A fresh report suggests that Toyota Century will be come a stand-alone luxury brand which targets high net worth individuals.
The Toyota Century is a product that is not well known outside of its home market of Japan. It offers a premium and luxurious experience and is positioned as transport for the elite. Previously, there have been sedans and even a special convertible, but right now there’s just the single SUV in the range.
According to an article by Forbes, Toyota is reportedly in the process of repositioning its Century as a stand-alone luxury brand that will go up against Bentley and Maybach-Mercedes. You may wonder why Lexus isn’t being upgraded to this top tier, but we understand that Century will be positioned as Toyota’s Rolls-Royce.
The source in the Forbes report quotes an unnamed Toyota exec who said “The Century will actually be positioned above the Lexus brand as an extra luxurious brand.” Right now, Toyota is still marketing the vehicle you see here as the “Toyota Century” but we reckon there will be other vehicles bearing the Century name which will be revealed in the next few years. Once there’s a diverse lineup, Toyota will likely ditch the prefix and formally announce the Century brand.
The Century SUV and sedan are powered by a petrol plug-in hybrid 3.5-litre V6 with 303 kW and it has a pure-electric range of 69 km. It’s sold exclusively in Japan and China.
Will the luxury Century come to South Africa?
As we head into February 2024, details on the ultra-luxurious Toyota are scarce. Given the global market’s appetite for flagship luxury SUVs and the associated profit margins, we expect the Japanese carmaker to maximise its offering around the world. There’s a thirst in the Asian, Middle East and US market for large ultra-luxurious SUVs and we think we’ll see the Century locally sooner rather than later.
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