Toyota Urban Cruiser headed for Geneva

The compact SUV-crossover market is set to see a stiff increase competition with news today that Toyota will be showcasing a new crossover at next month’s Geneva Motor Show. The new model is called the Urban Cruiser and it will be positioned below the current RAV4 SUV as a B-segment vehicle and will go on sale across Europe soon after its Geneva debut.

The compact SUV and crossover market is one of the fastest growing segments in Europe. Between 2005 and 2006 it grew by 63.6% and 2007 was tipped to be an even bigger year (no sales data has been released yet). Take the current RAV4. The SUV has been doing exceptionally well in Europe, with sales increasing by 15.1% to 106,243 units over the past twelve months. Not surprisingly, Toyota commands a 22.1% share of the small to midsized SUV market in Europe, and it’s now poised to improve on that success with the new Urban Cruiser.

We first heard about the Urban Cruiser in November last year when Toyota’s Euro Chief Thierry Domreval commented that a new compact crossover will be launched soon after the Geneva Motor Show. He also revealed that a heavily revised version of the car will be sold in other markets including Japan.