Future Models - Toyota 2006 Echo

First look: Toyota reveals next-gen Echo, Rav4

Volume-sellers: Toyota's all-new Echo (above) and Rav4 (below).

Toyota unveils next-generation versions of its crucial new Echo and Rav4 models

31 August 2005

By TERRY MARTIN

THE details might be scarce at this stage – but the pictures tell a story of their own.

Toyota has taken the wraps off the new-generation versions of its Rav4 compact 4WD wagon and the Echo light car, both of which are crucial cars for the Japanese brand in Australia.

Due for release Down Under next year, both models have fresh new look and are more sophisticated and roomier than the current versions.

Toyota claims its third-generation RAV promises "significantly enhanced driving pleasure and performance, improved quality, wider application of advanced technology, greater interior space and a creative modular interior design".

The Echo, known as the Yaris in Europe and Vitz in Japan - where it was launched as the Vitz MkII earlier this year - enters its second generation with a revised design from Toyota’s European design studio (ED2) in southern France.

According to the manufacturer, it is a more "grown up" car in every respect.

Two new concept cars will also be shown at Frankfurt. Also from the ED2 design centre, the Endo is described as an urban-oriented car designed to address some key issues of modern city life.

It will be presented alongside the Toyota i-unit, which is said to be a new approach to human mobility that enables the driver to interact with the surroundings.

The design is inspired by a leaf – that is, "a natural expression of life on earth".