Larger Toyota IQ on the way?

When the production version for the Toyota IQ was unveiled back in Geneva, it represented a very important new model in the Toyota portfolio carving out a new niche for the Japanese manufacturer. The new model shares few components with any other Toyota, resulting in extremely high development costs, therefore considering the automaker will be producing just 100,000 units in its first full year of production in 2009, it is hardly surprising to hear the IQ platform will spawn further models down the line.

Autocar sources have revealed a new larger SUV version will be developed which will compete directly with the Volkswagen Up range with pricing to fit in between the Fiat 500 and the Mini. There will be no Hybrid version of the IQ due to the heavy weight of the battery pack which would go against the laws of the IQ engineering: weight saving.

Toyota optimistically expects to sell 500,000 units of the baby SUV per year.