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These are the first official images of the production Toyota C-HR’s interior, plus a batch of new exterior shots. The compact SUV, a boldly-styled rival to the Honda HR-V and Mazda CX-3, made its debut in finalised form at the Geneva show in March. It will reach Australian showrooms early next year, and we’re expecting the ASEAN debut to be around the same time, if not slightly earlier in Thailand.

In Europe, pre-sales will begin in September, with the first deliveries to customers before the end of the year. There, the Turkey-made car will be positioned between the Auris Touring Sports wagon and the RAV4, and Toyota is looking at over 100,000 units per year.

The Coupe High Rider’s cabin targets “class-leading sensory quality” and delivers a “modern and sensual style” that stands out in both Toyota’s range and the segment. Plenty of curves and flow in the design, which has a large touchscreen (6.1-inch wide, with the brand’s trademark digital clock beside) rising from a centre stack that’s slightly angled towards the driver. The centre console design is asymmetrical.

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The shape of many switches reflects the diamond motif of the exterior body shell, and the same diamond theme is also visible in the door trim pattern, the headliner and even the needles of the instrument dials. Piano black and satin silver trim with blue illumination is the theme here. The blue dash trim seen in the Euro-spec car here will be grey in Australia.

Toyota said that its designers focused on component quality and the consistency of grain, texture, shape, colour and illumination in every element, even the stitch groove radii of the seats. Speaking of that, a new two-tiered front seat design combines a slender, sporting upper section with a more strongly bolstered and supportive lower area.

“With great support from the engineering teams, we worked on every visual detail and challenged standards to create seamless interior harmony. In the end, we believe this to be the best interior SQ (sensory quality) yet seen in a Toyota,” said Mehmet Fatih Kale, senior engineer at Toyota’s European SQ team.

The C-HR, which sits on the new and modular TNGA (Toyota New Global Architecture) platform, measures 4,350 mm long, 1,795 mm wide and 1,550 mm tall, with a 2,640 mm wheelbase. To give you a rough idea, that’s 56 mm longer and 23 mm wider than the Honda HR-V, but 55 mm lower. The Toyota’s wheelbase is 30 mm longer.

Toyota says that the C-HR’s bold design represents the determination of the company president Akio Toyoda to allow greater stylistic freedom and promote engineering creativity with eye-catching designs and enhanced driving pleasure.

Chief designer Kazuhiko Isawa said the C-HR will give Toyota a powerful new presence in the growing segment, creating a new frontier with a vehicle that is full of originality. “That newness comes from SUV robustness and strength. But we’re not trying to make an SUV that’s dynamic; rather, a dynamic vehicle with SUV-like properties,” he said. Like what you see?

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Australia will get a 1.2 litre turbocharged petrol engine with 116 PS and 185 Nm of torque. Front-wheel drive and AWD will be available along with a six-speed manual or CVT auto choice. Japan will get a 2.0 litre naturally aspirated petrol engine with 150 PS and 193 Nm of torque at 3,800 rpm, paired to a CVT and FWD. Should this configuration reach our shores, the C-HR will have 8 PS/21 Nm more than the Honda HR-V 1.8, but 6 PS/11 Nm less than the Mazda CX-3 2.0. A hybrid variant with Prius-tech will also be available.

Available equipment on higher variants include the Toyota Safety Sense pre-collision system with autonomous braking, adaptive cruise control and lane departure alert with steering control; automatic high beam; reversing camera; heated seats; smart entry and start; 576-watt nine-speaker JBL audio; 18-inch alloy wheels and dual-tone metallic paintwork.

Eager? I can imagine local reps UMW Toyota Motor licking their lips in anticipation too – the big T is seriously under-represented in the booming SUV segment, where each of its rivals have something to offer in our market (the Rush isn’t sophisticated enough) and where Honda is dominating with the HR-V/CR-V duo.