Detroit show: Toyota gets Furia
BY RON HAMMERTON | 21st Dec 2012
A teaser video shows glimpses of the headlights, grille, door handles, boot spoiler and taillights, as well as a dark silhouette that shows a traditional sedan shape, albeit with a sporty shovel nose.
The grille and front light clusters have a honeycomb pattern formed by yellow LEDs, while carbon-fibre appears to have been widely used on trim items, including the rear spoiler and side skirts.
The Japanese giant has given no hints on the potential for the sedan to go into production, nor any details of its size or powertrain.
However, a hybrid powertrain would be a fair bet, given Toyota’s penchant for petrol-electric motivation.
At the same show last year, Toyota revealed the mid-sized NS4 plug-in hybrid concept, which company officials hinted was a study for the next Camry that is due in the US about 2015.
That car had a more curvaceous coupe-like profile, while the new Furia appears to be a more traditional three-box layout.
Toyota’s Lexus luxury division is planning to pull the covers from its next IS sedan at the show after revealing the coupe form as the LF-CC concept at the Paris motor show in September.
The mass-selling IS sedan will go into production in 2013, this time gaining a hybrid powertrain alongside standard V6 petrol variants, called IS300h and IS250 respectively.
