Frankly, I haven’t changed my mind. The Urban Cruiser is still very much a mediocre car; the sort of car you’d rate a “5” in a scale of 1-10 survey. Sure, it looks neat and there are some surprisingly clever bits when it comes to interior packaging, but overall, it’s as forgettable as an NPC. It moves, it steers, and it stops; end of story.

With 174 horsepower and 193 Nm of torque at its disposal, it’s not severely lacking in pace, but it’s also not blistering fast either. It, to borrow Toyota Motor Philippines’ own Urban Cruiser tagline, chooses to cruise. Whether you decide to jam the accelerator or be gingerly with it, it moves with the same level of immediacy, which is, not much. It pulls well enough, but not hard enough. Forget any semblance of neck snapping performance typically associated with EVs here. This one’s for driving Ms. Daisy.

The Urban Cruiser’s mediocrity extends even to its energy efficiency. Since I had it before the carmaker announced a Customer Satisfaction Campaign, the infotainment read out showed just 5.58 km/kWh—a very worrying number because it would put this dinky crossover in the same league as a Hyundai Ioniq 5 N or Ioniq 9. For context, a larger, more powerful bZ4X can easily achieve 7.16 km/kWh. Lucky for them, when they announced the issue, I had the chance to revert back to the tried-and-tested distance traveled divided by battery charge consumed formula. The result? 7.58 km/kWh. Better, but not exactly stunning.

True to its name, the Urban Cruiser is best experienced at speeds below 60 km/h. When sticking to that sort of environment, the steering is light and the crossover does, to a large degree, handle and ride alright. It’ll absorb nasty bumps and abrupt road cuts well enough while maintaining a respectable level of NVH isolation. Drive over those same roads at a higher rate of speed however, and suddenly everything turns on its head. Passengers will toss and turn over the smallest imperfection with the firm, almost unfiltered ride. The driver, meanwhile, loses the last remaining remnants of feedback. It has the propensity to break traction over steel expansion joints. Thankfully, the onboard electronics are all calibrated to catch you each and every time.

When it comes to its cabin, the Urban Cruiser is well-made and usable. It doesn’t depart from the typical blueprint used by countless other manufacturers with the visually joined screens. The displays are high-res enough and they’re customizable three ways, but they’re only accessible via on-screen submenus. On that note, the screens are slow to react because of some needless animations and there’s no way to disable them. Smartphone mirroring like Apple CarPlay is also inconsistent with pairing done sometimes seamlessly and sometimes not at all. The infotainment’s menu structure can also be a source of annoyance since Toyota (or more like its OE partner, Suzuki) opted to bury functions like the climate control’s “Auto” and “Off” into a sub-menu. Worst still, there’s no auto door lock/unlock feature, something I consider a safety feature nowadays. In terms of materials used, there are small padded bits, but most come across as hard and plasticky. At least the playful textures, use of ambient lighting, and the choice of switchgear manage to distract you for a bit.

The front occupants are treated well enough with ample space whether it’s head, leg, or shoulder room. The driver’s seat offers plenty of adjustment, while the “squircle” steering wheel is nice enough to hold and doesn’t obstruct the view of the gauges. The seats though are rock hard; akin to sitting on a budget airliner economy seat. Still, they’re supportive and ergonomic, all things considered. The driver also has good view around the Urban Cruiser’s vicinity, although the thick A-pillars mean some crossing pedestrians are momentarily obstructed from view, depending on your driving position. Thank goodness for proximity sensors and a 360-degree camera then.

Sadly, the rear occupants aren’t treated as nicely. The rear seats do have a party trick of allowing the bench to be slid forward and backward in a 60/40 split, but unless you’re born with no legs, you’d be keeping them to their most rearward setting. Whatever the position, there’s not much headroom to speak of, and that’s a shame because the rear seats do have adjustable reclines and the middle part can be collapsed to reveal an armrest and cupholder. Of note, there are no rear AC vents—a crime in this day and age.

Now, don’t let the Urban Cruiser’s small size fool you. The clever rear seats are more useful even compared to Honda’s own ULT seats. It allows it to swallow two 26-inch (medium-size) suitcases side-by-side with enough space on top beneath the tonneau cover for two backpacks. There’s also an underfloor storage compartment allowing you to organize stuff like tools and a portable charger. There’s no spare tire though, just a tire inflation kit. Elsewhere, there’s enough cubby holes scattered around the cabin.

Outside, the Urban Cruiser looks well 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.

As great as it looks, however, the Urban Cruiser misses the target by a mile. Toyota has been putting out great products of late such as with the bZ4X and the RAV4. This isn’t one of them. At most, I see this as a secondary car—a city runabout for errands and the school run. It’s hard to recommend for anything else. It still is an easy-to-drive EV crossover in the city, but it just doesn’t offer the same level of performance flexibility you’d come to expect in something in this price range. 

There are those who’d still be drawn to it because of the ownership perks (complimentary charging, wall box, portable charger, and reduced PMS intervals), but I could argue that other brands, to some degree, are starting to offer the same thing. The Toyota badge is surely a draw, but that’s just not enough to justify the dull and forgettable driving experience. Akio Toyoda once called an end for boring cars within the Toyota line-up, it seems the Urban Cruiser didn’t get that memo.