Toyota Urban Cruiser Review 2026

In launching the new Urban Cruiser, Toyota has brought back a name from its past, but applied it to a model that it hasn't had a great deal to do with. It's nearly identical to the Suzuki e Vitara, a car we weren't particularly impressed with, so there are inherent misgivings about this version despite the badge swap. Find out what they are in our full Toyota Urban Cruiser review.

Toyota loves collaborating with other manufacturers as several of its recent models confirm. On the sports car front, the Toyota GT86 and the Subaru BRZ are essentially one and the same, save for some minor styling differences, the GR Supra owed a lot to the BMW Z4, while its Proace series of vans are all built by the massive Stellantis empire. 

Suzuki is another firm it has an ongoing relationship with, which so far has seen a couple of Toyotas badge-engineered without any technical differences. That saw the Toyota Corolla Touring Sports re-labelled as the Suzuki Swace, while the outgoing Toyota RAV4 became the Suzuki Across. Now the favour has been returned because the Toyota Urban Cruiser is a mildly altered version of the Suzuki e Vitara. 

The two compact electric SUVs only differ in terms of badging and a lightly restyled front end. Whether you prefer one over the other is entirely subjective, but overall its looks aren't divisive and its chunky aesthetic helps it — well, both of them — stand out amid many other high-riding EVs available for a similar price.

Unfortunately, beyond this, the Urban Cruiser struggles to compete in a crowded marketplace. Even if you go for a version with the bigger battery as both the range and rapid charging rates are underwhelming — several rivals manage far better in both regards. 

The Toyota doesn't make up for it in terms of practicality, managing only 244 litres of boot space if the sliding rear seat bench is in its rearmost position. It's not like the Urban Cruiser is especially cheap, starting at £30k, putting it in the same price bracket as far more talented rivals, including the Kia EV3 and the Skoda Elroq. 

From the statistics alone the Toyota Urban Cruiser is off to a poor start, with matters going further south when you drive it. Toyota has entirely left the suspension set-up alone, meaning it suffers from the same ride and handling problems as the Suzuki. 

Capping this all off, its on-board technology is really behind the curve, with a laggy touchscreen that must be relied upon for climate control functions and even turning the heated seats on and off. Are buttons too much to ask for? 

As well as competition from myriad rivals, it doesn't help the Toyota Urban Cruiser's cause that Suzuki is discounting the e Vitara more heavily. Toyota claws back some ground by having a much more significant dealer presence in the UK, but unless it decides to drop the price the Urban Cruiser will remain difficult to recommend. 

Toyota Urban Cruiser: Range and charging times

The Toyota Urban Cruiser is available with two different battery packs, the smaller of which is exclusively tied to the entry-level Icon trim. This 49kWh battery pack gives up to 214 miles of driving range according to the WLTP Combined cycle, which is very modest by today's standards. 

Most will want to upgrade to the 61kWh battery, fitted to Design and Excel-trimmed versions. It's still not that impressive, though, offering up to 264 miles of range. Driven with exuberance we averaged just 2.5 miles/kWh, which would equate to more like 150 miles of range. Even with a gentler right foot, getting much over 200 miles from a full charge could be a tall order. 

The Urban Cruiser doesn't make up for this with a high rapid charging rate. In fact, it's poor at only 70kW — compare that with Kia's EV3 which handles 102kW or 128kW, depending on the battery size. Using such a public DC charger, the Toyota needs 45 minutes to charge it from 10-80%, regardless of battery size.

Fully charging from flat using a 7.4kW AC home wallbox will take about 7 hours for the smaller battery and roughly 8 hours 30 minutes for the larger pack.

How the Toyota Urban Cruiser drives is its most disappointing aspect, particularly the poor ride comfort which is seemingly in a constantly unsettled state.

Even when the road surface is relatively smooth, it harshly bounces over the smallest of imperfections and ties itself in knots over anything larger. It's not as if there's a payoff in terms of composure through corners with this setup as there's still notable degrees of body lean, while the whole car is jostled around by undulations at higher speeds. 

To cap it all off there's a sense of vagueness to the steering that means you're never quite sure how much you need to turn the wheel. At least its weighting is about right. 

Although there's no engine noise, the Urban Cruiser still isn't as quiet as it could be at higher speeds, with a fair amount of wind and tyre noise encroaching the cabin. 

All-wheel drive versions of the Urban Cruiser aren't going to be sold in the UK, but light off-roading with front-wheel drive models is possible, aided by its decent of ground clearance, along with short front and rear overhangs.

Which battery size you choose for the Toyota Urban Cruiser determines how much power is produced by its electric motor.

Both are propelled by a single, front-mounted motor connected to the wheels using a single-speed automatic transmission. If you want this car with four-wheel drive than you'll have to go with the Suzuki e Vitara AllGrip-e

With the 49kWh battery there's 144PS available, while the 61kWh versions have 174PS, yet maximum torque is the same for both at 193Nm.

Those figures aren't especially impressive considering the Urban Cruiser can weigh up to 1839kg depending on specification, so inevitably, its 0-62mph times are nothing special. Toyota quotes 9.6 seconds for 49kWh versions and 8.7 seconds for the 61kWh-equipped cars. The entry-level Kia EV3, for comparison, producing 204PS and 283Nm manages the same acceleration benchmark in 7.5 seconds. 

