Toyota Tarago News

The Toyota Tarago, axed half a decade ago, could make a return according to reports out of Japan.Renderings of a next-gen version of the once-popular people mover by Japanese magazine Best Car suggest we may see a 2027 Toyota Tarago revealed before the end of this year.The outlet, which has insider sources at Toyota and is regularly close to the mark on matters of the brand, says the design will be inspired by the original but its platform and running gear will be much more contemporary.With development already underway according to Best Car, reports say the next-gen Tarago — called Estima in its home market — will come with a full battery electric power or a plug-in hybrid option.Chances are, it’ll ride on the GA-K platform, which is a version of the Toyota New Global Architecture (TNGA) now almost ubiquitous in the brand’s line-up.There’s not too much more information on the incoming Tarago, aside from Toyota plans to try and keep costs low by using as much of its existing production line resources as possible to produce the new people mover.The plug-in hybrid version of the Tarago will likely use the same 1.5-litre petrol engine and battery as existing PHEV models, and like its BEV version will likely be available as all-wheel drive.Best Car has previously guessed the new Tarago will come in at 4900mm long, 1850mm wide, 1750mm tall and with a 3000mm wheelbase.There’s no guess as to what it’ll look like inside, but most of the details in the outlet’s rendering line up with Toyota’s current design language with nods to the original — save for perhaps the missing ‘c-shaped’ headlights we would estimate the brand would implement.

Toyota makes a lot of different cars, but we want more. Where’s the small off-roader? A baby LandCruiser? Where’s the reborn Celica? And where’s the new-gen Tarago? Don’t even get me started on the missing electric cars, either…You’d think that for the most successful and biggest selling car company in the world Toyota wouldn’t have a single gap in its line-up. We can forgive the likes of Subaru or Mitsubishi for having missing pieces, but Toyota? Nope, I’m not buying it. Toyota has more than 22 models on sale in Australia and it could probably discontinue half of them and still hold onto the No.1 spot. It’s easy: lose Corolla Cross, same with bZ4X, put Fortuner out of its misery, same with 86 - it was good but the party’s over, Camry is part of a dying species in mid-size sedans, Supra now exists for Supercars but it should go, Tundra is prohibitively expensive, same for the Yaris and the C-HR was never going to work, was it?That leaves HiLux, RAV4, Kluger, Prado, Corolla, Camry, Kluger, LandCruiser in both 300 and 70 Series forms and the Yaris Cross. More models than most brands and the combined annual sales of them all is about 210,000, which would still make it far and way the biggest-selling car brand in Australia.That makes it easier to see what essential models might be missing. A mini LandCruiser is one.We’re talking a Suzuki Jimny rival and if the rumours are true the LandCruiser FJ is on the cards for Toyota, with the brand not planning to use the TGNA platform that underpins the Prado and LandCruiser 300 but the IMV-O platform used in emerging markets.Next is one gap in the line-up so obvious that before anything else it should be filed — a people mover. The family favourite Tarago was retired in 2019 and replaced by the Granvia, which while plush was more airport transfer shuttle than practical suburban people mover that could rival the Kia Carnival.The Granvia’s sales were woeful and last year only 112 were sold, compared to 10,080 Kia Carnivals. The Granvia was the wrong choice and Toyota should have brought in the Alphard people mover, which already had an importer fan following in Australia despite it never being sold here. It would be hard for Toyota to sit and watch Kia have the entire national people mover market all to itself and it would be wise to get Alphard here and start stealing some sales back. Should it be renamed a Tarago? Sure why not, just hurry up and get it here.Finally, can we talk about a two-door Toyota sportscar that isn’t a BMW? Don’t get me wrong, I love the Supra. It looks delicious and it’s great to drive, but I think Toyota is big enough to do its own sportscar. Again the rumour mill says a reborn Celica is coming. A mid-engined 300kW petrol four-cylinder powered, 1.2m tall GR Celica with a strange-looking windscreen. I’m here for it.So that’s just three cars Toyota’s sorely missing from a line-up that’s too fat. Don’t even get me started on how Toyota needs a mid-sized SUV with seven seats — A RAV4 7 — to compete with the Mitsubishi Outlander and Kia Sorento.  And then there’s the complete lack of electric vehicles, but that’s another opinion piece.  

People movers were never cool in Australia, but that’s changing as our evolving tastes take us out of SUVs and into little buses.

Four years after Japan axed the Estima, Australia lost one of its unique and much-loved Toyota nameplates: Tarago. From a ground-breaking mid-engined minivan released in 1990, the Tarago (or Previa, in other English-speaking markets) would transport humans for nearly 30 years. The Granvia replaced it in theory, but not in spirit. Rather than a clever people-mover, it was a fancy van. Japanese magazine BestCar reports that since the Estima (as Tarago is known at home) ended production in 2015, there have been discussions about a reboot. Now, it looks like it could be back as an electric vehicle and plug-in hybrid as early as 2027. It all comes down to Toyota’s investments in new, efficient and compact combustion engines revealed earlier this year at the multi-pathway workshop. In the new Tarago’s case, BestCar reports it will use a version of the GA-K platform (from Camry, RAV4, Kluger and more) allied to a 1.5-litre petrol-based range extender hybrid. Much like BestCar has discussed before with a mooted next-gen Corolla hatch and RAV4 medium SUV, the plug-in electrified version of the Tarago is thought to be capable of travelling over 1000km between charges and fill-ups with around 220kW and 400Nm. Reportedly, there is a battery electric model in development as well, featuring Toyota’s next generation ‘bipolar’ lithium-ion battery technology. Expect twin-motor AWD and around 650km of electric-only driving range. One of the Tarago’s calling cards was its eight-seat capacity. It remains to be seen whether that will be rejuvenated, but for now BestCar is estimating the new Tarago will measure 4900mm long, 1850mm wide, 1750mm tall and ride on a 3000mm wheelbase. The render image you see here by BestCar’s designers captures the original egg-shaped Tarago’s design. It has twin sliding doors and a sleek, aerodynamic shape.The report suggests it will sit alongside the larger Alphard, with a more chic form factor that ought to help it steal some sales from the likes of the Kia Carnival, Volkswagen Multivan and ID.Buzz. How it deals with the deluge of ultra-luxe Chinese minivans, we’ll have to wait and see. A new take on the Tarago was previewed way back in 2017, with the Fine Comfort Ride concept at the Tokyo motor show. It was said to be a hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicle like the Mirai, however FCEVs have yet to take off in earnest. It seems Toyota parked that project.Following the lukewarm reception of the bZ4X, it seems like Toyota has changed tack, looking for dynamic platforms that make it easy to switch from plug-in hybrid to combustion and to battery electric vehicles. The brand’s latest model, the Urban Cruiser twinned with the Suzuki e Vitara, is built on a converted combustion car platform developed by Suzuki, for example. It also helps streamline tooling, if combustion and battery-electric vehicles can be built in the same factories. Discussion about the new Tarago remains purely speculative for now, but with a raft of new options sailing out of China, it could be the perfect time for Toyota to reboot its ground-breaking people mover. 

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