there, unless they’re the types who never raid the buffet table. Sadly, there are also no rear AC vents too; only charging ports. The niftiest feature here is the sliding 60/40 rear seats. It’s an amazing party trick that allows you to either prioritize rear leg room or cargo space. Better still, you get versatile 40/20/40 split-folding seat backs, allowing longer items through from the luggage compartment without sacrificing one of the outer rear seats. There’s also an underfloor storage compartment, but no proper spare tire.
In my quick experience behind the wheel of the Urban Cruiser, it’s clear that Toyota’s second battery electric vehicle needs more Japanization. Coming from the high that’s the Toyota bZ4X—a BEV so impressive that I got one myself after naming it one of the Top Picks of 2025—this one’s not a solid Toyota effort. While it’s an easygoing, straightforward electric crossover, the drive is closer to Swagat than S&B. It’s also expensive for what you get. It does unlock plenty of EV ownership perks such as complimentary charging at any of the Toyota BEV charging stations (including at Lexus Manila), a complimentary wall box charger (with install) a portable charger, and reduced PMS intervals, but dynamically it just falls short. Maybe another drive in the city’s what’s needed for this to shine, but right now, if you need a battery electric vehicle with a bit more use case flexibility, trust me, spring more for the bZ4X; it’s worth it.
Buying a Toyota BEV when Geely and BYDs are already lightyears away in tech...
ReplyDeleteArrived dead right away. Toyota building together with Suzuki & Daihatsu is always a downgrade.
ReplyDeleteCareful in what you say because entry level Toyota's in PH are Suzuki and Daihatsu and GAC are in Toyota badges to compete well in price but quality is another matter.
ReplyDeleteStill dont see how Toyota PH can justify that price tag
ReplyDeleteNeither could I.
DeleteIts easy, see the badge? Its a "Toyota". Had they slapped a "Daihatsu" nameplate there, the SRP would have been halved!
DeleteKaching!
Wrong. Why Daihatsu? It’s a Suzuki. And there’s no Daihatsu dealership in the Philippines so Daihatsu makes no sense in the equation.
DeleteToyota owns Daihatsu. Toyota dont sell Daihatsu badged cars in PH because they know Pinoys are gullible when they see a Toyota badge.
DeleteIn PH market they sell DNGA cars at higher prices by using the T badge. If they are really into "cars with friendly prices", they could have rejuvinated the D brand here, and sell cars like this Cruiser at a lower price.
But they know Pinoys might be averse due to stigma of previous safety and quality issues hounding the DNGA cars in international market.
Hence they keep the T badge in PH cars to "justify that price tag".
Business strategy, common sense. Dinaman baliw ang toyota ph na magbenta nang daihatsu badge cars e di kilala rito.
Delete^Kilala nga sa pinas na low quality ang daihatsu kaya nga nilalagay nila toyota name para bumenta. lols
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