Toyota Aygo X prologue – Designed in Europe for Europe
By Edward A. Sanchez – March 18, 2021
Toyota has unveiled the Aygo X prologue, its latest full battery-electric concept, and made it explicit in the news release that the car was designed specifically for the European market. Aside from the characteristic unique interpretation of capitalization conventions, the other factor that makes the Aygo X prologue uniquely European is its size. It is an “A-segment” vehicle, a size virtually unknown in the U.S. market, but one that accounts for hundreds of thousands, if not millions of sales a year on the Continent.
Curiously, Toyota was also very vague about the production prospects for the Aygo X prologue, only saying, “Aygo X prologue is a bold illustration of just how much attitude a small car can have. With this prologue, Toyota reimagines how the A-segment could be spiced up.”
The Toyota Aygo (non-EV) has been sold in the European market since 2005 and shares a platform with the Peugeot 107 and 108, as well as the Citroën C1. This opens up the prospect that if the Aygo X prologue goes into production in some form, it could likewise share a Stellantis platform-mate (or two). This could potentially be a win-win, as it would amortize the engineering and costs among multiple models and make the prospect of bringing it to market less daunting, as subcompacts generally have thinner profit margins, even with conventional powertrains.
Being that it would likely be built on a shared platform, it is probably not based on Toyota’s global, e-TNGA platform, which will underpin most of Toyota’s future mainstream global BEV models.
If you’re living in the U.S., don’t hold your breath on seeing this one in American showrooms. A much higher likelihood is a RAV4 or Highlander-sized crossover being Toyota’s eventual bread-and-butter U.S. EV model. Even though we’re probably not going to get the eventual production version of the Aygo X prologue in the U.S., EV advocates and enthusiasts should be cheered by the fact that Toyota is at least making a token effort toward greater electrification.
Yes, Toyota is still deeply committed to its hybrid strategy for the near term, and is still convinced that is the more rational approach to “greening” its fleet than full electrification. However, it may soon not have much of a choice. Outright bans on internal-combustion powertrains, including hybrids and PHEVs, is coming in less than a decade in some markets. It had better have some models ready to go by then.
Although we might not see a BEV Aygo in the U.S., such a model would likely be perfect for many buyers in Europe. On this side of the Atlantic, if historical sales trends are any indications, an electrified variant of the RAV4 will be the hot ticket. We may soon see something along those lines as well. Stay tuned.
(Images courtesy Toyota)
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