Breathtaking Toyota Century SUV makes its world premiere

September 8, 2023

The short URL: https://auto.yugatech.com/go/auc

The covers are off, and the Toyota Century SUV has just made its world premiere. In a live-streamed event, Toyota showed off what could be its most luxurious and dare we say opulent SUV to date. Looking very much a strong contender to the Rolls-Royce Cullinan, what is the the SUV version of the Toyota Century packing for so many people to call it so?

Toyota Century SUV: the “Rolls-Royce” of Japan

Photo: Toyota

After coming out with two teaser photos ahead of its launch, the Toyota Century SUV has finally been uncovered. Like its sedan sibling – which is absolutely no means a slouch as far as luxury sedans go – this model is every bit as much. With what Toyota describes as having a “majestic, dignified body design”, the bigger Century shows off a “stately grandeur” theme through a larger-sized vehicle type adorned with Japanese aesthetic elements.

Photo: Toyota

The overall design is that of a rather boxy SUV. It’s big and bulky, but aren’t all vehicles that lean towards chauffer-driven luxury like that? The front end has a flat nose, and dead center is the well-known Century badge. It also takes on a split headlight design and comes equipped with DRLs; we expect no less.

In what can be described as a take on luxury marques, the Century SUV also features an option for two-tone paint. We think this does very well to give that “distinguished” and dignified look that Toyota was aiming for, and coupled with clean angles and having no awkward bulges, we can go out on a limb and say that this is a very refined design.

Photo: Toyota

The rear also sports the Century badge, as well as the split light elements. Don’t let the photo fool you because the Century SUV is a wide vehicle, and that massive tailgate will give you no problems when stowing your luggage, golf bags, and other things that passengers need to bring along. Just to throw the numbers out there, the Century SUV is 5,205 mm long, 1,990 mm wide, and 1,805 mm tall, and has a wheelbase of 2,950 mm.

On a very personal note, the two-tone paint looks best from this angle. It’s simple, not loud at all, and the red taillight units give such a great contrast to the whole motif.

Photo: Toyota

The opulence of the Century SUV continues to the inside, and inside a vehicle that’s meant for you to purchase and ride in the back, it’s pretty much a living room on wheels. Space comes aplenty both in front and in the back, as we can expect.

For those in front, you’ll have a beautifully finished dashboard, a sizeable 12.3-inch gauge cluster, an infotainment screen that looks even bigger, and a lot of buttons which we can only assume control a multitude of the Century SUV’s features.

The real magic is in the back, though. Those riding in the back of the Century SUV are treated to a “refreshment” function, heated and extendable ottomans that are both extendable and heated, tables that rotate and retract, your own (well, a pair of, actually) 5.5-inch removable “remote control” panels that you can use to adjusting cooling, make use of audio controls, change the lighting, pull the sunshade up or down, and configure seat settings. The piece de resistance is the pair of 11.6-inch rear screens that can play multimedia content from mobile devices. Oh, and you can enjoy all the sound through the 18-speaker setup as well.

We did say a living room on wheels, right?

Photo: Toyota

Powering the Century SUV is a 3.5-liter turbocharged V6 engine. To small? That’s because in place of a bigger V8 or V10 or even a V12, this mill is mated to electric motors. That’s right, the Century SUV is a plug-in hybrid! So you still enjoy the power while being more environment-friendly. The power plant is mated to an electric CVT and drives with the E-Four Advanced 4WD.

Now comes the question of how much it costs. The declared tag is at JPY 25,000,000. Though not a direct conversion of how much it costs in Philippines Pesos, that’s about PHP 9,628,053 or PHP 9.7M; that will likely cost more if it’s actually going to be sold here. The Century SUV will be sold in Japan alongside its sedan sibling. As to whether the SUV will be the new Century, effectively phasing the sedan out, remains to be seen, but it’s most interesting that two different vehicles with the same badge are going to be sold at the same time.

After all this has been said about the extremely luxe Toyota Century SUV, we’ll just let the photos below do the talking. But before you scroll down and allow your jaw to drop, we must ask: If you had a surplus of money, would you consider buying and getting driven around in Toyota’s opulent Rolls-Royce challenger?