First drive: 2024 Toyota C-HR

It’s fitting that the development work for the new Toyota C-HR was led by the firm’s technical centre in Brussels, the de facto capital of Europe. It may be the product of a Japanese manufacturer, but this is a machine that has been developed in Europe, is focused on pleasing European drivers and will be built in Europe.

Eschewing Toyota’s previous strategy for ‘global cars’, the original C-HR was developed to help the brand grow its share in the European market – and it clearly worked. It’s Toyota’s fourth-best-seller here, helping the firm’s rise up the sales charts. Most significantly, it’s been by far Toyota’s most successful car in winning over new customers: 59% of C-HR drivers switched from another brand.

Key to that success has been how well the C-HR was placed for the European market. Its mix of sharp styling and coupé-crossover shape helped it to find a genuinely rare space at the small end of the C-SUV market (think Volkswagen T-Roc and Kia Niro) and stood far apart from Toyota’s previously stodgy designs, attracting buyers who wanted a bit of edge to their high-riding family runabout.

So Toyota has doubled down on its approach, both in terms of European-focused development and styling, with this second-generation C-HR. Chief engineer Toshio Kanei led development from Toyota’s Belgian technical centre and much of the styling work was done by the firm’s ED2 design studio in Nice, France.

Toyota’s customer research suggested the original’s edgy styling was key to its conquest rate, and Kanei says that the goal with the new C-HR was to push that even further and make a “show car for the road”.

This C-HR makes the old one, rightly lauded for its dramatic styling, look positively bland. There are dramatic lines, bodywork creases so sharp they look like they could cut you and dramatically sculpted headlights. The front has been reworked with Toyota’s new ‘hammerhead’ face, first seen on the lovely new Toyota Prius we don’t get over here. Certain trim levels will get a stylish two-tone paint scheme, too.

Notably, the bumpers and some other body elements are made of a new pre-coloured resin, so they don’t need to be painted, which substantially reduces the amount of CO2 emitted during production. It also affords a cool two-tone appearance.

Highly unusually, the new C-HR is actually smaller than its predecessor. Toyota has trimmed 35mm from its length and 15mm from its height. But before you rejoice too much at a bucking of the trend for ever-growing cars, know that it’s also 45mm wider. It has bigger wheels too: up to 20in.

While it's wider than the old version with a bigger frontal area thanks to the bigger wheels, the new C-HR is around two per cent more aerodynamically efficient than its predecessor.

The claim is that the wider track is better for handling, and because the C-HR maintains a 2640mm wheelbase, it has about the same amount of room for passengers.

If you’re an adult who might spend a significant amount of time in the back of a C-HR, that could set some warning lights flashing: as before, rear leg room is far from the best and that sloping roofline cuts into the head room.

Still, that didn’t exactly put off buyers before, and for those with young families it will be less of an issue. Besides, Toyota now offers the slightly larger Corolla Cross in Europe (although not in the UK) for those who want to trade some style for some space.

Engineers have also made efforts to improve the feeling of space in the back: there’s a new tinted panoramic roof that doesn’t need a shade (adding 30mm of head room) and new window cut-outs in the C-pillar are designed to improve the views out.

On the subject of those C-pillars, you'll no longer find the rear door handles hidden in them. Following feedback from customers they're now in a far more traditional position on the rear doors, although all the handles now sit flush to the bodywork and pop out when you push them in.

The boot remains on the small side, mind you – although Toyota has yet to give a capacity, or how much of it is lost in the PHEV version due to various electric gubbins underneath the floor.