CHIBA, Japan -- Looking to prove that small cars can still offer style, safety and spaciousness, Toyota Motor Corp. on Wednesday launched the compact iQ, its tiniest, most fuel-efficient nonhybrid vehicle.
Measuring less than three meters long and delivering 54 miles per gallon, the four-seat, bubble-like iQ is Toyota's answer to Germany-based Daimler AG's super-mini Smart car, which has been a hit in Europe and the U.S. as drivers shift to smaller vehicles amid higher fuel prices.
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Associated Press
Toyota's compact iQ, unveiled Wednesday in Chiba, Japan, is the first car to show the company's space-saving design concepts.
In developing the iQ, Toyota says it had to rethink the way it designs small cars to make them roomier. To squeeze in four seats, it flattened the fuel tank and placed it below the floor, made the seats thinner, reduced the size of the air-conditioning system and adjusted the shape of the dashboard to allow more leg room for the front-seat passenger. Engineers also eliminated the jack and spare tire to free up extra room for storage.
Hiroki Nakajima, Toyota's chief engineer of the car, said the iQ is the first car to show off Toyota's new space-saving design concepts, which will appear in new Toyota models in the years ahead.
"When it comes to cars, traditionally, big has always meant good. The iQ radically dispels that notion," he said.
The iQ will go on sale in Japan on Nov. 20 with a starting price of 1.4 million yen ($13,720). Sales will begin in Europe in 2009. Toyota expects to sell 2,500 a month in Japan and 6,000 a month in Europe. It is still considering whether to introduce the car to the U.S. market, though it would need to make design changes to meet America's more stringent safety standards.
The car is outfitted with nine airbags, including the world's first rear-window curtain air bag. But if the car is sold in the U.S., Toyota says it would need to reinforce it to protect the back-seat passenger from rear-end collisions. One possibility, says Soichiro Okudaira, a managing officer of Toyota in charge of small-car projects, is to make the car a two-seater in the U.S. market, though Toyota would prefer to find a solution so it could keep the iQ's four seats.
What isn't in doubt, Mr. Okudaira says, is that the era of big sport-utility vehicles and pickup trucks being the mainstay of the U.S. market is over.
"Most customers want to move to small cars. It's a world-wide trend," he said.
Write to John Murphy at
john.murphy@wsj.com
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