With the larger battery, the Urban Cruiser feels slower even than its modest 0-62mph yardstick suggests due to an annoying delay between putting your foot down and anything happening. Switching to its tokenistic Sport driving mode makes little difference.

As you might expect, the Toyota Urban Cruiser's Euro NCAP safety rating is carried over from the all-but-identical Suzuki e Vitara. It's decent enough at four stars, but many rivals managed the full five-star rating.

Breaking down into the individual categories, the Urban Cruiser is rated at 77% for adult occupant protection, 85% for child occupants, 79% for vulnerable road users and 72% for its driver assistance systems. 

On the latter front, it comes with all of the usual suspects as standard, including lane-keeping assistance, traffic sign recognition, blind-spot monitoring and a driver attention monitor.

Regardless of whether the load is braked or not, the Toyota Urban Cruiser's towing capacity is modest at only 750kg. A detachable tow bar is a £649 option. 

The Toyota Urban Cruiser's 306 litres of boot space is underwhelming compared with rivals such as the Kia EV3, which offers 460 litres, and the Renault 4 E-Tech, which is good for 420 litres.

There's a caveat to the Toyota's figure — you only get that with the rear seats slid as far forward as possible, which severely compromises legroom for those in the back.

Split in a 40/20/40 configuration, each element of the rear bench individually slides 150mm to and fro. Pushed all the way back you only get 244 litres of boot space. That's only 13 litres more than in the tiny Toyota Aygo X, the smallest model in its range. 

Rear headroom is merely adequate, while up front the cabin isn't massively roomy. Interior storage areas are decent enough, with an okay-sized cubby under the front central armrest, a storage tray under the centre console and two cupholders above. 

For a brand that has never exactly been high-scoring when it comes to feel-good interiors, the Suzuki-built Toyota Urban Cruiser is noticeably cheaper in terms of material quality and overall finish than its home-brewed models.

There are vast swathes of creaky and scratch-prone glossy black plastic, cheap-feeling textured trim on the door panels and a generally dreary atmosphere in the cabin. It does at least feel reasonably solid for the most part.

At first glance the Toyota Urban Cruiser's setup of a single, widescreen panel housing two screens — a 10.25-inch digital instrument cluster and a 10.0-inch touchscreen infotainment system — looks bang up-to-date. Start using the infotainment package and you soon realise it's a long way behind most rivals' packages. 

It's laggy when you call upon it to perform a task, with annoying pauses being a consistent theme. It's particularly frustrating having to use the screen for climate control functions, especially when Toyota's own models have physical buttons to operate their systems. Even the heated seats are operated via the screen, requiring five presses of the display to alter.

Its navigation mapping looks dated and isn't the easiest to follow, but the Urban Cross does at least have wireless Android Auto and Apple CarPlay as standard, should you — understandably — want to avoid it in favour of Google Maps or Waze. 

There's a premium JBL sound system fitted to range-topping Excel models, but it's nothing amazing. 

The Toyota Urban Cruiser range starts with the £29,995 Icon, then it's £33,495 for the mid-range Design and £35,745 for the flagship Excel.

The Suzuki e Vitara starts at £29,999 and continues up to £37,799, only because you can have it in all-wheel drive configuration. That said, when it was launched Suzuki lopped £3750 off the car's price, matching the upper level of the government's Electric Car Grant (ECG). Neither it or the Toyota are eligible for even the smaller £1500 ECG discount. 

We still think your money is better spent elsewhere, though. The Skoda Elroq starts at £30,210 once the ECG is factored-in, while it's £35,560 for the least expensive 82kWh version, making Urban Cruisers with the 61kWh battery pack look even poorer value. The Skoda is better built, far nicer to drive and goes nearly 100 miles further on a charge with its larger battery.

Then there's the Kia EV3, which is an excellent alternative even though it doesn't qualify for ECG. It starts at £33,005 and even though you're only getting the smaller 58.3kWh battery option for that, it also goes further on a charge than the rangiest Urban Cruiser. 

Although the Toyota Urban Cruiser isn't as energy efficient as most of its direct rivals EVs, it should still prove cheap to run. For most UK households, it will cost about £13 to fully charge smaller battery versions and roughly £16 for those with larger packs.

It's possible to pay just a fraction of that if you're able to get on an EV-friendly variable tariff and time your charging sessions to coincide with off-peak periods. 

You no longer escape paying VED Car Tax on EVs, so it's the same £195 for the Urban Cruiser as it is for any other petrol, diesel or hybrid car from the first anniversary of its initial registration.

The Toyota Urban Cruiser is offered in three trim levels — Icon, Design and Excel. 

The Toyota Urban Cruiser Icon comes with the following as standard:

• 18-inch alloy wheels
• 10.25-inch digital instrument cluster
• 10.0-inch touchscreen infotainment system
• Sliding rear seat bench
• Heat pump
• Adaptive cruise control

Upgrading to the Toyota Urban Cruiser Design introduces: 

• Heated door mirrors
• Heated front seats
• Heated steering wheel

The range-topping Toyota Urban Cruiser Excel builds upon the above with:

• 19-inch alloy wheels
• LED headlights
• 360-degree parking cameras
• Panoramic glazed roof
• Synthetic leather upholstery
• JBL sound system
• Wireless smartphone charging pad